Third Sewing Project - A Cath Kidston-style Tote Bag

Bitten by the sewing bug, I bought some Cath Kidston 'oilcloth' and some bag-making accessories from blogshop. When my goods came, I was a little disappointed as I had thought the 'oilcloth' was a clear laminated cotton material. Instead, it was like a synthetic canvas with a layer of pliable plastic backing. However it served its purpose and it was hard enough to make a bag.

I wanted to make this! Photo taken from here

Since I could not find a similar bag pattern online (I mean for free), so I stared at the photo and drew my own pattern. It did turn out similar, yet different - you'll be the judge!

I had only bought 1/4 meter, so I had to arrange the template pieces as closely as possible and no extra for the side pockets.

I don't know what people usually use to reinforce the bottom of the bag, but I used cardboard from a shoe box and  covered it with some polyester ribbon strips (supposedly for flower making). I had a hard time maneuvering the incomplete bag on the sewing machine.

The lining piece completed. After finishing the lining, I discovered the error in the design I drew, i.e. I did not give allowance for the bottom panel in the lining, so I had to unpick the thread and cut another piece of cloth to add in the bottom panel - hence, the polka dot bottom! 

I know, the binding/bias tape should be of canvas material, but I only had this pink ribbon string thing (the kind that teachers would use to tie the exam papers after counting them in an exam hall at the end of the session) lying around and I had to join 2 ribbons parallel to create a band broad enough to serve as the binding. As a result, it looks and feels too weak to be a bag handle. I hope I can find a proper material to replace what I have at the moment. Although I must say, that the pink ribbon matches the flowers incredibly! :) 

So there's my first bag! What do you think? Marketable? hehe

Second Sewing Project - Organza Flowers

I found this page on Reese Dixon's site, and decided to try it out. With the limited scrap materials lying around my home, I made my first attempt at making organza flowers! I layered the organza with lining material (green flower), some shiny synthetic material (pink flower) and stiff tulle (which was not a good choice - it smelled like 'sotong bakar' when it started melting). I still need to work on the flower template though...

P.S: I know the colour combination in the photo looks really 'kampung' but I had to make do with what I had! ;)

R.I.P Friend

It's really shocking to run through your Facebook news feed and learn that one of your friend has died. Today, a friend I knew from university died of cancer. And I didn't even know she had been battling cancer for quite awhile.

Although we were never really close friends, I just want to record a little something of our history together. She was one of the first few people I knew during orientation week - mainly because both of us were 'bananas' and coincidentally we were grouped into the same Chinese Community (CC) group. 

I remember the time when the seniors made us jog around the campus and we stuck together. That was the time I discovered she was a rocker chic - so totally different from any other Chinese girl I've known! We joined the KK12 orientation choir group to collect merit points, and that was where we met many others whose friendships we maintained all through our university days. Throughout my 1-year stay in 12th College (Kolej Kediaman Raja Dr Nazrin Shah), we would contact each other when it was our CC night meeting - making a pact to either attend or skip the meeting.

The bunch of us - orientation choir girls, as well as my other faculty friends - ended up joining AIESEC in our first year. In my three years in university, I joined the organising teams of a number of projects - most of which my 'late' friend was also a part of. We attended leadership camps, both intra- and inter-campus. And then we joined the management team in our second year - all of us (the active ones) trying our best to clinch exchange realisations. In my final year, I decided to put AIESEC in the back seat to concentrate on my final year project, while she proceeded to become one of the VPs.

We'd still bump into each other from time to time (while on campus). But after graduating, occasionally I'd hear news about her from a mutual friend.

Initially I thought she was the quiet kind - still water runs deep. After knowing her a little better, yes - I still think she talked less than the average girl (gossipy gossamer), but she was one who spoke her mind. She wasn't the kind who'd bend according to where the latest trends were blowing towards. She lived her life the way she wanted to, not intimidated by what others would say/think - a trait that most of us would like to have but lack the fortitude to follow through.

Rest in peace, my young friend - who had wisdom beyond her years.

Coming of Age

In Asian culture, it is common for the younger generation to address the elder generation with honorific suffixes such as (for Malaysian Chinese) "uncle", "aunty", "kong kong", "po po", "ah yee", "tai ku", "kor kor", "jie jie" and the list goes on. It is a show of respect one gives to another of a higher rank (in terms of family hierarchy).

However when one from the 'younger generation' graduates into the ranks of the 'elder generation', at what age is the cut-off point where we can judge who to address as "uncle" and "aunty" and who to address as our peers? When I was little, any friend of my parents would be automatically addressed as "uncle" and "aunty". But now, some of my parents' friends are around my age or slightly my senior by several years, so how do I address these group of people? Their affiliation with my parents would put them in the 'elders' rank (to me) but their age would classify them as my peers. And when meeting a mixed group of my parents' friends, how can I call some "aunty" and others just by name? I feel weird.

Whereas in situations beyond the domestic boundaries, sometimes I have to check myself from calling my boss "uncle", as I'm so used to calling elder people "uncle" and "aunty"! That would truly be weird, if I ever did!

Making My First Dress!

For those whom I chat with on a regular basis, this phrase would ring a familiar note - "I want to start sewing something!". Ever since I discovered Etsy.com, I've been craving to try sewing similar stuffs found on the site. Initially it started with bags - the printed canvas bags seemed to look pretty straight forward to make (I can't say for the actual process though...). The bags which I wanted to make had clean lines with neat pleats - which I thought was 'do-able'!

However I did not sew a bag as my first project. I sew a dress instead! And this all started when I wanted to buy a polka dot dress online but the online boutique seller had run out of stock. It wasn't a 'dress to die for', but it was something that had a feature I was looking for - a collar-like lapel at the neckline. I had no intention of sewing the dress myself until I saw bales of polka dot fabric in Kamdar, SS2 (we were looking for red fabric to decorate Ah Yee's dining chairs for CL's wedding, at that time). I talked about the fabric with mom for almost a month before impulsively asking her to buy a length while she was in Midvalley Megamall - and thankfully, the Kamdar outlet over there had it, and at a discounted price!

I really am thankful for my Ekonomi Rumahtangga subject (literally translated as House-stair Economics, but a more appropriate translation would be Home Economics or Household Economics) in high school. The little that I learned from the text book and teachers, I managed to use the knowledge in this recent project of mine! Call me obsessive or whatever, but I finished the dress in 2 days (over the 2011 new year)! It was 2 days because I didn't have the sewing machine zipper foot (let alone the zip itself) and had to SOS my mum's friend to put in the zip for me. Mom managed to weasel some lining cloth, measuring tape, thread snipper and pins from her too (well, actually she offered to give them to me... hehe).

As I was typing this post, I just realised that whenever I really want to do something but lack the equipments or something, God will always provide. Praise the Lord! :)

Anyway, lets take a look at a series of photos and commentaries.

The printed pdf design that took me so long to figure out the right printer settings to use and when I managed to print it out correctly, I had to stick about 16 pieces of A4 papers together!

I lost my fabric old scissors when someone left it in church after the December wedding. So I had to use whatever scissors I could find in my home - paper and hair scissors! (another kiddy paper scissors missing from the photo) What a tough time I had cutting the cloth pieces out...

All our pins had mysteriously gone missing, so the next best option I had was to use safety pins to pin the paper template to the cloth and cut the shapes out.

Safety pins weren't enough, so I used paper clips to keep the cloth and paper template straight

The old machine's leather strap snapped, so I had to sew using no foot paddle, only my hand (gloved, to minimise friction lacerations) manually turning the wheel!

Finish product. For the lapel, I had to recycle a discarded lace scrap from one of mom's altered sleeves, many years ago...

People have said that the dress looks nice, but I'm not too sure they're just being diplomatic and encouraging or it is the truth! Anyway whatever motive is behind their comments, I think it's not such a bad first sewing project! My mom's friend (who helped me sew in the zipper, and so happens is our tailor) said it's not bad, neat... :)

Moral of the story is... if you can't buy a dress that you want, take a photo of it and try sewing it yourself! I have many photos... but not enough time.

Dramatic December

December has been an exhilarating month! It all started out with my Corporate Financial Management examination, of which I made a super boo-boo (unknowingly) - used the wrong buy/sell rate for calculation of mutual funds. Otherwise, I think I was way more easygoing this time around. Perhaps I'm just getting tired of exams!

And then it was full on to the planning of the CL's wedding reception decoration. We wanted to get the girl at the Section 9 shop to do some flower arrangements but when we went there on Sunday, the shop was closed and had a different name! So we started panicking and asked around if anyone who knew where the old shop had shifted to. However thank God a few days later we decided to try out the new shop, and voila, the girl was still there! She'd only changed the shop name, but everything was still the same.

And then came the rehearsal day. Nobody told me I was to be my aunty's chauffeur and so when I was awaken by a phone call, I jumped up, got dressed in record time and drove so fast. We went to SS2 for some last-minute purchases and 'char siew pau's for the tea ceremony. When we got back, it was already time to pick CL's best man from One World Hotel. I waited for my aunty while she went into the hotel to look for the best man. Unknowingly he was the one who was peering peculiarly into my car - and I thought he was just a KPC guy! hahaha (Note to self: shall not judge a book by its cover in future!)

Drove so fast on Sprint that I 'nearly' crashed into a line of cars stuck in a massive jam near Pusat Damansara. However thankfully we were able to reach church on the dot! The rest of the entourage was still missing btw! And I got yelled at by LK because he had lost his way somewhere in Damansara Heights. But ultimately, all arrived about an hour later and rehearsal commenced. I never knew that there were so many protocols to follow in a church wedding - from how you link arms and where to stand, to where the parents should sit in the front pews and when the couple should stand/kneel!

After the rehearsal, there was only enough time to send my aunty and the best man back and then fetch my friend (CY) to church to decorate the CRC for the wedding reception. Our problem was how to hang up the flower arrangement onto the brick arch at the CRC? In the end, dad suggested we hang the flower arrangement using the 'metal frame' of the ceiling and it worked!

Main piece of our decorations

The wedding was a nice one. We had great weather, thank God! I missed half of the church ceremony, manning the registration table outside, but I managed to witness the signing. After the reception, we hurried back to my aunty's house for the tea ceremony. And later on, I managed to catch some winks in the guest room before going for the Chinese dinner at Overseas Restaurant, Jaya One. Funny - CL managed to go for a jog/run before he dressed for dinner! So calm! haha

'Hollywood-like' IPOH sign

Good thing we managed to go for the Ipoh ceremony and dinner. This time I could sit back and witness everything! Although we reached the church a little late because we'd got lost in Ipoh... Anyway, I'm not going to elaborate here because the only person who'd be interested in reading it would be me! So on to the next event.

First time ever going to Lookout Point - it's somewhere near Hulu Langat! Journey was... interesting... we got lost and entered some sort of village road leading up to a dark deserted 'taman pertanian'. We, three girls, had to stop for directions three times but in the end managed to reach the hill. It was foggy when we were driving up the hill and parking was crazy up there! Food in Haven was ok, much better than I expected.

I had this - Chicken Chop

My friend had this - Lobster (was around RM80 - price ok right?)

The view - my hands were shaky and was using my Nikon point and shoot

And then it was Christmas! This year we went to DUMC for Christmas day service. I didn't realise that our church staged a Christmas musical on the eve, when I was falling asleep at our family reunion dinner. If I knew, I'd have gone for it - I was so near (location-wise), yet so far!

Christmas with the Wongs (gift exchange)

Christmas with the Leongs (Empire Hotel)

Christmas was nice. A lot of family moments - which is a rare thing, these days. Praise the Lord for Christmas!

However a few days later, my second encounter with flying objects occurred. My last post was about the incident with my windshield and a stone. Within that short span of time, I had another mishap. This time, I was waiting (stationary) at a traffic light near SS2, the 2 lane road next to an elevated portion of the LDP. I wasn't moving... yet some chunk of flying concrete found my car and collided with my driver's side door handle, scratching part of my rear side-window and paintwork on my door. The collision caused a loud whack sound, and I was worried that someone on the next lane had hit my car door (but my car didn't shake, so that wasn't it). At first I thought it was a stone flung by one of the passing cars on the next lane. But later, when I thought about it and saw that what hit me was like wet cement/concrete, I figured it could've been a cement mixer or truck traveling fast on the elevated LDP highway above us. I couldn't believe it that I'd had 2 close encounters with flying hard objects in a span of just 1 month! My car must've been some magnet towards flying objects! :(

Part of the damage. This was after I had scooped off a goop of wet cement/concrete

So ends my December and also 2010! Many sweet memories and 2 whopping flying objects!

End post. *Phew!*

2010 No Accident Record Shattered

Woke up late
Batu Tiga road jammed
Decided to turn off into Federal Highway (toll rate = RM1.10)
Federal Highway jammed, extended till the portion of road near the clock tower
Decided to turn off into Subang Airport road
Took NKVE
All Clear
Took turn off route to Damansara toll exit
POP!
*Covers ears, squeeze eyes shut as auto reflex*
*Realises I can still steer the car - so it wasn't the tyres*
*Notices a 5 inch radial crack on windshield*
"Shit!"
Continued driving
Stopped at the rest stop near the Damansara toll gates
Inspected damage
"Shit!"
Called parents
Paid toll (RM1.00)
Continued on to office
.
.
.
Mechanic said the whole windshield would have to be replaced. He said we can claim the cost from our car insurer, as we did buy the rider which covers for windshield damages on top of the comprehensive insurance plan. He also said he could repair the more than 2 years old bumper damage from my first ever accident in 2008.

The damage

Apparently, the Myvi windshield has 2 layers of glass therefore the crack only penetrated the outer layer, and not all the way into the inner surface of the windshield. Nevertheless, with the crack, it would be easier for someone to poke a hole in my windshield if he wanted to.

I really thank God that the POP! wasn't my tyre exploding and that the crack was just at the corner and not my whole windshield. If it was either, I don't know whether I'd be here typing this now. I guess it was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A friend said I could make a report at the PLUS Highway office and make a claim from them - since the accident was caused by a flying stone from a grass-cutter along their highway. But I didn't take a receipt at the time, so it would be futile trying to prove to them that I was there at that time.

I can't believe that shortly after the incident happened, I started thinking about the mechanics of the accident. I was imagining how much kinetic energy the rock must've had in order to break the covalent bonds between the silica molecules in the glass. And perhaps the atoms/electrons would be spinning around frantically after the impact, maybe with some heat energy produced.

When I heard that the glass repairer could repair some cases of cracks, I started wondering how they would go about doing that. They would probably have to heat up the glass so that the displaced SiO2 molecules could realign themselves to a lattice arrangement and also the heat would provide the energy required for new covalent bonds formation. Anyway, I won't be able to see the outcome of a repaired glass windshield as mine is beyond repair and will be replaced with a new one.

So at the end of the day, I paid for an extra toll and ended up with a cracked windshield. Was it worth it?

Job Ad

I guess a job is still a job, irrespective of what it is - whether it is a GM or a GRO. I saw this job ad from a reputable job site daily digest in my email today:

High Pay Models : Beach Bash (RM1000 Per Day)
-We need you to be able to talk and look posh.
-We need you to be able to drink with vvip.
-We need you to be a open minded person hanky panky is POSSIBLE. (+pay)
-We need you to be a active person can run,swim,dance.
-On the job day (2days) transportation and accommodation is provided
-If you are shy,under age please dont apply


If you are interested please send your full-size most recent beach-dresses photos.Application without photos will not be entertain.

Imagination Plays in Dream

Yesterday on the way home, the car in front had a portion of a human arm sticking up from the sillhouette of the back seat. At first I thought it was a passenger holding up his hand to text on a phone or whatever. But the hand did not seem to move and looked pretty rigid and finally I saw that there was nothing in the grasp of the hand! That was when I started imagining there was probably a dead body in his rear seats - with rigor mortis, hence the uplifted arm! But let me be clear here that I do not have any proof of what I saw was what I thought it was - it could've very well been a mannequin's arm sticking up.

Anyway, the point of my post is that when I retired to sleep that night, I had a queer dream. We (a bunch of people whom I knew in the dream but none I could identify from among my real-life acquaintances) were at a private party in an old colonial building, wearing clothes from the 1920s. There was the usual pairing off and flirting of some of the guests. And at one point we had to buy some meat.

So, poof, suddenly I found myself in a butcher's shop (not like the Dettol-cleaned supermarket ones). There were packages of sausage and Chinese sausage on the wall racks and chillers with partially frozen packaged meats. I was in there with another girl, who was doing all the talking. She wanted to get some chicken thighs. I was just looking around when I started noticing certain peculiar looking meat cuts on display. And as I was passing one of the chillers, I saw this huge vacuum-packed thing - about 6 feet long - lying on the floor. At first I wasn't able to tell what dead animal it was but suddenly I realised it was a dead man inside the vacuum package. Nearby the plastic-wrapped body, there were human body parts partially butchered to be packaged and sold!

I remember trying to make excuses to my friend (the other girl) so that we could leave the shop immediately but she insisted on staying and getting what she needed. So I told her I'd wait for her outside and walked off trying to look as cool as if nothing had happened (but inside I was freaking out!).

I can't remember much of the rest of the dream after that. Talk about weird morbid dreams!?!

Bogus Traffic Report

After 5 detours and more than 2 hours on the road, I'm finally home! Let me just detail my time- and petrol-wasting adventure of the day.

Knowing that the rain would cause the 'highway-turned-massive-carpark' traffic phenomenon, well-talked of by Malaysian motorists, I decided to stay back in office and check the LLM Website for traffic updates. NKVE and LDP were reported to have high traffic. I could see the LDP photos to confirm the report, however the NKVE cameras were out, so I was solely relying on their text reports.

At around 7pm, after monitoring the traffic reports for at least 30 minutes, the NKVE reports changed to 'GENERALLY ALL TRAFFIC CLEAR'. So I quickly packed up and left my office, headed to NKVE and got stuck in a bad jam right after taking the toll ticket! After about 5 minutes of practically not moving, I decided to inch my way to the far right and go for the Kota Damansara exit (instead of my targeted Subang Exit). I was heading back towards my office area. So thanks to the NKVE traffic report, I had to pay RM1 (and petrol) to get into a massive jam and end up further from home.

To cut the long story short I then took the LDP, which was pretty clear, then had to make another detour before the 'new' ramp connecting the Subang airport road to USJ because the jam was spilling out everywhere. I took the U-turn back to Glenmarie, Shah Alam (avoiding the notorious Federal Highway) and got caught in another traffic jam around Section U1 or U2, made another 3 detours to finally get on to the road back home.

After 5 detours and more than 2 hours on the road, I feel like I'd just came back from an outstation trip! But it was just from office to home.... but the key word here is HOME. I'm home! Phew!