You will need, ANY two colours that are compatible. I used...

- My regular Base and Top Coat.

- Rimmel London Lycra Pro in Coral Romance

- Rimmel London Lasting Finish in Tangerine Queen





Step 1: As always apply basecoat and let it dry.



Step 2: Apply your lightest colour.



Step 3: Carefully apply the second colour on the other half of your nail, whichever half you prefer of course. I found this very easy and maybe it was Rimmel's mistake free application brush that helped a lot. You may wish to use a thin nail art brush to create a neat line or masking tape as I use for some of my nail art.

During the Jubilee weekend I thought of doing flag nails. To change it up a bit, I painted my ring finger all blue (although it did take an internal debate to decide whether I should choose red or blue). As it is hard to apply nail polish with your left hand (if you're right-handed) I thought I'd just use block colours for my right hand and it still looks great!

To create this I used nail art brushes, Barry M 3 in 1 Base Coat Top Coat and Hail Hardener, Cobalt Blue, Bright Red and Matt White. (Photos up soon)

Step 1: Apply basecoat.

Step 2: Apply the white. (Using the white as the base instead of blue brightens up the red and blue bits of the flag).



Step 3: Carefully line in the red cross with a thin nail art brush, make sure to do thin lines, especially for shorter or smaller fingernails.





Don't worry about letting the line cross over to your skin, it works better when you feel like you have one less thing to worry about.

Step 4: Draw on another cross with diagonal lines crossing over the other crosses. You can do a block colour on your ring finger if you like or have all your nails with the flag.





Step 5: The tedious bit. Draw on small triangle lines and then fill them in, remember to not cover the entire space as you need the white parts to show as the white lines of the flag.





Step 6: Do this with all nails, and again, don't worry about it being all messy, a cotton bud with a little nail polish remover can fix that. Then go over the nails with a top coat which will keep the flags from smudging.





Step 7: Finally, the block nails. Don't forget base coat!

I bought this shirt a couple of years ago, and since I have been loving the top-button-done-up and denim trend all season I decided to give this shirt discreet ones. Instead of sewing on a the spare button I got with this I used a metal hook so that it doesn't cause damage or look like there was a button there once before if I ever decide to remove them in future. I usually wear this with vest tops underneath and all buttons open, but now I'm going to try to pull this off on its own.

If you have a similar shirt , you could try this too...



I put on the hook on the inside of the right inside of the collar.



When stitching on the hook on the inside of the collar you should always make sure to not let the stitching reach through all layers of the fabric or you'd be left with a visible knot!



Instead of using the metal one, I decided to make my own thread hoop for the hook to clasp onto. This should be done on the outside of the left side of the collar.



If you ever want to do this, you should make sure your thread hoop is very strong. And this stitching helped me achieve this...





I did the same again halfway down from the collar and the next button...



To figure out how far you should do this you can either measure or do what I did...



...fold it in half by putting the hook against the next button-hole. If this picture isn't clear...



And here's how it looks all buttoned and hooked up...





Style Tip: Since this shirt is very long on me, almost reaching my knees, if you have a similar one you could wear it on its own teamed with a pair of bright statement heels.

Related articles

• DIY Denim + Lace Shirt (abeautifulmess.typepad.com)


• Chambray (apeandego.wordpress.com)


• 3 Ways to Wear a Chambray Shirt (fabsugar.com)