DIY: H&M Embellished Sleeves

HI!

….

It’s been a really, really long time.

*ahem*

This is starting to be a bad habit, abandoning my blog! Just a quick update: I’m now halfway through my legal pupillage here in the capital city of Malaysia; Kuala Lumpur and so far I’m having a great time making new friends and learning a lot. One of the perks of being a pupil in the firm that I work at is that when we have to go for court matters outside of Kuala Lumpur, we get to fly Business Class and stay in a 4-5 star hotel! Of course on such luxurious trips comes with it the stress of performing. I’ve been on 3 such trips, which have been tremendous fun especially when you meet up with friends / bump into friends outside court in a different Malaysian state! It really is a small, small world.

Unfortunately I try to fill my weekends up with activities as they are so precious now, and I get too tired to work on any DIY on weeknights *sadface*. Lately I’ve been working on a few DIYs but have not had the time to do the tutorials.

If you like a bit of sparkle, to update an otherwise plain t-shirt – then here’s a super easy DIY!

Embellished shoulders and sleeves have been on the runways for a while now so why not DIY one? Sewing is definitely not my forte, and my patience on this piece wore out because thread is so difficult to work with! But once I was halfway through, I felt bad for the other sleeve so I finished it

Let’s start!

What you need:

• Basic H&M top with sleeves
• Black thread
• Needle
• Rhinestones that have holes at both ends to sew onto the top. I used teardrop (emerald green) and diamond (silver) shaped ones.

Lay the rhinestones next to one of the sleeves, and then sort out a design you like. I did not make any particular shapes, but made sure it followed the sleeve detailing.

Take a photo of the template that you’ve made, then it’s time to take out your needle and thread!

Sew the template onto your sleeve. If you’ve messed up the template, there’s that photo to rely on! Otherwise, just go with the flow and sew the rhinestones however you like it. Sew 2-3 loops to secure the rhinestones better.

I’ll be honest…sewing this amount of rhinestones on was no easy feat. My thread would get tangled up, I’d prick my finger countless times, and when my DIY projects last for more than 30 minutes I start to lose patience… My utmost respect to all artisans who handsew every single detail onto a piece of clothing!

Of course, I endured it all *phew* and this is how it turned out:

Not bad for an amateur, I think? I hope you found this DIY tutorial helpful, I took it out for a test-run over the weekend and so far so good!

You can probably spot my native hips and thunder thighs (sigh) through the pleather skirt but it’s okay…I’ll work on toning them. Kuala Lumpur has been hit badly with the haze, due to the forest burnings happening in Indonesia so hopefully the smoke clears soon so I can go for my swim workouts.

P.S: Do follow me on Instagram (vorlotwen) where I update more often!

Have a great week everyone, and thank you for reading

I promise to update more often