DIY: Bleached Denim Vest.

Okay SO. This...

... was bought like, 5-7 years ago @ FCUK, One Utama. And yeah, throughout all those years of owning this piece of outerwear, I can recall wearing it only twice. Or maybe three times; TOPS!

I don't know what it was. Back then, I liked it. Okay I'm gonna be honest and say it might've been also influenced (a teeny weeny bit) by my sister Lisa, also purchasing a denim jacket and back then I liked just about every one of her clothes.

But further along the way, I discovered that I actually disliked the wash of it. And the fit. HOGAY. A bit unflattering if I may say so.

If you're suggesting that that might be my OWN fault for not being of a desirable body mass... Then SHUT UP! Teehee. Pretty please.

I didn't want to throw / give it away, so its been months or even maybe a year back that I've been planning to rip it apart and dip it in bleach. I think it was during the phase where I was a tad bit obsessed with Agyness Deyn, her Rock & Roll-ish fashion, andddd her extensive collection of studded, items and Doc Martens. 

Yeah. Definitely.

So first thing's first:

(1) Remove the sleeves. 

Now, a lot of people would tell you to take the sleeves off by carefully cutting it along the seams. Like so;

But since I'd like my end result to look as messed up as possible, I just cut the whole thing off from the inside:

Along this line:

Yes it is ziggy-zaggy. But whats important here is that you just get the sleeves off. If you're gonna go prim and proper then... IDK. Get tips from Marc Jacobs.

*snip snip snip*

Do the same on both sides, and you'll be left with something that looks like this:

I can't help getting excited once I reached this point. Coz the sleeves are THE WORST part about the whole thing, and getting rid of it was nothing short of pure satisfaction!

*breathes sigh of relief*

NEXT, (2) Take off whatever it is that you don't like about your jacket!

In my case, I got rid of the button coz its fugly and wouldn't fit with the final concept that I had in mind AND because one of it has already fallen off anyways.

I also ripped off the pockets. I didn't initially want to do this, but I tried it on at this point... and I find the pockets to be a bit awkward looking. So... goodbye!

**TIP!** Always try on the jacket (or now that it hasn't got any sleeves; vest) after every possible changes, coz you might never know.

Goinggggg and....

 ... Gone.

If you think the mark that the pockets leave irks you, simple; Don't take 'em off. As for me; Like I said, I really don't care what happens to it. As long as it retains its shape as a denim vest... then nothing else really matters.

I even cut off the jacket's hems coz... yeah. I don't think I need to explain why anymore.

Moving ON, probably the most time and energy consuming step;

(3) Doing some serious damage to the jacket.

Especially along the arm holes and along the no longer existent hem.

I suggest that you use;

(a) Scissors. Just stab it around the sleeves and drag out the strays of denim so that said sleeves would look frayed / fringed like so:

But this picture was taken at the beginning of the process. I did A LOT more. Honestly, it took me about two days to finish. Coz I didn't do all of 'em for hours straight at a time, but only when I feel like it.

Continue with the hem:

My working space. :-P

**TIP!** A cheese grater does WONDERS.

Just drag the cheese grater onto the fabric and you shall have fringes.

I also dragged the cheese grater throughout other parts of the vest in order to achieve a distressed look. Don't be scared to poke a few holes in the vest as well! But don't go overboard! :-)

My favourite part of all this coz I've been wanting to do this FOREVARHHH:

(4) Bleaching.

Using a number of rubber bands or as Malaysians call 'em: Getah sayur, crumple your vest and tie it into a ball:

BUT if you're planning to thoroughly bleach the vest coz perhaps you just want it to be of a lighter wash, then you don't have to scrunch it into a ball.

Only do this if you want that tie-dye effect.

Then, prepare a bucket of water, preferred brand of bleach (Clorox is the only brand I know of) and, an old towel. So to prevent the bleach from dripping all over the place and perhaps ruin your flooring.

Pour the bleach into the water. Just saying; You don't need a bucketful of water, just one that's enough to immerse about half of your 'ball' of denim. Coz if you do, logic says that you'll need to put in even more bleach so that the ratio of water to bleach isn't too big.

I don't use exact ratios. Just dunk 'em. Follow your instincts!! 

Then, carefully place your ball into the bucket.

And let it sit there for 10-20 minutes, depending on how light you want it to be. The key is to constantly check its progress. Don't forget to flip the ball the other side as well.

I wanted the spots to be of a slightly different colour tone than one another, so I poured a few drops of 100% bleach onto selected areas on the ball so that its colour run off faster, thus leaving that spot to be of a lighter wash once you're done.

Once you're satisfied, take the ball out of the bucket.

Take off all the rubber bands, and rinse the vest with cold water.

Afterwards, (5) HANG TO DRY!

I was soooo excited upon seeing the results from the bleaching process, and honestly couldn't wait till it dried. At one point, I even tried it on when it was semi-dry. COULDN'T HELP IT!! ^^

And finally:

Your 'brand new' bleached denim vest.

:-)

P/S: I'm currently putting studs on the collars. Will edit this post with ze final outcome.

Before & After.

How to turn your old outdated denim jacket:

Into a spankin' awesome new bleached denim vest!

I'm gonna tell you how... 

in the next post!

InsyaAllah.

:-)

The Wreckoning.

Tranforming this old denim jacket into something I'd actually wear.

P/S: The Wreckoning is a song by the Boomkats.

Malaysia VS Pakistan.

I'm cheating a lil bit (JUST A LITTLE) coz I'm not even done with my London-Paris trip... but hehs. Cannot help it, coz the photos from that trip banyak sangat... and it takes a lot of time to pick the most interesting ones to publish AKA the photos where I don't look so much like a bloated hot air balloon. And then me needs to do some editing and yadda yadda.

I usually don't edit my pictures, but I do DO it when I'm not entirely satisfied with the composition of it all. I don't use Photoshop. For the reason that I don't even KNOW how to use it, andddd because I honestly believe that I would use that amount of editing power for evil. Of what kind? Editing out the extra fat on muh bodehhh. Nyahah.

I know. I'm officially one of the girls who are influenced by the idea of a perfect body image by the media. Sad, innit? :-( In which case, that reminds me that I hadn't been to gym AT ALL this week, despite having ate more than I did the week before. Hurrrr.

OKAY SO! Football match. Heck yeah, lets get to that.

What happened was, early yesterday morning, I found out through friends' statuses on Facebook saying that there was going to be a match between Malaysia and Pakistan at Stadium Shah Alam. And wehh dah dekat, so I thought; Rather than doing what I usually do at night (which is... lounging around AKA being lazy) why not I go lahh watch this match kan.

Moreover after Malaysia won the AFF Suzuki Cup (IDEK if this is right, but I can't be bothered to Google) and they won when playing against Hong Kong a few nights before.

So I asked my mother where our neighbour gets his tickets from coz he had been to the match(es) before... which resulted in her calling him, and... telling me that I should tag along with him, his son, and my brother.

And I was like... OKAY THIS IS GOING TO BE AWKWARD.

Okay, this neighbour is ours is definitely no stranger to our household. But to me: Well, yeah, kinda. Coz I don't spend a lot of my days at home ever since we moved to Shah Alam. The reason being I was in boarding school, and right after that I was in Pahang and followed by Egypt. 

Obviously enough, I missed out on a lot of neighbour-y activities like regular visits, and open house and all that shiznit. So yeah I concluded earlier on that the situation in which I watch football with someone I'm not entirely comfortable with would be all kinds of AWKWARD. More so when the both of us are going to be the only 'adults' coz my brother and his son is like, ten / eleven years old. Statistics (that I cannot prove no matter how hard you beg) shows that there is this sort of unsaid implication that I am suppose to say something to said neighbour.

If I am AT ALL a person who is interested in local football, then maybe-lah, I can whip up a conversation...

OKAY YOU GUYS WTF THE STORY IS LONG SO WHY ON EARTH AM I WASTING ALL MY ENERGY TYPING PARAGRAPHS AND PARAGRAPHS EXPLAINING THE AWKWARD SITUATION I WAS UNPREPARED TO GO THROUGH WITH MY NEIGHBOUR.

And just to get your attention back, I will provide you with a photo. Nahhh:

I even edited this okay. 

:-)

Thats Khairul Fahmi. I just found out about him that day itself. Coz I didn't want to be THAT incompetent. I also read his girlfriend's blog. Which honestly, and this is MY opinion and my opinion only, and so you may not agree; Is a pain to go through.

Its not that I don't like reading blogs that are written in Malay, I do. But the way she writes just irks me, y'know. My reaction towards her writing is similar to one I would have had if I encounter someone who uses the EW language on FB, Twitter, SMS, etc.

You know, macam: Kitew sukew gilew keuw teuw.

But yett again... BACK TO THE ORIGINAL TOPIC.

After taking a shower, I told my sister Nadia that I was gonna wear a red jersey and so we did. (I should perhaps tell you that at this point, she is personally hand-picked by my mother to tag along as well.)

Until she told me that Malaysia's jersey colour is either yellow or blue. I did what everyone does to get information: Google. And yes. Malaysia's jersey IS yellow / blue. So I Googled for the colour that the Pakistanis would be donning that night.

And I blame Google for the inaccuracy, coz in one of the squad pictures that come up from that search shows the 'Pakistani' team wearing red. So I was like, WTF I CAN JUST IMAGINE PEOPLE STARING AT US WHEN WE ENTER THE STADIUM COZ WE'RE OBVIOUSLY MALAYSIANS BUT WE ARE WEARING RED, INDICATING THAT WE ARE SUPPORTING THE OPPOSING TEAM. 

We honestly don't own a lot of yellow jerseys. Not a lot of blue either.

So we settled with black and white. -_____-" Neutral baby, neutral.

At the VERYYY last minute, 8.30 pm to be exact, I decided to ask my friends @ejaibrahim @luluhana @hahawawa whether they would be interested in joining our little excursion. Initially I just wanted to get away from having to carpool with Le Neighbour, but it was a good idea. They were all up for it, luckily enough. I think the 10 MYR tickets helps a lot. Nyahaha. 

Coz we're all cheap like that. Hoorah.

And sooo my sister gathered one of her friends as well, and by coming across my cousin @shashaheera's tweet about the match, I invited her to join as well.

So ahoy we go, and departed from my house at approximately 2040 hours. Went to pick up my sister's friend, three of mine, and lastly my cousin... causing us to all arrive at the stadium at 2130 hours. An hour and TWO GOALS (from Malaysia, of course) into the game.

We thought; "Ahh who cares, we just wanna make noise in there."

Unfortunately: The entrance gate was already CLOSED SHUT. Thankfully enough, we weren't the only people stranded outside. A lot of people were there with us.

It was disappointing lahhh. And I felt SOOO BADDD coz I was the one who initiated all this and I was the one who drove them all there, so I felt responsible. I knew everyone would've better view of the game from in front of the television set.

Alhamdulillah... just before we decided to just give up (coz security still aren't letting any of us in, despite continuous chants of protests from the males) and just head to a nearest mamak to watch the match, the kind-hearted security decided to let us all in.

Cehh. Kind-hearted kau. Before that when they didn't let us in kemain kutuk kata polis corrupted and penipu segala coz they told us tickets were sold out when COME ON. Obviously memang takkan nak penuh kot stadium if setakat early qualifying matches to the Olympics.

And sooo with THAT, WE GOT IN!! For freeeeee. 

Malaysians are sooo bloody cheap I tell you.

And the stadium was practically empty. -___________-" And now Imma show y'all some random photos I took using a Canon 50D but looks like it could've come from a cheap Kodak EasyShare or WTV. I ain't photographically talented yo!

Emptyyyyy.

There were a lot more people on the opposite side of the stadium though.

The unchanging scoreboard from when we entered till the match ended.

The small crowd of people in charge of all the chants and singing and gendang tepuk-ing that night.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I sang 'Negaraku'. 

-________-"

An injury.

So, along came a stretcher.

Then, along came another stretcher.

And all the whilst the two stretchers were being brought to the injured players, Khairul Fahmi stretched to his heart's content.

He's obviously bored to the max, coz the match looked like it was intentionally set to be played on only ONE side of the field. Malaysia's side was clear. Like. Almost all throughout the game. Which lead me to question this:

Is Malaysia THIS awesome, or the Pakistanis just suck?

Hmmm.

I should probably also explain the Khairul Fahmi picture spam:

(1) He's the only player I know.

(2) My cousin @shashaheera kinda lovesss him, so I took his pictures with the intention to tag her on Facebook or Twitter or something.

Well, hello there number four. You look worthy of a Google search.

*Googles*

Mohd Amirulhadi Zainal. NYAHAHAHA.

Oh he scored a point for Malaysia during the Malaysia VS Hong Kong match.

...........

Okay FML coz the blog I sourced this info from doesn't provide the player's jersey numbers.

So number 4 is not Mohd Amirulhadi Zainal. 

-____________-"

I don't even careeee anymoreeeee. WUA.

(Credits to Malaya Tiger Football)

And just like that... the match ends:

The people I was with that night.

(L-R) @shashaheera, @hahawawa, @luluhana, my sister Nadia (who BTW right before this morning shares the same hair as MOI), @ejaibrahim, and Nida (a friend of Nadia).

My fatso self included.

This photo, where yours truly looks very unflattering in *humph* is a little funny coz look at my face... and then look at @ejaibrahim's pose.

WTF. LOL.

After sending my cousin home, the rest of us headed to Fatin Hilmi's family restaurant AKA Al-Khalifah for some refreshments. Loved the mixture of funny and ghost stories at that moment. Though the other people might not have agreed since we were so friggin' loud. I swear. 

Memang anak-anak dara tidak beradab. 

And now, a photo of where and how I parked my car coz all the nearby parking spaces are full.

Everyone was like, "Sukahati mak bapak kau je park macam ni." LOL. While I personally thought that there was nothing peculiar about parking like this. Its actually one of the most rewarding advantages of owning a 4-Wheel vehicle.

And even if it was peculiar, if you knew my style of driving, you'd know I would've done it anyway. The only thing I haven't done is kiss another car's a**. 

Well yes, if you're asking; I have hit a person before. 

I'm not kidding. It really happened. That guy was pretty lucky I didn't kill him. And *I* was pretty lucky he didn't press charges. TEEHEE.