I was (somewhat) productive!

I finished this cheongsam top a week ago!  In actual fact the bodice and shoulders were mostly stitched together already, but the project was left abandoned for a couple of weeks to focus on schoolwork. It’s always frustrating for me – I love to get things done all in one go, straightaway, so I often…

My First Time in a Hong Kong Pawnshop

Yesterday I went into a pawnshop. Not to actually swap anything off for money, but since I’ve seen so many around Hong Kong and never went inside my grandma, mom, and I went inside to take a look. The shop that we went to was on the corner of Yu Chau Street in Sham Shui…

i’ve got to stay alive for dinner

S o in short, the afternoon today wasn’t the greatest. It was parents evening, which firstly meant that our parents all came in to talk about our progress at school, and secondly there was stress all around because of the harried schedule – it’s impossible to fit a decent conversation within five minutes in real…

food for thought: my life in a soundtrack

If you know any one (or probably all) of these songs, then we’re on the same WaVeLeNGtH! y’know, sound waves and amplitude and longitude and all. I haven’t touched physics since Year 11. These are either still my favourites, or are extremely cringey. I used to be a pop fan until Year 9 or so…

How to Style a Piece that you avoid at ALL Costs

These are cut-off, straight leg pants from Gap (their 1969 Jeans line). Not wide enough to be funky, but not slim enough to look flattering on a petite girl like me. They were purchased as a half-hearted attempt to buy the perfect jeans – I knew they weren’t what I was looking for but I…

it’s ac-tulle-y an angsty princess dress

I’ve got a confession to make. I’m really careless when I sew clothes. I’m so obsessed with getting it done (so that I can wear it) that I don’t finish edges properly, or forget to check the alignment of details. These are all major crimes! Compare it to not adding salt and pepper to your eggs…

blue with a twist

A few weeks ago, the small second-hand store on Li Yuen Street West in Central was visited by three generations of ladies – grandma N, mama D, and I. What change came over them  – one of whom was very superstitious about second-hand clothing – to convince them to set foot, happily purchase, and have no qualms about…

food for thought: the finsta and why I will never get one

With the “finsta” becoming exponentially popular with teenagers now in an age of oversaturated social networks, ‘throwing shade’, and ‘roasting’, it only seemed appropriate to put my thoughts onto paper. Just to quickly go over some modern day slang: Finsta: a fake Instagram account, often set to private so only the user’s followers can view…

dressing up is better than emotional eating (?)

After eating a peculiar post-school snack of nattō (Japanese fermented soybeans), cake, and a slice of pomelo, I still felt rather forlorn – (un?)emotional eating did nothing to fill up the strange void in my chest. So I decided, what better way to cheer up than to try on a pair of my mother’s shoes? which of course led…

a miser and her perpendicular stripes

Grr. I’ve got a new addition to my list of pet peeves: traffic jams! They’re really the worst, particularly when you get off school early and you’re practically drooling just thinking about your lunch order. (Which for once will not be the over-greased canteen food of your culinary nightmares). Also if you’re really desperate to…

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

Did you like La La Land? Or were you trying to find something more heartstring-tugging? Go watch the Umbrellas of Cherbourg!  Directed by Jacques Demy and featuring an entirely sung script, it’s one of the best musicals I’ve encountered. It’s surprising how beautifully everything is put together and well-considered, and that it even looks like…

self-sew skirt

I sewed this skirt a month or two ago from some scrap red fabric lying around. It seemed like something was missing, so I stitched on two rows of blue lines down the sides. It makes it look a little more sporty and fluid, especially down the seams – I think I used the wrong…