RIP, Lou Reed

I've been really busy these few weeks. There is so much to prepare before you travel, and there is even more to prepare when your boyfriend is traveling after you. Yes...

Life has been pretty peaceful for me apart from Lou Reed's news.

He isn't as popular as say, Miley Cyrus , but he does really good music. Much better than Miley of course. I first get to really love him around 2 years back. That was when I first heard a song with a little of him - Femme Fatale. It is not sang by him, but he played a huge part in song writing & composing of the music - which is as important to the 'voice' itself. Such a calm sounding, bt heartbreaking song. I've since been listening so much to his music that pop music turned into nothingness in my heart. (In fact, I listened to some pop music I used to like and I felt so ashamed. damn. what a taste I had.)

I read this somewhere, but someone said that Lou Reed is the only man with enough balls to write those heartbreaking and the most vulnerable sounding music. And true enough, there are no stronger man than someone who is able to accept his weakness. His songs make you feel naked. But in a really good way.

Pale Blue Eyes - another of my favorites by his band, tells you how heartbreaking it is to see someone you truly love married to another man. It doesn't relate to me, bt it reminded me how sad it could be if my boyfriend was not with me. I've come to treasure him even more partially because of that I guess.

Candy Says says everything a typical girl feels. The fear of gossips, the hatred for herself when she is not perfect. And when you immerse yourself in the music, you sort of go, well, it is not so bad, isn't it. If you change the way you think/ see things, probably you'd feel better.

Well I'm not saying songs written by him is life changing or anything, but they certainly worth you listening. Even if they are really really old songs.

RIP, Lou Reed.

How to sew a flare skirt

Actually, I tried to edit the about me link on the right. But if you looked to the right, there is no 'about me' at all. I don't know what to write about myself.

If you were to ask me what my job title is, I might say makeup artist. But that is not what I do 100% of the time. I design packaging, clothing, just random shit that I like!

Ok this is the first time I actually remembered to take step by step photo of how to sew something. I hope it is detailed enough. I tried to make this really simple. So it is perfect if you are sewing for the first time. No zip fixtures, no need for precise sewing pattern. :)

Tedah! Haha I sew this skirt for my sister a months plus back, and I liked it myself. Plus, I have some cloth left. So.. why not make another one? :D

Here's what you need!
- Floral fabric or any cloth you want: 45cm * 145cm
If you purchase fabric from the stores, it usually comes with 145cm width. I just used that as the total width for my skirt. For the length, it depends on whichever you want. For maxi skirt, buy entire meter or 90cm(thats usually the unit price they give, but you can opt for a meter of cloth instead) of cloth. For me, I used 0.45m of the left overs.
- Lining cloth: 40cm*140cm
This is not required if your main fabric is thick enough. Lining material can be anything from man made silk to polyester cotton blend.
-  scissors. DUH you need to use this to cut fabrics!
- Elastic band - you could get this in spotlight.
- Sewing machine. Get this on ebay or spotlight.
Mine is a second hand Brother BM2600 which I bought for just $80 on ebay. It's fine, but you couldn't feed any thick material. If I'm not wrong, spotlight is having a discount for Brother BM2615 (newer model) at just around $150. However, it wouldn't be suitable for heavy duty sewing - eg jeans or multiple layers of fabrics.
Checked everything and you could start making now!

Cut the 45cm *145cm of cloth into 2 pcs of 45cm*72.5cm cloth.
Line the cloth together and half into half, and cut out a triangle. Now the total length of the smaller side of cloth must be around 10cm bigger than the circumference of your hips, so you could actually pull it up. I wasn't precise at all, so mine is probably like 20cm bigger. lols. totally up to you. You could even choose not to cut it at all.

Do the same to the black cloth. or lining

Double fold the bigger end of cloth, and sew it down. This will be the ending on your skirt. I recommend doing this for the lining first, so you wouldn't ruin your main fabric if you make any mistakes here.
Do the same for the main floral fabric after this.

This is how I sew the sides of the skirt. Since my sewing machine does not have the commercial fancy ending design, I used triangle pattern so lock the fraying fabrics, and top stitched right beside the triangle ones to create a neat finishing.
* Remember to make sure the right sides are facing each other! You need to flip this over later.

After doing the same thing to lining, arrange the main fabric and lining fabric together. We're ready for the waist band. :D

Make sure that the wrong side is facing each other.

For the waist band, I used a black piece of fabric, folded it 4 times, and ironed it down. All you have to do is to pin the skirt inside this band, and sew it down. Remember to leave the opening out so you could slot the elastic band inside this later. :)

If you do not like the black band, you could just fold the skirt twice like what you did to the endings and sew it. Similarly, slot elastic band underneath.

Yup, pin it down and sew it.

Try to sew as close to the endings as possible so it looks neater.

And I forgot to take a picture of the elastic band part... But just slot it in...... A tip would be to cut a little hole at the end of the elastic band and loop it through a hair pin. This would make the slotting part a lot easier.

Here you get your skirt! :) The first time I did this, I spent around 2 hours. This time, I spent less than an hour in total. So it's pretty easy. 

If you are wondering where you could get cloth, try Arab street before 6pm. Or chinatown. Chinatown cloth is more expensive though. I bought 90cm of mine for $15. It's made of pretty nice material and quite unique though. 

Look closely for discounted cloths. Sometimes you get muslin cloth at just $3 per 90cm, or some 'out of style' pattern at $5 per 90cm. That's perfect for practicing!

I'm waiting for the Man

I met a good friend of mine few days back - and by looking at the first photo, there's obviously no good news.

I have no idea who these drinks are. The only thing I know is tt they're alcoholic, and you die faster if you mix drinks. (Don't call me a stupid idiot. I haven't touch a bar for almost 4 years!)

Waiter: Hi what would you like to get?
My friend: First 5 of the house pours.
Waiter: How would you like to mix it?
My friend: Anything. You decide.

It turned out that the drinks aren't that bad. After having those, we ordered additional 2 pts(2 x 500ml) of beer & an long island tea. None of us fainted. So thats good. The damn bar might be cheating or something by reducing the alcohol content. Which is a good thing for me, but no good for my friend. I'm sure she rather be drunk and fall asleep. Than to stay awake in tears.

I've never seen her cry so badly in all the 5 years I've known her. And for any man reading this, a you're an idiot to give up on a girl who would cry so bad for you secretly. Apparently, her boyfriend is one of them. Or rather, once a boyfriend by now.

If a man cheated on you once, forgive him. He did a thing or two wrong, I would have said, give him a chance. In this case, you have a player who couldn't make up his mind. After one year of relationship, all he could do is to stay shut in the phone and to send you a text message that he doesn't know why the fuck he got together with you - while you cry alone... and he party in a hotel room with 7 other girls instead of asking if you're fine.

My dear friend said, maybe... maybe if I love him, I should just wait for him.

And I say, girl if you are in the same shoe as my friend, a man like this is nothing. Probably 5 years down the road, he'd have done a degree, with his current girl friends all gone. You might think everything's going to be fine. But he'd be jobless, and he'd still be fooling around with a new bunch of girls. So why wait and drag the misery. I said call him, ditch him. You might think you're losing out to his friends. But dear friend, you won. Because you will find someone much more worthy of your time - and someone who truly loves you.

 

Who'd say no to this lady.. who bakes really delicious red velvet. I can't wait to eat more of her red velvets!

Yumms.

Xoxo

sewing pajamas

I sew a set of pajamas for my boyfriend!

When I saw this piece of cloth with alien/monster prints on it, I was SOLD immediately. Byebye money, hello cloth.

 

Who could say no to this! It's the perfect texture for baby clothing, perfect print for little boys. Well, apparently my boyfriend is no longer a baby. He just has a soft spot for cute things. 

I sew a drop down sleeve for him. Others are pretty much standard top stitch. I don't even need to end the stitching nicely since this cotton fabric wouldn't fray.

And the bottom!

If this wasn't satisfaction, what is.
:D
:D
:D
Xoxo

Baking & Sewing

I think cooking(well, cooking is a hobby too isnt it) and hobbies are two of the biggest badass. They just hook onto you, don't they.

I don't know what to name these bread, I didn't look at any recipes while making them, but my boyfriend praised that it is the best bread he ever had. For that I think I deserve all the credit. :P

The ingredients:
1. 60% bread flour (about one full bowl)
2. 30% plain flour
3. 10% cake flour (just use plain flour if you do not have cake flour)
4. 1 tablespoon of raw sugar, a pinch of salt/cinnamon salt
5. 1 tablespoon of dried basil leaves (you could get this in a plastic bottle in supermarket)
6. 2 tablespoon of coriander, finely chopped (or celery)
7. 50% water
8. 50% milk
9. 2 teaspoon of instant Yeast (I used kings instant yeast)
10. 1 teaspoon of oil

*Now if you noticed, I use a lot of percentages. The reason is, I have no measuring tools at home. So I just go with my feeling when I do things.

Procedure:
1. mix all the ingredients (1 - 9) above.  The amount of water/milk/flour that you pour in really depends on how much you want to make. Make sure the dough is kind of soft, it should feel like your soft butt, or just a little harder.
2. Set the dough aside for 1 hour
3. Grease a pan with the oil (10), and roll your bread to a size you want (make it around 30% smaller because it will rise later), and leave it on the greased pan
4. Set the dough on the greased pan for 30 mins
5. Start to preheat your oven/microwave at 180 degrees for 15 - 20mins.
6. Brush a thin layer of cooking oil onto the surface of your dough, this gives a beautiful gold color after baking. You may add egg wash if you want too.
7. Put the entire pan with the dough into the oven for 20 - 30minutes, at 180 degrees.

* Your bread is totally cooked if you poke a chopstick in and it comes out clean

Yummy bread that is crunchy on the outside and soft inside. The little bit of sweetness from the raw sugar makes it perfect to eat alone.

You could keep the bread in fridge for 3 days. I used it for burgers.
- Bread, beef, tomatoes, coriander = YUMMY BREAKFAST, with minimum fat, and 0 preservatives.

Or a green burger for brunch
- Bread, Beef, baby spinach, wild rocket, cheese = awesomeness!
 Wild rocket is my new discovery. It is that vegetable with rough edges you see in the photo above. But it has a really nutty taste to it, which compliments meat so much. You never need salad dressing with this vegetable. It is also super rich in calcium.


On to sewing! Ever since I got a sewing machine, I pretty much played with it all the time.
* TIPS: Get used one from EBAY.sg if you are starting out. In case you hate sewing, its fine because you spent just a bit on it. I got mine on ebay at just $80! Its BM2600. This model is pretty old, bit it does normal sewing fine. I can't work with anything too thick with this machine though. 

My mom worked as a seamstress when I was young - and one of my best memories is my dad cutting out the fabrics, while my mom would sew those pieces together and make me dresses and pajamas. To me, no amount of pretty clothes outside could compare to those that is handmade, with love.

I've made pencil cases for my sister,my brother, my boyfriend. And recently, I got a piece of leather (PVC leather). I did a trial piece of laptop pouch for myself which didn't turn out 100% awesome, but my boyfriend really liked it. and he asked if I could make him one for his MacBook Pro.

So I made one! This one is much better made as compared to my own one.

I chose a black zip go go with brown leather. To tie in the silver laptop, I specifically find a sleek looking silver zipper. (That laptop is my bf's 6 or 7 year old MacBook Pro)

 

These are the materials I used:

1. Piece of leather or fabric X (You could get PVC leather at spotlight, but use whatever you want, you could even use stretch denim! Go diaso if you want to try denim, its a piece for $2!)

2. A filler (cushion like texture that protects your laptop from 'injury'. Over here, I used non slit mat. I wouldn't recommend non slit mat though, it feels nice, but it is a pain in the arse to sew it by machine. I had to hand stitch it in the end. I recommend you to use felt instead, but you could use any fillers that are thick&soft.)

3. Lining material (This is basically any soft fabrics, because you do not want scratches on your notebook. Any cotton material is fine really, but I used satin. Satin is extremely smooth and soft to touch. It also reduces friction when you slot the notebk in and out.)

Xoxo