The making of The BFF Bag

A video!

/squeal

It's been a long time since I've made a video about making things-- the last one being my entry for Modcloth's DIY Boss contest... 2 years ago. LOL. #fail

Now I have another video to share with you, and it's about making a L.A.R.K bag, specifically The BFF Bag. It's a real snappy video, so no it's not something for you to bookmark and watch on the long commute home. Unless by long commute you mean 50 seconds tops ;-)

Please take a look :-B

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Relaxation Day Tutorial: DIY Geometric Display

Hello! How has everyone been? (Why am I writing this like an email? What is wrong with me?)

Feels like it's been ages since I blogged (although it was just last month)-- I've been setting up a new online store for L.A.R.K and it's finally up and running with new products, hurrah! 

Here are some of my favorite pieces which goes with the colors of today's tutorial:

Young Ambition in Orange Brown

Summer Kaleidoscope Silk Twill Scarf

Totorigami in Orange Brown

They also come in other colors, so please do pop by and have a look! :) There is a also a live chat widget on the site if you have any questions on the products.

Setting up the online store was very challenging. I guess I could've hired a programmer to do it, but I wanted to learn how to do it on my own to see if it was really that difficult. Armed with minimal HTML knowledge and lots of great tutorials online, I spent many nights setting up this PHP store and trying to troubleshoot the errors, while juggling my freelance work and consulting work. At times I really felt like pulling my hair out like a crazy ape, but I'm glad it turned out ok in the end.

So today, apparently it is Relaxation Day (August 15th). I decided to make something to relax from all the work, and ended up painting an old shelf plank into a colorful geometric art display. 

 You can use it as a backdrop for photographing small objects such as food shots, craft projects, etc or hang it up on the wall as a piece of art (make sure you practice your smug face when your guests exclaim "Oh that's rather nice and funky, who painted that" and then that's when you pull out your smug face and go "I DID." Hahahaha :P

Super easy project. Let's go!

Grab some:

Acrylic paint

Masking tape/Painter's tape in 2 sizes

Paintbrush

Scissors

(or you could use your teeth to tear the tape, whatever works for you wild child)

and of course,

Something to paint on

(I used an old shelf plank)

Paint the base color. I did 2 coats of the white to cover the "blemishes" if you will. 

Oh and I didn't have a large enough brush for this, so I just wrapped some sponge batting onto a toothbrush (not the one I brush my teeth with, don't worry).

When the paint has dried (I cheated by using a hairdryer heheh), tape your design on the plank. Straight lines, long lines, short lines, zig zag lines-- YOU'RE THE BOSS and the tape has to obey you. 

/cue evil bossy laugh

Paint over!

Watch paint dry.

Or, cheat again with the hairdryer ho ho...

Peel the tape! Be gone, tape!

Bye tape.

Hello geometric pal!

Vintage buttons gifted by my mom's friend :)

That's it, easy right? Anyway, it was a nice way to spend Relaxation Day. 

What do you do to relax from work?

If you like this tutorial, please consider sharing it!

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DIY Tutorial: Reupholster a chair

Happy new year, folks! So we made it to 2013, didn't we.... phew :P

The past 2 months have been a whirlwind. L.A.R.K was awarded the 2nd place by the panel of creative judges in Levi's You're Gonna Be Great (which comes with a much appreciated cash prize from Levi's too-- more on that in another post), I made a wedding gown for a dear friend (can't wait to post the pictures!), a collaboration with Notanotherbill appeared on British Vogue (whatttt... gosh!), and I saw some amazing sunsets with the husband at Kota Kinabalu when we travelled there for a wedding. WOW.

Anyway, here's something I did a while back. First of all, I have to say, when I held a power drill for the first time and "fired" it, I was taken aback for a bit. And then I just wanted to run all over town and drill stuff. Chairs, doors, cars, airplanes, burgers... Thankfully for my own sanity I have only gone as far as furniture.

You will need:

Chair to reupholster

Power drill *

Staple gun

Upholstery weight fabric

* You can also use a power screwdriver, or a regular screwdriver for this project :)

Find a chair that you would like to reupholster. Your chair may not look like this, but really all you have to inspect is where the screws that hold the fabric parts (back rest and seat pillows) to the frame of the chair are. 

For this chair, the seat pillow was attached to the wooden frame with 4 screws (marked with x's above). Remove those screws.

Pop out the seat pillow. Don't sit on the chair! ;-)

Staple your new fabric around the seat pillow, making sure the staple bullets latch onto the wood/chipboard plank to secure the hold well.

Fold the corners so they look crisp. Think of it as wrapping a present with wrapping paper :D

Repeat the steps for the back rest. The screws on this chair that held the back rest pillow to the wooden frame were located on the sides (marked with the X's above).

For the back rest pillow, take note to overlap the edges of your fabric on the underside of the pillow so that the staple bullets are not visible from the top of the chair. Also take note that the side staples are placed away from where the screw holes are, or there might be difficulty in screwing it in.

Pop back the pillow pieces into the frame, and screw back the screws in. If you're using a power drill or an electric screwdriver, hand-screw the screws into the holes halfway or so to help guide them in smoothly.

And... TADA!

Enjoy your new-ish chair! :)

Have you reupholstered your own furniture before?

And, are my feelings for the power drill unhealthy? LOL :P

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Tutorial: DIY Gift Bag from an envelope

Gifting is such a joy! Wrappers, ribbons, washi tape, doilies, and... gift bags! 

They come in all sorts of pretty choices at the stores, but it's just as easy to make one at home yourself :) What's more, you can personalise your gift bags and make them one of a kind, and something that can't be bought.

Here's how you can make a simple gift bag with a large envelope and some twine string.

You'll need:

A large envelope

(mine is 9" x 12 6/8")

Twine string

UHU

(or any other multipurpose adhesive)

Scissors

Cut away the top of the envelope (as wide as where the envelope flap folds down to), and also slice away the bottom so the envelope's fold is opened up underneath.

Don't throw away the top section that you've cut as we'll need that section later. Every bit of material counts! :)

Fold in 1 inch on both left and right sides. Score with your fingers.

Fold the bottom up 3 inches and score.

Open up all the folds you've made. Fold the bottom so it opens up and folds into a triangle (see pic above).

Repeat with the other side :)

Fold in the left and right sides (they will be your guides for the next step).

Fold the bottom flap up as high as possible without crossing the left and right fold points (see pic above).

Fold the other flap down, and you have your bag's base! :) 

Glue down both bottom flaps and cut off any excess.

Fold in the sides of the bag like so, just like a paper bag.

Now for the handles!

Remember the top of the envelope that you've cut away earlier? Trim them into 2 flaps that are smaller than the width of your bag's top opening. 

Glue twine strings onto the flap to create the handles. Hold down the twine to apply pressure for the glue to bond and dry.

Smother the underside with glue! Lots of it! 

Stick the handle flap onto the inside of the gift bag, press flap down so every bit of glue gets to workin'.

Repeat with the other side, and...

You're done! But let's not stop there-- let's make the gift bag pretty with some doilies :)

So many ways to put a doily on a gift bag :O

Besides doilies, you can use ribbons, washi tape, or even inked stamps to decorate your gift bag.

Pictured here with the Holiday wristlet from my latest collection on L.A.R.K

You can make all sorts of gift bags in different sizes by simply changing a few things:

• Size of the envelope: A smaller size produces a smaller, cuter bag
• Width of the left and right folds: The wider the folds are, the wider your bag's opening 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! :)

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TimeOut KL Photoshoot

Hurrah, July is here! And with July comes this issue of TimeOut KL, in which I had the fun opportunity to be in a photoshoot, thanks to the adorable Emma. Emma asked me to picked out my own clothes for the shoot, and (naturally) it was one of those times when a woman looks into her (full) wardrobe and thinks "OMG I have nothing to wear!"

Women!  /rolls eyes at self

It was really fun to have my own handmade clothes (except the white top which I didn't make) in the magazine shoot. It was my first time being photographed in a studio (with the exception of my graduation photos, but please let's not go there), and all I can say about smizing is that it looks easier on TV than in real life, heheh.

Another thing that excited me was the strobe lighting in the studio. After returning from the photo shoot I bombarded Lobak with questions about the lighting equipment, and he gave me the lowdown on strobe lighting vs continuous lighting. Very interesting...

Here are some photos from the shoot.

Photos by Azhar of Fotomomo

Anyway, this month's issue of TimeOut also comes with the debut issue of TimeOut Style, which I absolutely adore! It's packed with crisp pictures that are balanced out rather proportionally with text. And the text is of substance without trying to be pretentious, so yay! Definitely will look out for the future issues.

This month is going to be crazy, as I juggle my music and sewing jobs. I've also been keeping busy testing out new designs for L.A.R.K and sourcing for better materials. It's going to be exciting! :D

Btw, I recently watched Mirror Mirror and was blown away by the costume design, so I started a Tumblr dedicated to the late great Eiko Ishioka. Hope you'll enjoy her work as much as I do, she is a true artist indeed.

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