Embellish your world - Make our gorgeous clothing your own

As a regular at Wicked Dragon you'll already know how many of our unusual clothes come with beautiful, unique décor. Some are made from vivid patchwork, some are embroidered and appliquéd, beaded, poppered or have delicate detailing made from lovely lace. But that's just the beginning of the story for some of the people who adore our beautiful, unusual clothing. The creative stars amongst you have let us know they're adding even more embellishments to make their buys even more unconventional.

 

We thought it'd be fun to give you some inspiration. If you fancy taking your next Wicked Dragon buy to an entirely new level, here are some ideas about how to do it.

9 cool ideas to make our original clothes even more special

  1. Add ready-made iron-on or sew-on patches: flowers, hearts, a sequinned pineapple, fabulous little embroidered roses... there's a huge variety available on Amazon if there isn't a haberdashery or craft shop on a high street near you

  2. Tulip 3d craft paints are absolutely brilliant. The small nozzle on the bottle means you can easily draw with them, either freehand if you're confident enough or roughing out your design in tailor's chalk first. The paint dries in about half an hour and are washing machine and dry-clean friendly. One of our customers, Kate, has been using Tulip crafts paints to embellish clothing for fifteen years, and she swears by them

  3. Colourful buttons are brilliant and great value for money. You could smother the lapels of a jacket with them, sew them around the hem or your harems or around the neck of a top. You can buy glittering cut glass buttons, ones that look just like Victorian jet, and all sorts of novelty buttons in cool shapes and designs

  4. If you're good at embroidery you can use ordinary embroidery silks to add extra oomph to an already-embellished item, taking the existing design further or making something plain into an item that's seriously special

  5. Sequins are magical. They come in a plethora of shapes, colours and sizes, everything from miniature sequins in pastel shades to big, bold ones in bright colours. Just check they're washable before you buy, then go creatively crazy with lines and swirls, abstract and figurative patterns, detailing at hems, sleeves and necklines

  6. Is there a bead shop near you? If not, there are lots online, selling everything from low cost plastic beads in jewel colours to glass and even Swarovski crystal beads. Alternatively visit your local charity shop, boot fair or antique emporium and buy vintage strings of beads and pearls to dismantle and sew on

  7. Ribbon is fantastic. Silk ribbon, wide and narrow ribbon, embroidered ribbon, velvet ribbon, ribbons come in every imaginable colour and can be sewn on or attached using that white webby stuff that you heat with an iron until it sticks fast

  8. Faux jewels are wonderful. You can buy stick-on ones that are useful for temporary embellishment, for parties and festivals, or sew-on jewels in all sorts of colours. How about a jewelled collar, or patch pocket, or hem? Or a jewelled symbol on the back of a shirt or jacket?

  9. You can use patches of attractive fabric – square, rectangular, heart-shaped, you name it – to embellish clothing and give it extra visual interest. Contrasting and complementary shades both work really well

3 creative tips for embellishing our offbeat clothing

  • Draft your design in rough first rather than diving right in. It helps you to get things absolutely right first time. You can either draw it out on paper or lay your pieces of fabric, ribbons, buttons etcetera onto it then move them around until you get the exact right positions

  • If you want to achieve a fascinating yet subtle effect, decorate the item using just one of the colours used in the original. If it's a mainly blue skirt, for example, decorate it in toning or contrasting blues. If it's green harems, choose one of the greens from the fabric

  • Carry on the good work by using the décor that was already on the item when you bought it as your inspiration, making it more dramatic, more colourful, bigger...

Show and tell!

If you've embellished any of our unique clothes and made them your own, we'd love to see photos.

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