F for Fashion reconstruction #4

Of all the fashion reconstruction I have done thus far, I think this project would have been the easiest because my masterful sister and I managed to complete it in just one day!


This piece of dress is an ensemble of a sleeveless satin top which I bought in the early 90s and have been wearing frequently and a batik sarong skirt which I have never worn before since it was given to me by my former Indonesian colleagues in 2005 as a farewell present.

So, instead of me letting the skirt turn to rags, I might as well put it to good use. And ever since we have completed this project, this dress has been my favourite item for my casual outings because wearing it is as comfortable as wearing nothing.


Also I like this combination in a dress and because of their vibrant colours and the batik's motifs made it the perfect dress for any casual outings.


It also looked as if it was brand new, even though the top is more than twenty years old! Like I mentioned before, I take very good care of my clothes.

Who could tell that this was a cut-and-paste project, if I had not disclosed the facts?


I can proudly say that you cannot find this item anywhere. 💃🐒👌🙋

A for Arts n Crafts #4

What would you normally do with all the shoe boxes after you have discarded the worn-out shoes?


Most of you would probably throw them away like any old trash. While others, like the green community, would keep them to store their knick knacks or put them in the proper recycling bins.


For me, I would keep the good ones to store and organise my knick knacks. But I prefer to cover them with wrapping papers because I like them to look like pretty boxes instead of shoe boxes.


Also, I like buying and keeping wrapping papers because I just never know when I will actually use them. It is just something that is nice and good to have.


This is probably the easiest project but one that requires some effort to actually do it because unless you have wrapping papers at home, you will probably not be bothered to do it.


And so, this one fits the purpose of my next arts n crafts project perfectly. If you enjoy wrapping gifts or presents like I do, you would enjoy doing this project. The satisfaction is guaranteed because you get to store your knick knacks according to colour-coded boxes. Plus, you get to keep the mess and clutters our of sight.


So, let's get started.

What you need to have:

~ shoe boxes with lids

~ wrapping papers

~ a pen knife

~ paper glue

~ a ruler (optional)

~ a pencil (optional)

~ a pair of scissors (optional)

~ coloured ribbons to colour code the boxes (optional)

~ a lighter (optional)

What you need to do:

1. Clean the outer and inner surfaces of your shoe boxes and lids to ensure that they are free from dirt or dust.

2. Cut out the wrapping paper according to the size of the shoe boxes and the lids, making sure that the outer and inner surfaces are accounted for. Roughly fold and cut with the pen knife or accurately measure with the ruler and pencil and then cut with scissors.

3. Start wrapping the boxes first and then the lids.

4. You do not need to glue the entire surface of the boxes and the lids. Suffice if you just glue along their four corners.

5. To colour-code your boxes, cut out the ribbons according to the length of the four corners of the top of the lids and glue them in place. Burn the ends of the ribbons to stop fraying.

6. Leave the boxes and lids to dry completely before putting in your knick knacks.

D for Delectable Delights #1

This first episode of delectable delights is also my first attempt at recreating the apam kampung or steamed sponge-like cake/bread. In my own language, it would be a kind of kueh/kuih or cake but because I have added yeast to help with the fermentation process, it is more like a steamed bread to me, since I prefer sweet breads to sweet cakes, if not baked chocolate cakes.

Anyway, the reason I like making this bread is because the ingredients and preparation are simple and straight forward but what I dislike about it is the waiting time before I can actually taste it.

If you are not patient, it will not happen. That is the reason why it would usually take me weeks to ponder over it before I actually get to do it.

Nevertheless, all that waiting is worthwhile because the outcome is one delectable delight that is to die for, to me at least.

Since I've got all that I needed already in the pantry, let's whip up some apams.

Apam Beras

What you need to have:

Ingredients

1 cup fermented glutinous rice (tapai pulut)*

1.1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup spelt flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp yeast

3/4 cup jaggery sugar or brown sugar or palm sugar

2 pandan leaves

1.1/2 cup water

non-flavoured vegetable oil for greasing

grated coconut with a pinch of salt

Apparatus

a saucepan

a wooden spoon

a blender

a large bowl

a whisk

measuring cups and spoons

a steamer

a ladle

mini cake moulds or 10" diameter cake pan

a wire rack

a heat-resistant plate

* the tapai pulut is store-bought

What you need to do:

1. Place sugar, water and pandan leaves in a saucepan and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Cool to room temperature.

2. Blender the glutinous rice until smooth. No water is required because the fermented rice is already well hydrated.

3. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together except coconut, until smooth. The batter should be thin but not watery. If needed, add more water to reach the right consistency. If needed, add raw sugar. (I like my breads/cakes to be less sweet.)

4. Cover and ferment for at least 8 hrs or overnight.

5. The next morning, put the steamer to a boil. Stir lightly the batter to even out the mixture and pour batter into greased mini cake moulds or a 10" diameter cake pan, 3/4 full. (I used 9 mini moulds bought from IKEA plus a 6.1/2" diameter cake pan for the excess batter)

6. Place mini moulds or cake pan in steamer and cover the top of the moulds/pan completely with aluminium foil. 

7. Steam for mini moulds, 25 mins, for cake pan, 1 hr. Turn off heat and remove from steamer after 5 mins. Cool on wire rack.

8. Place the grated coconut on a heat-resistant plate and mix together with a pinch of salt. Steam for 10 mins using the remaining heat of the steamer.

9. Remove apams from moulds and serve with grated coconut, warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

my lovely mini apams

eat it with grated coconut

or eat it on its own

F for Fashion reconstruction #3

Don't know what to do with all your white cotton dresses and white cotton shirts or blouses?


Well, perhaps this fashion reconstruction project might inspire you. Just imagine, once you cut out and joined the desired pieces together, you not only get a pretty new dress, but you also get to reduce your wardrobe space.


Since my last fashion reconstruction project, I have been bitten by the sewing bug and inspired to transform all of my little dresses into long dresses. All because by doing this, I will get to wear new dresses and at the same time, reduce my wardrobe and storage space.


I never thought that a simple idea of combining two lone dresses (one I bought while working and living in Hong Kong and the other was my sister's which she already outgrew) into a long dress could be a challenging one because after we have done just that, I found that the new dress looked too bare and simple.


"So, where's the challenge in that?" you might ask. Continue reading and you will know what I meant.

So, we decided to give the new dress a pair of sleeves. But in order to do that, we had to look for the right blouse to sacrifice for its sleeves.


I found one long-sleeved blouse (accidentally bought this item during lunch while on a business trip to Korea) only after I fixed the sleeves to the new dress did I realise that they were too tight around the arms. Oh no!

So, after a good night's sleep, I looked again and found just the right sized sleeves (this item bought from Hong Kong) but this time, they were short. Oh no, not again!

Hmmmm what should I do? Combine the two sleeves together to give the new dress a classic look? Why not?


And to complete the look for the new dress, I had to sacrifice yet another blouse. This one I bought from Hong Kong, too.

So, after all that jazz, this project took my sister and I, about a week and a half to complete.


As soon as the dress was completed, it was time once again for a fitting. And my oh my, don't I look like a princess?


And thanks to my masterful sister yet again, I think this is the prettiest dress we have ever made. And I cannot be happier.


As always, my new dress is never completely complete without embellishments added to it ~ my sister calls me the "manik" queen.  So, it took me another couple of days to complete the embellishments.


And the final result is... pretty stunning, don't you think?

Who could tell that this was a cut-and-paste project, if I had not disclosed the facts?


I can proudly say that you cannot find this item anywhere. 💃🐒👌🙋

A for Arts n Crafts #3

My next arts n crafts project took me more than a week to complete because the first couple of steps were rather long and tedious.


These steps required patience and precision because if I was careless, I would be wasting valuable time and material. But once those steps were completed, the remaining steps went rather quickly. And the more I looked at my creation taking its form, the more eager I became, to finish it.

The project I am talking about is a faux capiz shell chandelier that would replace an old lighting in my bedroom. Looking up at the ceiling every day and night made me want to do something about that old ceiling light. So, once again, I looked through the internet for inspiration and found the one I wanted, not exactly the same but the idea was the same nonetheless.

I also found on youtube on how to make it ~ the cheapest way. I looked into my own inventory items and realised that I only needed to buy a couple of things. And so, off I went-a-shopping..

What you need to have:
~ a flexible metal coil (1 mm diameter)
~ a metal cutter
~ a pair of pliers
~ masking tape
~ a coloured ribbon

~ a pair of scissors
~ a lighter

~ thread (same colour as ribbon)
~ 2 needles
~ 3 boxes of wax paper (30cm x 5m)
~ a box of parchment paper
~ a non-steam iron
~ a ruler
~ a pencil
~ a pen knife
~ a compass

Once I got all the items I needed, I started by making the frame for my 3-tier chandelier. My idea was to keep the existing ceiling light as the main light source and to hang the chandelier just so it would fit nicely onto it.

So, to make the frame, I measured the circumference of the existing light and used it as a marker for my chandelier's top tier. To create the second and third tiers, I decreased the diameters by 2 inches accordingly i.e. if tier 1: ~ 7 inches, then tier 2: ~ 5 inches and tier 3: ~ 3 inches. (diameter = circumference/3.14).

After I got the measurements needed for all the three tiers, I cut out the flexible metal coil accordingly. To make complete circles for each of the tiers, I joined the two ends together and secured them with masking tape.


For my own personal touch, I opted to cover the metal coils with coloured ribbon instead of leaving them bare or coating them with paint like the other tutorials did. I also preferred to sew instead of gluing the ribbon to the metal coils because I thought by doing this, I would not have to worry about the chandelier falling apart later on.


Also, in order to secure the chandelier onto the existing light, I made 3 hooks from the remaining metal coil by cutting the lengths according to the distance between the chandelier and the existing light and shaping them with a pair of pliers. I made sure of the distance because I did not want to burn my chandelier, especially after all the hard work I would have put into it.

I was not bothered if the frame was out of shape because I was pretty sure that once the chandelier is completed, it would take its shape accordingly. Besides, who would actually bother to look closely once it is hung up at the ceiling? Also, this is after all, a hand-made project, so I liked it looking as it did.

The next step was rather mundane, because all I needed to do was to iron the sheets of wax papers together ~ how hard could this be? Not hard, but this step required precision. I had to make sure that the wax papers actually stuck together or else the corners would peel away once I cut them into smaller shapes, and my chandelier would look like pom-poms instead.

Because I did not want to waste any wax papers, I made some calculations before hand to make sure that there were enough wax papers to cover the whole chandelier and provisioned for wastage if I were to make mistakes while cutting the sheets.

So, in order to create a single sheet of faux capiz shell, I needed to cut out 3 sheets of wax papers of equal lengths (30 cm x 30 cm) and carefully ironed them all together, between two sheets of parchment papers. Because I needed 15 sheets of faux capiz shells, I ended up ironing 13.5 m of wax papers for the whole chandelier, and while the iron was still hot, I ironed the remainder, just for back-up.

While waiting for the sheets to cool down, I made a couple of templates which consisted of a 5 cm square and a 5 cm diameter circle and marked 2 needle points on each template ~ 1 cm from the top and 1 cm from the bottom for the stringing process.

When all of the sheets have cooled down, I then cut them out into squares and circles, based on the total number of pieces required for each tier. Since I did not have a proper paper cutter, it made this a rather long and tedious process because I had to cut each sheet with a pair of scissors for a cleaner cut than using a pen knife.

To string the pieces together, I used a single piece of thread and 2 needles instead of one because it was much more efficient and made the job easier to complete.

I strung 5 pieces of faux capiz shells per string, alternating between the squares and circles, ending with a diamond at the bottom of each string. Once each string was ready, I tied them to the frame. This was the fun part of the project because I got to see the chandelier took its shape and slowly but surely, it all came together. 

Once the chandelier was ready, it was time for the much-awaited part - hanging it to its designated place. And when the light switch was turned on, it transformed my bedroom totally into a new haven.

I never felt more satisfied because all those time and effort spent were totally worthwhile.

After the success of my first faux capiz shells chandelier for my bedroom, I decided to do the same for my guestroom.

So, following the same steps as previous project, I went on with my next project. This time, it was much easier to complete. Also, I only needed to make minor adjustments and the design is simpler.

And the outcome is yet another satisfied customer ~ a fresh new lighting for my guestroom.

A for Arts n Crafts #2

Following up on my previous arts n crafts project, I wanted some colours to brighten up my living room.


So, I thought why not add some flowers but those that will never wilt or wither?

I thought roses were too common, sunflowers were too bright, lilies were too white so the best I could think of were tulips.


I then browsed through the internet for inspiration and found some videos on youtube on how to make your own paper tulips because I wanted my tulips to look as good as the real ones.


It did not look difficult at all to make, so off I went-a-shopping for some of the items required.


What you need to have:
~ coloured tissue papers
~ dark green crepe paper
~ old magazines/newspapers
~ a ruler
~ a pencil
~ a pair of scissors
~ paper glue
~ a long needle

Once I got all the things I needed, I started by making the petals first. I cut out strips for the inner and outer petals. For a stalk of tulip, I needed 6 petals ~ 3 of 1 inch x 3 inches for inner petals and 3 of 1-half inches x 3 inches for the outer petals. The tissue papers I bought already came with pre-shaped strips so this task was less daunting because all I needed to do was to cut strips according to each indentation.


The next step is the fun part because I get to see the petals grew as I twisted and folded each strip of paper into the shapes I wanted. The more petals I made, the more colourful the petals became, as the pile of petals grew bigger.

After I finished with the petals, the next step was to make the stalks. Since I did not have any knitting needle, I used a long upholstery needle instead, to roll the magazines to create the stalks. I rolled out as many as I could make, long and short ones, because these rolled magazines are also useful for my future arts n crafts projects.

To make the stalks, I glued the top of the rolled paper and covered it completely with the dark green crepe paper. For the leaves, I cut out 1 inch x 5 inches strips of the dark green crepe paper and set aside for the final assembly.


Once I have made enough stalks, it was time to assemble the petals. This process is painstaking because just to make a stalk of tulip, I needed to glue 6 petals, one at a time, inner petals first, then the outer petals, and had to be sure that each petal was completely dry before adding the next.

My idea was to have combinations of tulips with and without leaves. Because I wanted to differentiate between the stalks and the leaves, I have chosen a light green tissue paper to lay over the dark green stalks and then attached the leaves to some, and left some as-is.

I must say, this project took me days to complete and I almost gave up on the idea. But since I wanted to show off my crafty monkey skills to my family, I persevered. Double, double, toil and trouble...

I must add, the vase is just a spin-off from the IKEA lamp project (A for Arts n Crafts #1). Why discard the bottle after you've drunk the juice? Why not turn it into a nice vase? And so I did just that! The concept is the same, with just a couple of twine ropes (one for use, the other, as a spare) and a hot glue gun, simply work from bottom-up, fixing the hot glue to the baseline and cover as much as possible the surface of the bottle with twine rope, making sure there is no gap along the way up. Let it dry completely and voila!, the vase is ready for use.


After all the toil and sweat, the result is... a beautiful bunch of home-made tulips!

Not as good as the real ones, but I think they're good enough for me.

F for Fashion reconstruction #2

Since my successful first fashion reconstruction project, I have become more excited to transform old clothes into new ones, especially little black dresses into long gowns because lately, I very much prefer wearing long dresses.


Also most of the time whenever I bought new dresses, I had to alter them to fit my body shape.


Since I no longer wear all my short dresses, I decided to transform them into long dresses and gowns so that I can start wearing if the occasions call for them.


So, for this fashion reconstruction project, I have chosen to transform a hipster dress made from T-shirt material my sister gave me that made my hips looked bigger than they should, into a pretty long dress for me to wear on my casual and less formal outings.

My idea was to separate the hipster dress so that I could wear the top with a pair of pants or jeans and the skirt part could then form part of the new dress.


Also, since I wanted my new dress to have long sleeves, my sister suggested a couple of T-shirts she no longer wears, for the top. I tried both and decided on the one with longer sleeves.


Since the total length of the hipster skirt and T-shirt was insufficient to make a long dress, my sister looked through her collection of materials and found a suitable piece of remnant that would complete the ensemble, which was also made from T-shirt material.

Once we've got all the materials we wanted, I started by removing the hemstitches on both the hipster dress and the T-shirt. Once this part was done, my sister made minor adjustments to the remnant so that they would all fit nicely together. I then joined the pieces together for my sister to sew.


This project took my sister and I, a little longer to complete than anticipated because of a minor glitch. We were so happy to complete the dress in just a couple of days.


However, when it was time for a fitting, I discovered that the sleeves were shorter than what we expected!


Simultaneously, we burst out laughing because I took the wrong T-shirt for the top ~ I joined the T-shirt with shorter sleeves instead. Aiyah!


Anyway, being the expert unpicker that I am, I quickly removed the stitches and fixed the right T-shirt so that my sister could perform her magic on her sewing machine once again. And in no time at all, my new dress was completed.


I tried on the new dress and like magic, it fitted like a glove, but realised that it still lacked the shine of a new item.


So, for the final touches, I decided to enhance the new dress by adding some embellishments which I have saved when I discarded my worn-out pair of slippers.


And the final result is simply awesome! Even my sister was envious 😁

And the hipster dress became a top that looks more appealing with a pair of pants or jeans. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

All's well that ends well... Yaye!

Thanks again to my masterful sister for yet another successful reconstruction project.


Who could tell that this was a cut-and-paste project, if I had not disclosed the facts?


I can proudly say that you cannot find this item anywhere. 💃🐒👌🙋

F for Fashion reconstruction #1

My first fashion reconstruction project started in July last year and I picked a sleeveless long wool dress I bought from Metro back in the early 90s as a pilot.


With the help of my masterful sister, who is not only sharper than the scissors but much better and faster at the sewing machine, we managed to complete the dress in just a couple of days.

We both agreed that I am much better at designing and finishing the dress because of my flair for details. Besides, since I am going to be the ultimate wearer, I get to design and finish the dress as how I want it to be.

With little effort, I think, anybody who sews can turn this simple dress into something new and pretty, too.

Since the dress came with lining, the first step I did was to remove it because due to our tropical climate, I prefer to wear clothes without lining.

My new dress will have long and puffed sleeves and higher neckline. So, the next step was to find the right material that matches the dress. Since my sister has quite a selection of materials in her collection, it was easy to find one right away.


Based on my narration, and as a seasoned dressmaker that she is, my sister went ahead with drawing patterns straight onto the material without the need of paper patterns before cutting them out according to the desired shapes.


Once ready, my task was to join the pieces together for my sister to sew.


This is the part we both like most because this is where things begin to take shape and soon I will get to wear our new creation. I was so excited and couldn't wait for this project to complete.


After a couple of days of hard work, the new dress was ready for a fitting. I was all smiles because it fitted me perfectly, just the way I wanted. Since the new dress looked a little plain, I decided to add some beads to enhance it. I could already imagine how it would look like, once I finished adding the final touches.


I have already decided during reconstruction that I would be wearing this new dress for my birthday last year and we managed to complete it a week earlier.


On my birthday, even my mom was surprised to see me wearing the reconstructed dress because the last time she saw me wore the old dress was in November 2013, for my secondary school reunion.

All thanks to my masterful sister who made this pilot project a success.


Who could tell that this was a cut-and-paste project, if I had not disclosed the facts?


I can proudly say that you cannot find this item anywhere. 💃🐒👌🙋

B for Baking #1

English muffins is one bread that I enjoy making because it is quick and easy for me to make and I do not need them to cool down completely before I could savour them.


Also, they freeze just as well as the long baking breads.


For this first baking adventure, I will feature my tested and perfected recipe using non-wheat flour mix and sourdough starter which I made from scratch.

Sourdough English muffins

What you need to have:

Ingredients

3/4 cup sourdough starter (spelt flour)
1 cup distilled water
1.1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 Tsp sugar
1 egg

1 cup white rice flour

1/2 cup potato starch

1/2 cup spelt flour

1.1/2 Tsp psyllium husk

1.1/2 Tsp golden flaxseed meal

2 Tsp milk powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 Tsp oil (rice bran and extra virgin olive oil)

oil for greasing container

white rice flour for dusting

Apparatus

measuring cups and spoons

a large bowl

a wooden spoon

a proofing container with cover

3" cookie cutter

a non-stick frying pan or griddle

a wire rack

a zipper bag

What you need to do:

1. In a large bowl, combine sourdough starter, distilled water, instant yeast, sugar and egg. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

2. Add rice flour, potato starch, spelt flour, psyllium husk, flaxseed meal, milk powder and salt into the yeast mixture and mix again until a soft dough is formed.

3. Add oil and knead for 5 mins. The dough should be a bit tacky.

4. Transfer into a well-oiled container with a cover and refrigerate overnight.

5. By next morning, the dough would have doubled in size. Let the dough rest at room temperature.

6. Dust your work area with white rice flour. Roll out the dough to 1" thick and cut out using a 3" cookie cutter or divide and shape into balls and flatten to 1" thick using your hands. (I would usually get about 9 balls of ~ 95g - 100g each)

7. Cover and leave to rise in a warm area for about 45 mins.

8. Heat up frying pan or griddle on the stove over medium-low flame and bake each side, covered, for ~ 12 mins. The muffins should be ready when the sides are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.

9. Remove from heat and let cool on a wire rack.

10. Enjoy the muffins while they are warm, split in half, always, with a fork, and eat with your favourite toppings.

11. Let cool completely before freezing the leftovers in a zipper bag.

my English muffin with a hole

split it in half, always, with a fork

eat it with Kalles caviar and soft-boiled egg

or eat it with scrambled egg

My baking adventure is to be continued with a blog that will feature my homemade sourdough starter.

A for Arts n Crafts #1

My very first arts n crafts project is an IKEA lamp.


After a while, it has become too bright and just too plain for my liking so I decided to give it a fresh new look and the result is - a warmer lighting that gives a cosy atmosphere to a corner part of my living room.

All I needed were just a couple of twine ropes and a hot glue gun, and voila, the transformation was completed in just a couple of hours. This is a no-brainer, my friends.


For those of you who are interested, I will write a few steps on how I did this project.


What you need to have:
~ a table lamp
~ two twine ropes
~ a hot glue gun

What you need to do:

1. Clean the outer and inner surfaces of your lamp to free them from dirt and dust.

2. Heat your glue gun.

3. Working from bottom-up, glue the end of one of your twine ropes and start by fixing it to one corner of the baseline of the table lamp and continue all the way until it makes a loop, making sure that it is fully secured with glue.

4. Once this step is done, continue to cover the surface of the lamp all the way to the top, fixing the glue at 10 cm intervals.

5. Along the way, make sure that there is no gap. With a little patience and in no time at all, your project will finish.

And now, for the overall picture...

Notice also my other handicrafts ~ the tulips I made from tissue and crepe papers, my flower arrangement on the pedestal, the picture frame is a jigsaw puzzle I put together and sent for framing and the stools' leg warmers I made from worn-out socks (like humans, they too need to keep them feet warm at nights) hehehe