Happy Chinese New Year!

I've been back in Singapore for more than a month now but I still haven't really settled in. All of my boxes have been unpacked but there are bits and pieces of things scattered around my room still. I can't wait to get my room done up so I could show everyone here what it looks like!

Meanwhile, I just celebrated Chinese New Year so I thought I should just post a couple of photos for now - lest people start forgetting that I even exist. 

I still have a few sewing projects from last year which I have not written about. Till then!

Wearing: River Island shift dress, ASOS heels, Glomesh look-alike bag, cheap folding fan

x gwen

Fall/Winter Nail Inspirations

Winter has arrived a lot earlier in Sydney this year. In addition to making my jackets and blazers more accessible in my room (i.e. piling them up on a single chair), I have also been playing around with my growing collection of nail polishes and dreaming up of colours to wear on my nails for winter. 


Unfortunately, as I have mentioned before, I don't really have the chance to wear nail polish for a large part of the year because of the nature of my course. Of course, people in my course still wear nail polish but my Asian mentality/upbringing makes me believe that wearing nail polish is not very professional. Anyway, the point is that I actually love wearing nail polish. If I could, I would even wear a different colour every week. 


When I bought an OPI Shatter nail polish during a sale a few days ago, I decided to test it with various nail colours that I have in my stash and... decided to come up with a Fall/Winter nail colour palette as well! So here are the colours that I wish I could wear this winter...

Fall/Winter Nail Palette 2012 

1. Citrus, Ulta
2. Siw, Make Up Store ($1, thrifted = win!)
3. Random Korean nail colour
4. Midnight Fever, Ulta
5. Silver Glitter, Ulta
6. Earl Grey, Ulta
7. Twilight Fever, Ulta
8. Precious, Ulta


I mostly only buy Ulta nail polishes because they're cheap. Just to be clear, the picture above doesn't really do justice to the colours because I took the picture under the light in my room. 


Here's the colours with OPI Shatter nail polish on top. This tiny experiment has allowed me to come to the conclusion that black shatter nail polish only looks good with glittery or bright neon colours underneath. Like, duh huh?

Surprisingly, black shatter nail polish doesn't look great with holographic nail polish...

My favourite combination

xx

DIY: "A glimmer of hope" tee

I hope you can see that the design of the tee is a pun. Colourless albeit shiny sequins that trace out the word 'Hope' in a beautiful cursive font on the front of a tee, rendering its design unseen and unknown to the careless observer = a glimmer of hope.

This tee that I saw in a Japanese magazine struck me with the idea of sewing my small bag of colourless (and almost useless) sequins onto my very very boring tee. I love Japanese fashion magazines!!!!!!!!!!!!! I bought the magazine because it came with a free bag, but that's just another story.


I was initially thinking of doing some other word instead of 'Hope', but I also thought that 'Love' is quite ubiquitous and 'Dream' is a little too long. So, I ended up sticking to 'Hope'. Well, it was the long, beautiful and rounded tail of the 'p' that struck me in the first place. 


Materials:
White tee
Printer
Marker
Cloth marker
Sequins
Patience


Steps:

1. Type 'Hope' (or any other word that you decided to use instead) on MS Word using Monotype Corsiva in font size 320. Print the word out.

2. Use a marker to edit the design.

3. Put the paper underneath your white tee and pin it in place. Wear your tee to ensure that the word is not slanted in any way.

4. Trace the word out using a cloth marker. Remove the paper and then wear your tee again to ensure that the word is not slanted.


5. Sew your sequins along the tracing of the letters!


6. Wash your tee to remove the markings from the cloth marker!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! (^_^)

DIY: A paler shade of blue (Bleaching your own denim)

Gosh I am so tired. I just handed in another 2000 word essay today. Now I still have one more assignment to go. But I am giving myself a mini-break tonight by writing this post.

Faded denim looks so much better than dark ones. But dark ones are cheap and easy to find at op shops here in Sydney. So, the best way to deal with this tricky situation is to get the dark denim from op shops and then get a cheap bleach and DIY. I got an entire litre of bleach for just 1.20AUD.


Materials:
Denim jacket
Bleach
Water


Steps:
(Ok these are not exactly the steps to bleaching, but more of what I did and some tips on bleaching)
1. Soak your denim in a bucket of water, just enough for your entire piece of clothing to be covered. Also, get a bucket that is big enough to spread your denim out for a more even bleaching
2. Start by adding about 1/4 cup of bleach. See how your denim reacts. I soaked mine in the bucket for the entire night and it only got slightly lighter. When I say 'slight', I mean almost unobservable.
3. Then the next day I changed the water and repeated step 1 again. But this time, I added about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of bleach. I left it in the water, assuming that I have to leave it in the water for the night again.
4. I was in my room doing my assignment for about 2-3 hours. Then I had to use the bathroom. The moment I walked into the bathroom, I almost shrieked out loud because it has turned into the perfect shade!
5. Rinse the denim with water until the funky smell of bleach is gone. Leave to dry. If you really hate the smell of bleach, I suggest that you put it to wash with your other clothes in the washing machine.

Like what I have said, a spacious bucket is quite important for this DIY. The pail that I used was only just big enough, so there are some parts that were not bleached to the same extent as the others. Fortunately it isn't too obvious. Also, make sure that your entire piece of denim is always under the water when you leave it in to bleach! 

I just bought another denim jacket from an op shop again today for just a dollar. Lucky~ I think this time I will be doing some bleaching AND cutting. Hmmm...

J'aime mon carre (I Love My Scarf)

Yes I actually do have a little fetish for scarves. And I love this fabulous website by Hermes that features various fashion-forward people from around the globe and the many ways that they wear their Hermes scarf. 

You don't have to own a Hermes scarf to replicate those styles on the website! I actually have a look-alike that I got from Cotton On for just 2.00AUD. You can most probably get a good one from a thrift shop too!

Of all the people on the website, I like Kozue from Tokyo the most. I think she's simply adorable!


So, hop on over to the website to check out all the different ways to wear your scarf now! 

J'aime mon carre

Note: The site may not be easy to navigate at first but you'll get used to it.


All images are from J'aime mon carre

One very compelling reason to make a crochet vest

(via)

The way Janis Joplin rocks a crochet vest makes me want to have one too! And when you can crochet, why not try making one instead of buying one?


But I just need to source for a nice (and free) crochet vest pattern. These are what I have found so far:

Top left: White Mesh Vest (via)

Top right: Rosario Vest (via)

Bottom left: Lylara Crochet Vest (via)

Bottom right: Flower Square Vest (via)

I feel a lot more inclined to make the White Mest Vest because... well, it's a vintage pattern! The Flower Square Vest is a groovy vintage too. But I definitely wouldn't be making it in those funky colours. I want something just like Janis Joplin's. Something between beige and sandy brown...


I must make one crochet vest during my summer break this year. Crochet is SO HOT in fashion right now. Check out the some of the 16 Chic Crochet Clothes and Accessories on Refinery29:

(via)

DIY: Knotted Double-Layered Scarf from XL Men's tee (inspired by Country Road Knotted Loop Scarf)

Finally! I’ve been so busy over the weekend because of assignments. They are not major assignments, but I’m a silly perfectionist when it comes to school work.

Now, as I have promised, the scarf refashioned from one XL Men’s tee! I got the XL Men’s tee from a discount store for just $2. The scarf was inspired by the Knotted Loop Scarf by Country Road. It costs 69.95AUD! (-_-x)

Knotted Loop Scarf by Country Road for A/W 2010 Collection, image from here

It seems to be really well-liked here because I’ve seen 2 people in my class wearing it. But this is something that I am making for a friend of mine. Oh, oh and this is the very first project that I did with my NEW Elna Sew Fun sewing machine!!! All right, enough with that introduction and monologue. Let’s get on with the tutorial! :D

Materials:

1 x XL Men’s Tee
Scissors
Sewing machine/Sewing needle, thread and a lot of patience

Steps:

• Cut your tee according to the picture. A and B should be about the same width and C is from the sleeves.
• One tee will yield 2 As, 2 Bs (the second one is underneath), 2 Cs and 1 D.

• Get A and open it up. There should be an open side where the C/the sleeves were cut off. 
• Fold A into half, lengthwise, with the RIGHT side of the fabric facing each other, such that the open sides meet at the dotted line.
• Sew along the dotted line.
• Open A up and you should get a rectangular piece of fabric. Do the same as above for the other piece of A.

• Put the 2 pieces of A together, with the RIGHT side of the fabric facing each other and so that the ====, ++++ and .... are in line with each other.
• Sew along the ==== lines together and then open the piece up.

• Fold the piece lengthwise such the ++++ side meets with the …. side with the RIGHT side of the fabric facing each other. The picture shows only one piece of A. The other one is out of the frame. The 2 pieces of A form a very long piece of fabric.
• Sew ++++ and …. sides together.

• Turn this long piece of 2 As inside out and you will get a long tube of fabric with all the clean seams on the outside.

• Get C and cut the seams so that it opens up as shown in the picture.

• Get one C and one B. Line the sides ==== and ++++ together, with the RIGHT side of the fabric facing each other. Sew ==== and ++++ together.
• Do the same for the other B and C. 

• You will get 2 long strips of fabric as shown in the picture, each made from B&C.
• Lie the 2 B&C strips on top of one another, RIGHT side of fabric together.
• Sew the sides together to get a tube like with A previously.
• Fold the 2 tubes of fabric inside out so that all the clean sides are facing outside.
• The tube from A should be longer than the tube from B&C.

• Tie 3 knots in tube A, where the second knot is right in the middle of the tube.
• Tie 2 knots in tube B&C, such that the knots have a space in between.
• Lie the 2 tubes of fabric parallel to one another. The knots in tube B&C should be next to the spaces between the knots in tube A.

• Holding the 2 ends of the tube together, try and see how it looks on your neck. Adjust how you want the 2 layers to look before sewing the ends together. 

• It’s ok if the edges of the ends are not exactly together. That was also what happened to mine.

• Fold/Roll the ends neatly into half, as shown in the picture.

• Now, the final piece! Get D, open it up and cut it as shown in the picture to get a small rectangular piece of fabric.

• Join the ends of the 2 layers together, and then wrap it using D. You may want to fold the raw edges of D inwards as you wrap the ends together.

• Sew it in place! You may want to do hand sewing for this last step instead as the fabric gets really thick here and you may want to hide the stitches with some strategic stitching.

• OMG we’re finally done. Take a break because I know the steps are really confusing!

I really have to apologise for the confusing steps. It’s hard to describe everything that I did because I did most of my thinking as I was cutting and sewing all those ends together. Please don’t curse and swear if you don’t understand any one these steps! Pop a message in the comments section instead and I will try to reply ASAP! :)

Yayy! So this is the tutorial for the week! What do you guys think? I think my friend would really like it. :D

United Colors of Benetton Chain Scarf

All images from nitrolicious

I know this Chain Scarf was out a long time ago. It has been on my to-do list for an awfully long time too. And I still want it. I'm not too sure how much it is. I'm not even sure if they are still selling it! But it doesn't matter, because it's definitely more than $20 and I can make it myself in my own favourite colour for less than $10!


So, do you want it as well? Can you knit? my day-to-day adventures has a great tutorial on how to knit one of these scarves yourself. LOVE!


Can't knit but can crochet? Cornflower Blue has a tutorial on how to make similar chains using the crochet method. But it's going to look slightly different because the original Benetton scarves were knitted.


I should seriously start a real, tangible to-do list instead of thinking about it in my head. 

VOGUEknitting for Fall 2010

*GASP

Help me... I'm hyperventilating.

This is one of the designs of VOGUEknitting for Fall 2010, London Calling.

Blue. Red. White. Union. Jack. I. Want.

Check out the rest of the collections on the VOGUEknitting website.

Do you know that they also have free patterns on the VOGUEknitting website? You won't find something as awesome as that Union Jack outerwear above, but there are still a few that are worth lusting after.

IDEA: Cut your dresses

Is it just me or are fashionable dresses getting increasingly simple and easy to replicate with a few simple snips of the scissors?

All images are from Style Break