Last Christmas...

I went back home early to Jakarta, and immediately wanted to rush back to dear super chill little house in Padalarang. There's also KBS World stuck to my TV so my butt stays still in the couch for pre-ordered shows. Whoo!

A little warning beforehand, it'll be image heavy, long post with outbursts and unnecessary tidbits. Didn't say I warned ya'll ;)

I have these holiday crafty plans to do in preparation for the trip to Japan, hopefully to do power dressing Japanese style and be like one! So here were were the inspiration and the results hence...

The pictures are seriously huge in resolution so as soon as you click it more details can be seen. So click away and enjoy!

•Full on embellishments, inspired by and courtesy of Miu Miu Fall 2009 lookbook. However actually Doo.Ri had first made embellished stockings•

 ++ the We Love Tights colorful stockings previously image posted ++

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And the beautiful results...!

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The processes are long-hard driven takes time but worth it for the fun and trials.

The DIY socks and hand covers were plain white polyester, a stocking kind of feel, and with basic tie-dye method of using rubber bands and all...

I had used blue, pink, and yellow for the dyes. Adding a spoonful of salt so the color would last longer to each mix, I first boiled the water with the color then dipped the socks area color desired.

Cooling it off with plain water, to check if the color would fade away and to re-dip into the color mix if so.

With the rubber band effect, here's one of the monochrome color product which is stunningly pretty!

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        The grey embellished (in Indonesian, payet) tights are originally boring grey makes me look fat tights from Topshop (sale by the way since early summer) was painstakingly sewed by hand one by one... Scurrilous not to fret, my sewing skills and patience have dramatically increase (partly because it is the holiday and deadlines were not demanded (but definitely before 17th of Dec.) and it made me wonder again is Design or Communication the one I want...

(topshop sparklies)

         The two vests were out of a want to make my own extra clothing; I daily wear T-shirts and having a vest with patterns just add extra color. The vests were made out of Japanese fabrics which are absolutely appealing and totemo kawaii prints, one flowers mixed with hearts and the other has postage stamps pattern with a soft color, such prints are rare!

         My grandmother the used to be dressmaker teacher was my pattern drafter and maker. She taught me the basics, jotted down in a notebook, I did once on my own with some confusion and still do not know out of my head, however unnecessary because all I did was cut and sew parts together, the final side, since my grandma sews coarsely so I only let her do the inner parts until the vest looks tangible by shape. Pugnacious was the little drama, "Aaaah why did you sew so rough, ma! Let me do it unpick, unpick!" and I finished the sewing whilst watching KBS or Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail a number of times.

 

       My auntie's old pair of black jeans are also heaven-sent. She gave it to me the previous summer and I wore them for formal slacks but now, thanks to the trend of making yourself looking like a beggar, I sacrificed my cheese grater and cutter to rip it off!! Plus studs on the side and added zipper on each side, so it's easier to wear them as the holes always stops my toes from wearing.

And gave holes to my vest as well. Now it looks ultra hip - swell!

 

 •the completed look

wearing pink Ouval tee, People of Asia vest, DIY ripped studded jeans•

I wanted to do some decorations like this Zara handmade detailed bag which costs your whole wallet life just for a small sling bag. Yes it's handmade so that is why I want to make. The body isn't hard, the details of how to sew to hide the stitches is what I question.

A few days before saying bye-bye to Indonesia to go to Tokyo, I stayed in Jakarta to prepare and pack my luggage, making a list on outfit mix plans which I keep loosing the papers and changing the items of the mix for 3-4 papers. Tsk tsk tsk. And my mom's wardrobe is actually full of things that are now in trend; things that she has for over a decade (so fashion IS going backwards...)...

AAAAANNND I FOUND TREASURES.

Yes they're now MiNE officially, my treasures I 'window shopping' at to my mom's wardrobe. I found a white blazer with navy blue polka-dot patterns for the inner collar, and if my mom recalls it, it's from Japan. Plus, my auntie's old black pair of supertightonthetummy jeans and look what I've did above, no cost. And I saw what Jejung wore in this editorial, the feel is the same!

Datte sa, if you want to see my journey in Kyushu of day one wearing the blazer, move onto this post!

I also grabbed a black suit blazer which is very useful for presentations, and old metal belts which I forgot to bring it back here. My mom also sneak peeked a Chanel-something she has but my dad hated it so she never wore it from the first time she wore, which was probably almost two decades!

 Awesomenesssssssssssss I can't wait I hope my body copes if I would decide I'll go to Bali and I'll finally meet my dear dear items I will love!

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More speciarrr online shopping for graphic tees which I finally have gotten aroundwas buying these limited, non-conformist with high quality controls and all...

Did I tell you I'm a package junkie as well, packaging is everything for me, so the saying goes of "the cover of the book" is a tad important, it's the emphasis, golden ratio for me. If the outside doesn't excites me, how can we know the inside would be a journey to embark on? The feeling of wanting to rip off the plastic and carefully using paper knife so the package won't tear to see the inside... nothing beats that!

 

It's none other than The Balletcats!

             Now the question is, what to do with these tees. My hands are itchy but I don't want to cut them out... especially the soft cotton and the teeny extrude level of the print (handmade, how neat can that be) and the blue and red color is just nice (or, alright, let's put last week's lesson into practice! Nice is just too general. It should be more like exceptional, jaw-dropping...) But yes, these kinds of things that excites you from the start should be the things that are penchant, always looking forward to get it out from your closet after a hiatus cycle and love it even more.