How to be a Fine Tailor - Through The Kitchen Experience...

I actually Google search on the topic 'how to be a fashion designer'. The answer that popped out was not pleasant to my eyes. Get a four years degree in fashion designing. NOOOOOO~! I don't want to go to school and take exams~! I only enjoy taking exams where I know my marks will be high, other than that... NOOOO~!!! How to be a fine tailor then? 

Desire... 

The desire to create something from scratch. It's just like cooking and baking - especially baking. From a few hundred grams of flour, a few eggs and a few drops of this and that, mix them together and viola~! When the oven 'ting', your heart skips two beats and then you will smile at the perfect wobbly cake. I don't look forward to the 'ting' of an oven now... I really like the whirring of the sewing machine.

The level of desperateness... 

I'm talking about myself. When I'm not desperate enough, I won't budge to do anything. When you're so desperate to do something, you will start squeezing your brain and ideas will come especially at night. Don't listen to what others tell you. Just like when you want to bake something, and you hear people telling you 'for goodness sake... go and buy, why mess up the whole kitchen when you can simply just buy...' It's not the same... the taste, texture and the satisfaction. So, when you look at a piece of cloth, thinking how simple that piece of cloth is, when you sew two pieces together, fix the collar and the sleeves - because you're so desperate to see how it will turn out to be... and you'll be amazed at how wonderful your hands are.

Get help... 

For one solid year, I looked through the pattern books and I thought I could understand the drawings. I'm very used to lengthy instructions. You need to read instructions and understand them really well when you're baking. You can cheat when you're stir-frying but you can't skip a line or two when you're baking. Mi madre has many old books on sewing and embroidery yet mi madre doesn't sew. Mi madre also has lots of cookbooks but never cook anything from the books. Just mi madre's collection which I put to good use. Hubby always says it's easy to sew. Then I got really angry with him. If he says it's easy, how come he never sew anything for me. And lo' and behold he made me a huge pencil case and sew our bedsheet plus pillow cases. Hubby taught me how to cook as well. Then, I just went ahead and overtook mi madre and hubby. Well, sometimes you just need help to get started.

One day, hubby went to Balik Pulau which was work-related and he de-toured and stumbled upon this simple tailor shop at Balik Pulau market. The lady agreed to teach me privately. Hubby accompanied me for the first few months. I learned but went home and did not do anything about it. I'm not one who will practice diligently. Almost every week, I was just moving back to the beginning and it was really frustrating. I think my teacher was more frustrated. The other day when I brought in my handiwork, she was beaming with pride.

Do it for others, not yourself...

I started cooking because of my precious. I wanted her to have good food instead of having outside food everyday. Then, I was inspired by the movie 'Julie and Julia' and I started cooking for my friends every Friday. When you plan to serve others, you will put in more effort. Eight years later, I started baking. I was not baking for myself. I fed a whole lot of piranhas in my house. I'll be teaching, my students have papers and plates on the table, one of their hands holding onto pen while another hand will be holding a spoon or a fork. A few of my students went on to become chefs. I'm just cooking at home and they are working in the kitchen of various restaurants. 

I love dresses. I wanted to sew for myself but I was such a cheater. I cheat in every corner. I don't even care if my sewing was crooked or how horrible the whole thing turned out to be. As long as it's wearable, no one will know. But when you're sewing for someone else, it's different. Mummy came into the picture all of a sudden. I thought I'll just make one simple blouse for mummy for Chinese New Year but I almost fainted. It was not easy at all and it would be embarrassing when mummy see all the crooked stitches. I always remind mummy not to flip over. But now I can gladly tell mummy to flip over and admire the hidden seams. There's nothing to see there... all hidden. I do still make mistakes in almost every piece. Mummy has been very supportive and never say anything that will hurt my pride and cause me to abandon sewing completely. Mi madre says I sew worse than those cheap China clothes. I don't know why a perfectionist like I am cannot reach the level of perfection in sewing right till now. 

Study, study and study...

I have a private tutor and mi madre is teaching me as well, YouTube videos taught me more and Google gives me teachers from all over the globe. Books and more books. One cannot learn them all. There's always something else that you have not seen and heard of. I probably have 5% of knowledge right until now. To be a fine tailor will take a long time. To turn this into a business, I think I will have to put in 200% of effort. Mummy will be showered with new clothes while I'm experimenting on different designs and polishing my skills. Just like cooking and baking, you can never imagine how many recipe books I have yet I still Google to get more information at times.

Buy, buy, buy...

It is never a mistake staying here, so near to Kamdar. I never set foot to Kamdar because I thought the name Kamdar was kinda silly. And I don't see why I need to buy cloth. It's different now. Nagoya was such a huge disappointment I thank God I'm not staying at mainland, I will drive over to Kamdar every week if I'm staying there. I have everything I need near me. God knows best. One can never understand the need to buy this cloth and that cloth. The cloths are fast selling in Kamdar, if you don't get it know, you'll never see it anymore. We saw it with our own eyes the other day. It was less than 30 minutes, the whole roll of cloth was gone and the one wrapping the mannequin was removed as well. Hats off to the person or team making purchases for Kamdar. When I started cooking, hubby bought lots of kitchen stuff and then when I went into baking, hubby bought for me baking utensils. I have lots of toys in my kitchen. Now that I'm into sewing, hubby bought for me more toys. I think it's scary whenever I have a new hobby. Not to mention the fishing equipment sleeping in the storeroom. 

Just do it~!

Yeah... just do it. Again, I am grateful to have mummy as my model. And I'm thankful that I have been drawing quadratic graphs for so many years that I can draw a proper curve without using rulers. Do not despise what you learn in school. You will never know when you will put what you have learnt into good use. I'm using Maths formula to get my calculations right. Circumference of a cicle = 2πr ... and I'm using protractor to get the angle I wanted. 

Why My Mummy's Blouse Cost £999 999 999.99

Who made me upgrade my sewing skill to another level? That person is mi madre. Mi madre likes classical fashion that will never go off season. That will be a front-button blouse with collar~! Dang~! I have no idea how to do that. I have not even learn up to that level because almost every week I went for my lesson, forgetting what I just learnt the previous week. 

I have no choice but to just do it. So, mummy has to be my model. 

I put that price on because it's all my hardwork and my eyes were spinning in circles because of the cloth. I was literally in tears because the eyes hurt so much. I thought I could finish in one day but the hard labour stretched to 5 days long.

Day 1:

Trying to figure out how to draw the design. After it was cut out from the brown paper, 6 hours have flew by. Yeah... 6 hours. I think I was a real slow poke. Then, I spent a couple more hours just cutting the cloth, I was scared of making mistakes. Cloth cutting means there was no point of return. Then, made a few fusible for the collar, collar band and both sides of the button bands. The eyes refused to cooperate already.

Day 2: 

Fixing the yoke to the back portion with pleats and then fixing the yoke to the front. This was where I just saw my mistakes but the blouse was already done now with me improvising. I'm a novice who is always improvising like I'm a professional. I changed almost all paper patterns because mummy wants it this way and that. My teacher always tell me I can do as I wish because I'm the one holding the scissors. So, day 2 was just sewing two pieces here and there together

Day 3: 

I have many hours of free time and I could not even finish anything. It was my first time sewing until all seams were hidden. So, mummy can turn the blouse inside out and not be horrified with my handiwork. I was actually really proud of my sewing skill by now. Most of the straight lines were sewn straight. It's not easy to sew straight. Try drawing a straight line without using a ruler. 

Day 4:

The collar band was finally connected to the collar. This one mi madre helped out. Mi madre has no idea how to sew but mi madre has more common sense. I have no cow sense when it comes to sewing. I could even sew until everything turned out wrong.

Day 5: 

The button holes~! It looked so easy on YouTube until I realized that it wouldn't work. Then, I wise up and searched for my sewing machine model on YouTube to see how the button holes were being sewn. It was a completely different method. I spent so many hours doing the wrong way. This was my first time sewing buttons~! Yeah... yeah.... you will say it's easy but I did it wrong also. I had to remove a few times I thought the buttons would die in my hands. The cloth suffered bruises in many areas.

At last... it was done~! Mummy looks awesome in the blouse. It was cheap cloth but my teacher says that even with cheap cloth we could create something really beautiful and make it expensive. Oh, £999 999 999.99 is too expensive? Nah... it's not for sale. I will not simply make clothes for anyone. It has to remain exclusive.

Mummy's Double Front Blouse...

This was done real quick. No interfacing or whatsoever. Just cut out two pieces from two different cloth and make two front pieces, no back piece. 

Mummy suppose to flip to the other side halfway through dinner but not that crazy enough to change. If I'm wearing that, I would have changed up then it's like you get to wear two different blouse at one go. 

My mummy is still more chio than yours ☝

Why My Mummy is More 'Chio' than Yours~!

This is my mummy's Mother's Day OOTD. Don't you think my mummy is chio? While others choose to wear monotone such as the usual black, white and blue, my mummy is wearing a different tone of blue with roses. Fresh roses will not last long, printed roses last longer. If it fades after washing, then throw~! I'll make a new one. 

So what's my mummy wearing? She's wearing a design that just pops out from my head one Tuesday morning. I started drawing on the brown paper, cut them out and then cut the cloth and got confused along the way. I do not have enough cloth for the sleeves. Don't even have enough Italian ice wash cloth for other parts of the body hence the use of the leftover lace from the second piece.

There's not enough lace for two sleeves. In the end I cut one sleeve from each piece and was left with almost nothing. Mummy loves it and my mummy is chio with the back lace and I did the patchwork on the back so as not to waste the leftover. There's no more of such cloth in Kamdar. I happened to step on it while looking for other cloth and persuaded the staff to sell me the half meter cloth. They have no use keeping the half meter in their inventory. It's better to sell to a desperate buyer.

PS. I've finally mastered the art of drawing and fixing sleeves~!

My Simple Dress...

It took me only a few hours to have my dress done. All the mistakes were done earlier and I managed a zero-mistake dress for myself. I just hope that I don't forget when to add and when to reduce the measurement. 

Starting on another project soon...

The Story Behind The Four Blouses...

This is the most beautiful piece I've ever done and it looks perfect and it is perfect~! It came with a heavy price money can't buy. Before I started making this, I destroyed a piece of gold Shanghai brocade and killed my own maroon velvet. My drawing on the brown paper was imperfect and my calculation went awry. It has all to do with Maths and accuracy.

This was perfected with the help of mi madre. Many parts of the stitches were removed and re-sewn. It was tedious but worth all the hard work. I felt that I've achieved something and I learned better through mistakes. It was a rushed piece. Something in me just wouldn't change, I just can't bring myself to start anything early. We had a wedding dinner to attend and I have all the time in the world but I just had to start a project at the eleventh hour. The cloth was a perfect Italian print. 

I became really bold after making that red piece. I started on another project immediately. The orange chiffon was harder to handle compared to making a chiffon cake. I needed roughly an hour just to straighten the cloth. It was so soft but once the tedious part of consoling the cloth to stay quiet was over and combining the front and back pieces together completed, it was really nice to wear. I roughly figured out how much centimetres to add so that a hidden zipper would not be needed. I have mastered the sewing of hidden zippers but I just preferred blouses without any zippers. 

Before these two pieces, I made this satin red with white lace. Mummy likes lace. I have totally no idea how to make this but well... it's not a perfect piece coz I don't even like it. I just like the red but the lace was too compact that it stifled the red underneath. 

The first piece for mummy was for Chinese New Year. It was Korean satin and it was kinda scary making for someone else to wear. I have not even perfected my sewing skills. Well, I have to start somewhere right. My mummy is now my guinea pig model...

The Modern Baju Kurung...

I made one for my precious. I wanted to make another one for the cousin but it was too tedious and I gave up halfway through. I will leave the cloth alone and not disturb it anymore. I want to move on to other projects and yes, I'm impatient. I never have patience for anything in the first place. I'm just desperate to get things done and see whether I can do it or not.

Excuse the background. The room will always be messy because I stand firm on my belief that a house with productive humans will never be squeaky clean. You can only afford to clean the house perfectly if you have too much time in hand, with nothing better to do so you sweep, mop and wipe and do it continuously. I don't wake up to make my bed so I do not require my girls to do so, too. It has nothing to do with bad parenting. Sleep is essential, making the bed is not because I used to study on my bed all day long so my precious did the same thing. So, I don't see the point of making the bed when it would be covered with books, papers and eraser shit~!

The Creator...

I learned quite a lot from the seamstress who is teaching me. She's one very patient Malay lady up in Balik Pulau. Yeah, I drive that far for my sewing class. I will not trade her for anyone else. I teach so I know what type of teacher I want for myself. 

I have fear of cutting the cloth. Yes, that's a very serious problem when you really need to cut that piece of cloth~! One mak cik who came over for chit chat told me that if I am so afraid to cut the cloth, how am I going to sew? 

Then, my sifu told me that we're the one creating the clothes, so we should know better. If it went out of shape, we could easily re-shape it. At that point of time, my mind switched into a different channel. Being a dreamer, you are able to do that. You spaced out a little while but you will still be doing your things effortlessly. 

I was thinking of our Creator, Abba Father up in heaven. There are times that we're so quick to look for a doctor with minor symptom or to pop some pills just to assure ourselves that we have the medicine in the system so it should be all right soon but we never even check with our Creator. Doctors actually know next to nothing. When you're in pain, the doctor asked you so many questions that you feel like you're talking to an idiot. They are not idiots, they just need the information to get to the root cause. Even your best friends will not know what is wrong with your body, what not doctors who can't even pronounce your name correctly. Doctors need to dig for your medical histories to understand your body and your current situation. But our Creator need not ask a single question. He created us, so He should know better. Of course, when one is not sick, it is easy to say no need to look for a doctor and just to sleep it off. Prayer is still the best medicine. 

I made this blouse because I thought it was simple. It looked simple but it was not. It was deceivingly simple. I realized that I like satin a lot. There are many types of satin and price matters. If you're not willing to pay more then you will get such low quality satin that before you even cut the cloth, the cloth will decide to rip itself apart. 

I did make mistakes on the drawing and I actually cut it out. I revised the pattern and I felt like a professional. I couldn't get it right the first time yet I have the courage to change the whole thing. In conclusion, I do not like this blouse at all. I do not like such neckline. Why on earth did I choose this? 

www.cottonhousestore.com

I'm a perfectionist. Everything must be in perfect order. I wanted to try out all sorts of crochet patterns but the price of yarn, especially those made of wool and cashmere were such a put off. A skein of 40g costs at least RM42 and if I need to make a scarf, I will need to have 5 - 6 skeins of yarn of the same kind. That would be so expensive, I might as well buy the woolen scarf from retail shops.

When I am desperate, I will do anything to make sure I get what I want. I started clicking on the Internet to see what is in store. I found a yarn factory online and the price was really reasonable. It wouldn't hurt the pocket or the heart. I feasted my eyes upon all those yarns through the computer screen. To my dismay, they will only ship to Canada and the United States. Find~! I dropped a message to my friend in the States, I have some smart plan brewing in the head. I can just click click click and buy using the friend's address then the friend can ship the yarns to me. Then, it doesn't make sense. The yarns will be cheap even after conversion but the shipping cost will kill off the happiness.

Then I Google-d some more, changing the words and phrases I used in the search. Then Cotton House Store popped out in the search results and I started clicking and I saw the address. I just need to cross the bridge and drive for another 15 minutes before I arrive. I studied the map and brought my navigator along. You see, a desperate person will be willing to travel no matter how far it is.

We arrived half an hour later, it was a short yet long trip, and the moment we stepped into the store, oh, my.... it's a yarn paradise and the price is so reasonable I started buying. I'm not rich but I can afford to splurge on what I like and what I want. It's an irony really. I can tell you the price of the blouse at RM69.90 is too expensive and I don't have the cash to buy it but I can afford to spend RM200 on yarns. This is me. I have no time to have tea at the cafe with you but I have the time to drive across the sea to the mainland to have my fingers touching all those yarns from cotton, to merino wool, to thickish acrylic, baby soft acrylic, microfibres, pom poms and ivy wool. 

My student's mother wanted to go too and so we went again and I buy again. Then, it wasn't enough, I started to buy online and the yarns I ordered arrived in two days' time. Talk about being efficient. Cotton House Store is efficient and PosLaju is also efficient.

Now your pockets do not have to be slaughtered by those expensive yarns anymore, just click on this link www.cottonhousestore.com and you may start looking through your crochet or knitting projects or any projects which require the use of cotton cloth, and start putting those yarns into your virtual carts. 

No, I didn't get anything from advertising for Cotton House Store but I believe that if more people support this store, then the store will survive, flourish and expand. I need this store to be alive for my own good. 

Why Crochet?

Yeah... why crochet? It's a total waste of time and a form of self-torture. When we were in Australia, the hubby said the precious has bought crochet needle and yarn to make something to sell online. Oooooo.... that's very productive of her. I taught her how to cross-stitch but she doesn't like it much until today, I still prefer cross-stitch as it is very easy, something that you do not need to use your brain power to even think, so it's really relaxing.

The hubby said the precious will teach me when I return from holiday. To my horror, the crochet project was totally abandoned and she asked me to teach her instead. I cannot see something sitting there unattended so I decided to take up what she has abandoned.

The hubby bought me a book. The book was really good but just for the beginning two stitches of chain stitch and single crochet after that there is no mention of clear instructions anymore. I'm a reader so I want everything to have words and more words to explain in detail.

Finally, we went to Sin Seng Lee in Penang Road. Bought a few ball of yarns and asked whether she can teach us how to crochet. The lady said she can only teach if we already know the basics. Hello~!! If I know the basics and everything, why will I need you to teach me? But she makes sense actually. It's like someone asking you how to write an essay without learning ABC yet and I will definitely tell that person go learn up your ABC and swallow more vocabs before I can teach you how to write a proper essay. She makes real good sense. It's also the same as asking the students to learn up their basic maths before going into additional maths. I love you auntie~!

So, I came back and am adamant to learn how to crochet a simple headband. My teacher is YouTube. I'm being very honest with this here. I watched the 15 minutes video for more than 10 times. I couldn't even get to the second row correctly. It's just a start of chain stitches and went on with slip stitch and half double crochet. I couldn't get the half double crochet right at all and when I thought I got them right, I couldn't figure out how to get to the next row and how do you go to the bottom of each chain. I almost tear my hair out and on the third day, I told myself, if I could not get it right for the last time, I will totally abandon the project. I watched the same video again and it clicked in my mind that I have missed out one crucial step and from then on everything went smoothly.

Why you need to practice the same stitches over and over again is so that you know the perfect tension to each stitch. It can neither be too slack or too tight. I taught my precious how to make the same thing and I could totally understand her frustrations when she said she could not see where the stitches were. Again, I could totally understand the auntie in Sin Seng Lee who said that you'll need to learn up the basics only then she can teach you further. I was really frustrated with my precious for not grasping the skill fast enough. She gave me two options: If she learns up crochet now, she will delay taking her practical exam in piano. If she proceeds with the practical examination, she will abandon the crochet again. This is a form of quiet blackmailing. I chose that she abandon the crochet because I have no patience in teaching her the basics.

It felt really wonderful to see a ball of yarn turned into something wearable. It's really hot putting on the headband so I wore it once only for less than 2 hours and it's going to sit in the wardrobe till kingdom comes.

The 5/4 Dress...

I wanted to make a simple dress to attend the birthday luncheon. I still could not understand the measurements given on the pattern book. If I follow the measurements given, I could not even go into the dress. Then, I follow my own measurements and somehow or other it could fit one and a quarter of me. I wanted to try the same pattern but I'm not one who likes to repeat on the same thing over and over again.

I did wear the dress to the luncheon. I don't care whether it looks hideous or not, once you do something for yourself, you must have the courage to wear that out. If you flip through the newspapers, the fashion page does not show you any decent clothing on the models. The designers designed something that you will not dare to walk out even to the nearest wet market or night market. I would rather wear my cow pyjamas bought in China than wear the curtain drape. 

Lessons From The Simple Blouse...

It's just another Sunday. The day I don't work. I'm not even cooking. I leave the kitchen to my precious. Our lunch will only be ready at dinner time. That's how long she took to cook two or three dishes. Well, at least she's cooking.

I, on the other hand, was adamant to make it happen. The book wrote there an easy-to-make blouse. After studying three books, I finally learned how to draft out a basic pattern that's according to my body size. I used the pinking shears to cut the fabric so that it would not fray. I will not want my hardwork to disappear in frays and frays of cloth.

You know whenever you checked out those popular people on Instagram, they have their OOTD *Outfit Of The Day* and it makes your head spin at how come they can afford all the branded stuff. How much is your worth? Clothes alone RM1000++... I do have two wardrobes bursting away but nowadays, I don't find anything I fancy. The price just do not match what's on the hangers and shelves. Thus, I decided to sew my own. I don't care that I'm such a slowpoke that I needed 10 hours to sew a simple blouse but I feel satisfied with what my hands can make. I have not learn the sewing jargon and symbols, but I'm just going to march on straight ahead. After I was done with my first prototype, I learnt a lot and when I got the expensive fabric, I made sure I have all the lines on the fabric as not to make any mistakes.

This is just a simple blouse. Do not know it's only simple when you have at least 10 years of clothes-making experience? Simple, my foot! It's like when you go hiking and kept asking those on the way down,"Excuse me, how long more before I reach the peak?" Those seasoned hikers would tell you,"10 more minutes, just around the corner." After 10 minutes and you haven't see the peak, you asked again at anyone crossing your path,"Excuse me, how long more before I reach the peak?" Fancy getting the same answer or even worse,"Just another 20 minutes or so." After all the questions and you realized that you needed at least 30 minutes or more before you can catch a glimpse of the peak. But when you are walking downhill and you were asked by others, you would give the same answer... just 10 minutes because going uphill and downhill were two different things. 

While I was sewing this simple blouse, it's not about sewing that's difficult. It's about the drafting, cutting, folding, tagging and making sure all corners match and you can get your head and arms out through those holes. Sewing is the simplest thing to do. After sewing this piece of blouse, if anyone shows me this blouse again, I will also say it's simple. Have you seen the behind the scene of anything that came out perfect? It was an uphill struggle. In conclusion, I feel that it's really worth my 10 hours.

My OOTD may not be any branded names known internationally or locally but I know where the material came from and what type of material it is. The shiny white with vibrant pink is Ptd Nakashin Japanese Cotton Poplin while the shocking pink is from the roll of plain Cinderella Italian Cotton Satin. 

The second blouse should be out by last week but the even simpler blouse was a thousand times more complicated than this easy blouse. I took the whole day to stare and brain-storm then finally waited for the hubby to decipher the pattern. I think I'm just going to try out on the cheap cloth as my prototype before getting expensive fabric.

The ? Case...

I stitched the bear carrying the word LOVE. My pineapple wanted me to sew her a pencil case. I told her by the time I sew her one, she would have graduated from university or maybe retire from her future job, whatever she wants to be in future. But last Sunday, I made up my mind to quickly stitch that bear, the hubby was suppose to follow the design from the book but my precious said it was too complicated and for them both to study the methods of getting it right, my pineapple will really graduate from high school. So, my precious designed something simpler while the hubby worked on the sewing part. I wasn't too happy that it wasn't as what I wanted it to be, so I'll have to do it myself for the next one... hehehe... love you both... but that thing didn't even look like a pencil case. 

The Mattress Sheet by the Hubby...

That mattress sheet kept coming up! I totally hate that and not even one mattress sheet stays down. The elastic bends must have reached its capacity of being pulled. Three weeks mi madre and I were away in Kangaroo Land, and the hubby and precious had created shofar bags and sling bags! Since both of them were so good in using the sewing machine, I gave them a project. Hehehehe.. I buy cloth for mattress sheet, sew me one that will stay down!

It was last Saturday that I decided we should walk to Kamdar if it was not raining. It actually rained but it stopped when I arrived home. We walked to Kamdar and when we reached home that night, it was pouring cats and dogs. My precious started on measuring and drafting. I don't know who taught her how and what but she just did. In my absence, she even took over my kitchen. I think if I leave the house for two months, she would have been a wonderful cook and maybe she would have sewn her own clothes.

They were a good team. That sewing machine is my birthday present but until today, I produce nothing out of it. I still think it's very difficult to draft the design. Oh, the hubby even made the pillow cases. The lady in Kamdar was really helpful. She calculated how much cloth we needed but the Nepalese worker was perfect! He knows what he's doing and he gave out all the measurements needed. 

I just don't know how my hubby did all this sewing. I'm way too impressed. I don't care whether the sewing is crooked or not, it's just perfect. The ready-made mattress sheet ain't cheap so frugal me decide it's best to make our own. Just sewing four corners, won't die. Easier said than done. I have no idea how and what, but he did it!~ My precious took down all the measurements and if I were to cut the fabric, it would end up not straight at all. 

See how perfect it is!~ I'm not bothered with the thread count. It's the most expensive cloth for bedsheet in Kamdar. I believe what's written there as 100% cotton. All in all, I spent RM105 for the cloth and the elastic bends were RM6, the thread, I don't know how much. It's definitely cheaper than buying ready-made mattress sheet and it's more comfortable than those 350 thread count sheets. 

Anyway Yen's wardrobe does not have clothes only. I bet your wardrobe has more than just clothes. My hubby has inspired me to sew. He inspired me to cook now he inspired me to sew. He inspired me into gardening as well. I love my hubby. Fullstop.

I Have Not Given Up...

I've probably not sewn anything since that skirt which I couldn't really breathe in. We have books which come with paper pattern. Earlier mi madre said she couldn't understand the messy paper patterns where you need to find the pattern that you wanted along with your size, trace it on a tracing paper and cut it out. I joined my banquet tables in the hall, tied up my hair and was adamant to get things done WITH the paper pattern. It was like walking in the gigantic airport, figuring out which gate you should enter from. I kept telling myself if I can read complicated maps and find my way around, I can do this too with only a few lines in different pieces of paper.

I have my complete stationery so I should not have any problem. I'm good in drawing. Finally, I got everything done on paper. I was adamant to cut out the cloth as well. That's the biggest hurdle that I didn't seem to be able to cross. I stared at the book page for hours and hours yet I couldn't figure out anything. I will come back to it soon. I just have too many things to do without much time in hand.

The Gored-Skirt...

What is a gored-skirt? The answer is I don't know. I just flipped through mi mama's pattern drafting book printed in the 1970's, stopped at where I think I will want my first skirt to look like. It looks really simple but in truth, it's harder than logarithms and this makes algebra as easy as ABC. I was brave enough to just cut the cloth then I pinned and tagged and sewed the joinings incorrectly. Right now I feel that my vocabulary is so poor and limited that I don't speak 'sewing' language. A few months back the word 'dart' was so foreign to me. Today it's not that foreign but still... *sigh* At least I know what's 'grain'.... not the multi-grain that you eat. Sewing jargon is not something to be learnt in one day just like how Rome is not built in one day. Oh, I sewed those darts and then I combined those two pieces incorrectly~! Mi mama has to unpick those damn machine stitches and finished up the whole skirt because I couldn't understand a single thing of what the printed pictures in the book were talking about. Talk about pictures with less than 5 words and you were left to decipher on your own. It's good enough that I know how those pieces come about. You will need to squeeze your brain in order to understand pictures with less than 5 words. I will think of what's next. Need to let the brain recuperate from such shock.

According to Google, gored skirt is a skirt with triangular pieces sewn together. I don't see any triangular pieces but I did cut out a piece which looked like trapezium. No triangles though. This looked like a skirt for office-wear. I have no need for such skirt because my office is my bedroom and I can wear my pyjamas while working. Nobody will see. 

Is the skirt expensive? Cloth-wise: NO~! It's only RM2.50 for a metre but labour cost.... HHhhmmmm.... If I'm a professional... I will put RM250 for this skirt... you need to pay for labour charges. Go buy your own skirt from the departmental store or just order from Taobao. You can get it cheaper. 

How does it feel like to wear something that you have sewn yourself? Priceless... I just hope the skirt doesn't fall apart. I plan to wear it to church this Sunday. That's the only place that I need to wear neatly. On other days I just wear casual. My brain is needed while working, not what I wear. It doesn't matter what I wear on weekdays, if I can't come out with a solution to a question asked, my attire will not be able to save me.

That's a prototype skirt but I will consider whether I will want to sew it using a better quality, more expensive cloth. I have yet to step into Boon Wah Textile Shop in town. Let me just be with my first love, Kamdar.... Kamdar just extended another lot after Courts Mammoth left Bukit Jambul Complex... love you Kamdar. Don't ever leave me, okay. You're just walking distance... Gulati's, when are you coming over here?