Pink, Pinker or ?

I like selvedges.

Some are so pretty, like this one from Nesshome. Can't remember which print this was but it surely wasn't the colourful strips. The colour circles don't match.

This is going to be a pouch / pencil case. Problem now is, I can't decide which pink to use. I'm thinking leftmost. What do you think?

Have a blessed morning!

I like these zips. I like them for the flexibility in length since I bought them by the yard. Bought 18 colours! Lol! Only two things I'm not happy with are that there aren't matching zipper pulls for each of the colours (I only bought silver and antique bronze pulls) and that it takes a fair bit of effort to put the pull on.

Been rather busy recently....

Yup, I'm still here though things have been rather quiet at the crafting front recently. Made 3 pencil cases out of really pretty cotton-linen fabric that I sourced from a new supplier.

This is a digital print. Cute one at that. Printed on cotton-linen. Paired it with turquoise and white polka dot fabric behind and lined with even more cotton-linen inside. This is a large pencil case. Gigantic.

 

I like this print. Finnish design printed on cotton-linen. I have only a small piece and this is half of it. The other half I made into a similar pencil case (not shown here). The back is also the turquoise and white polka dots and the lining similar to the Fun swimming pool one.  

Made this planner for myself.

I covered the 900gsm greyboard with kraft paper from a paper bag from this gelato outlet that DS and DD like. They like hazelnut and mango, I like rocher. I have monthly views and quarterly views, plain white and colour pages for notes.

Have a blessed day!

May the force be with you

During the free Spoonflower fat quarter promotion last year, DS chose this print. He likes the kiddy Star Wars print. It's not an allover print, just a strip across the bottom. There are 8 8" squares with different characters of the movie. I've not figured out yet what to make out of them, maybe a cushion cover?

This is a dual zip pencil case. I managed to find 2 star zipper pulls. Zip was from Daiso, the 1m long one. The star zipper pulls too, but they were on another colour zip. Since the Star Wars print is rather narrow, it'd be a rather 'narrow' pencil case but I decided to 'bump' it up and add the denim. 'Tis a bit more rugged, no? DS chose the lining, a Japanese cotton geometric print in beige and brown. He also asked for a D-ring though I don't know what he's going to put there.

This pic is not the latest.

I studded DS' name with 3cm studs. That's a lot of tiny claws for me to fold in but DS likes the effect.

Have a blessed day!

Back to school

T'was a long CNY break, wasn't it? :-)

Made these before and during the break. The studs are those with the claws, not the iron on type. Each stud has 4 claws and I used many here :-( Wasn't easy bending the claws back. The journal was fun. This was done without the end-pages that's why there's only a single line out on the cover at each hole. I think the next time I do this I'll use double. Or maybe I'll just stick to end-pages.

Have a blessed day!

Playing catch up

Haven't been updating this blog in a while. Had some posts on Facebook though :-)

Made these from the Prima Deli's box. Think it was DD's PC13 from there. I like this cake box 'cos the cardboard's rather thick and laminated on one side. I'm running out of antique bronze O-wires. Will have to use baby blue and pink soon.

iPad sleeve. First one ever. I find it funny 'cos one of the reasons for starting this blogshop was to earn enough to buy an iPad. After a while, we didn't track the revenue/expenses. The desire for an iPad waned. T'was only when DD needed one for school that we finally bought one. LOL! 

These are the Chan Luu-inspired leather wrapped bracelets that are the rage now. Simple to make but so tedious 'cos I used slippery beading string to wrap. You can't see from this pic but I used a 2-hole flower button as the catch. Notice the beads? The larger ones cost less than half those on the right. Don't know why, not familiar with these type of beads.

Zipper pencil cases. Simple in design but lots of manual work to ensure alignment.

CNY mandarin orange carrier.

Fuchsia crochet tote with leather handles. 100% cotton yarn

Blue/green crochet tote with leather handles. Cotton/linen blend yarn.

Grabbed this floral fat quarter when I saw it. Pic doesn't do justice to it's colours (I don't know how to fix it to show the true colours). Paired it with pink gingham. Both are cotton/linen blend so I had a hard time flipping the tote right side out. This is a different size from the other reversible totes 'cos I only had 1 fat quarter. The others are slightly wider than half a fat quarter.

Have a blessed day!

Zippity do dah!

I had two different requests for zippered pencil cases. While both have 10 zips each, the bottom one is much larger 'cos of the method of sewing.

Top - seams sewn from the inside 'horizontally'. This results in a smaller pencil case because of the puffiness and seams.

Bottom - seams sewn in zigzag stitch from the top. This results in a larger pencil case. I attempted to match the thread colour to the zip so I ended up having to change the thread and bobbin often.

The seams are the easy part. The toughest part of this is binding up the seam where all the zips come together. You can't see it from here but I've not done it yet for these two. I just wanted to get the pic out first, LOL!

Have a blessed day!

Plasticky

Bought a stack of plasticky canvas recently. Sure reminds me of Cath Kidston material, in terms of print and feel. It's the thickest material I've sewn. Not the toughest though. That would be faux leather 'cos it wouldn't cooperate with my sewing machine's presser foot and feeder dogs.

I've not quite thought of what I want to make with these yet but made this to try out sewing it. It's so stiff that it's tough to flip proper side out. On the upside, it holds its shape very well. :-)

Simplest item to make was an unlined pencil case. Added a label to the front and a charm to the zipper pull.

Have a blessed day!

Jelly roll series

I decided to concentrate on this range of cottons. After making these, I still have 1 more jelly roll that I forgot about, LOL! These were made with half the width of a jelly roll strip, actually. Narrower than a honey bun strip. Fun to sew, nevertheless. I still have a list of some other items to make but I thought I'd just post this update first.

More details on Facebook!

ps: A jelly roll is made up of strips of fabric 2.5" wide x width of fabric.

pps: I like the drawstring bag the most. It's not interfaced (padded) yet it's not too floppy since the strip of fabric basically doubled up behind so effectively, there are 3 layers of fabric.

Have a blessed day!

Bling on the invaders!

This is my 2nd attempt at sewing with faux leather. I've yet to post a pic of the first item I made and if I get good lighting, I might. It has space invaders on it as well.

I made the pouch in a jiffy 'cos it's unlined. It took me more than an hour to stick the bling on. I've never played space invaders so I didn't know they flap their hands or move or change colours. I didn't know about the canons or shields. No worries that google couldn't fix 'cos I found some patterns online and winged the rest with input from DS. This is his after all.

The first time I tried to stick the bling on canvas with fabric glue, I made a big mess. After I popped it into the washing machine for a test to see if the bits really stuck, well, that was a mess too. I should have put it in a pillow case or something 'cos I had to pick out the bits that fell off. Canvas is a large weave, compared to faux leather. This time I used less glue and waited for more tackiness in the glue before sticking it.

I looped a Mobius flower unto the zipper pull too. Somehow, I find YKK zippers a tad small and inconvenient.

I wonder if I should bling DS' name onto this as well.

Have a blessed day!

ps: I didn't edit this picture so you can see the abuse the faux leather went through yet only 1 bling fell off, or perhaps it was the space invader that shot it off? LOL!

Zippity doo dah

I didn't realise that YKK has so many shades of green. There's at least one more in neon but I didn't want to add that. There're also at least 10 shades of blue. I might just post the pic if I get around to making a similar pouch to this but in blue.

This is DD's. She requested for the zips to be vertical rather than horizontal, or rather perpendicular to the usual way I've been using a zip. She also requested for all the zipper pulls to be on one side and this is actually much easier to sew than having the zips alternating head to tail. Her other request was to have them sewn together in a zigzag manner so that there won't be the puffiness for each zip.

Strangely, she hasn't decided what to put inside this yet. It's the right size for a pencil case but she's still holding on to her bee so I don't know what this will be for.

Sadly, I don't know how to take a proper pic so it represents the actual colour. Some of these zips look blue but they're really all green. Warm and cool shades of green.

What's your favourite colour?

Have a blessed evening!

Splashproof

It was supposed to be a quick trip to Chinatown to restock my batting supply. I thought I had enough but there are just so many types of batting, in terms of material, thickness and whether there's adhesive. Since I was there, I detoured to another shop and caught sight of this laminated material rolled up and stuck in a box in the corner and I bought two rolls :-)

Made two pencil cases. The salesgirl at the shop thought I'd be making a tote. She suggested I reinforce the seams with binding. I was thinking smaller items actually. Maybe later, if there's enough for a tote.

Blue zip's flat and lined with cotton. Magenta zip has triangle sides and a base so it can stand. I added a large jump ring and charm 'cos the zipper pull seems too tiny. Maybe I'll do that for the blue zip too.

Have a blessed day!

Itsy bitsy

I once found an itsy bitsy pencil case in a shop at the basement of Jurong Point. It was really cute. Zakka-like in its simplicity. It caught my attention 'cos it could fit only 2 pens. Snugly. I wondered why would anyone want such a small pencil case. Wouldn't a 'normal' pencil case have a few pens, a pencil, eraser, ruler etc? 

Anyway, I made this pencil case which was meant to house 2 uniball 0.38 gel pens, one with blue ink, one with blue-black. It could've been smaller but I wanted to follow the pattern on the fabric and have it 2 squares by 6. It'll fit 3 uniball pens now.

Have a blessed day!

Combinations

Listed these 2 multi-purpose pouch and tissue case combos in Tiffany's Shoppe.

I tried a new way of interfacing for the zippered pouch and I'm liking the results. Not puffy like batting yet not floppy like with only a single layer of lining. 

Meant this as a pencil case 'cos I'm in the pencil-case-making mood but you can put anything you like in there. Angpows? *grin*

Have a blessed windy day!

Spring is coming

DD pounced on this fabric when it arrived yesterday. It's green. There were other green fabrics but I agree with her, this one's special. Along with the labels that also arrived yesterday, I decided to make her yet another pencil case. [Someday I'll do series on DD's pencil case collection].

Made her a matching tissue case too while I was having fun. It's zakka-like, no? I like the simplicity of the labels against the gingham. Spring plants.

Have a blessed day!

Gives new meaning

Giving new meaning to zippered pouches are these two pencil cases. Each were made from 8 different shades of 8” zips sewn to each other in the alternate direction using a zig-zag stitch.

These are unlined, of course, so each zip is a functional opening to access the stationery inside. Imagine 8 openings, 4 on each side.

Make your own this Christmas for friends and family :-).

Have a blessed day!

In a rush!

This is the final teacher's day pressie and I just completed it. What a last minute thing :-(

This teacher likes black and white so both the exterior and interior are these colours. Coordinating oxford prints imported from Korea. I machine-quilted the exterior for a change and it sure reminds me of an evening clutch. :-)
Have a blessed day!

Going green

I like this linen fabric from Korea. Cheery detailed prints of circus animals in a row interlaced with pseudo-patchwork pieces in shades of green. I've not made a boxy pencil case for a while 'cos I'm picky about having concealed sewn edges and the method I'm using is tricky....but still, it was ok since I liked the print so much :-)

Even the interior is green, with polka dots :-) Super roomy to fit lots of stationery. What's with kids and large pencil cases these days? Aren't the books already so heavy?

Have a blessed evening!

Spurts of activity

Made another batch of pencil cases. Triangular ones this time and yes, I found the template...LOL! I also started on Teacher's Day pressies...and made the booklets below from the remnants of recent projects.
Which one do you like most?

Have a blessed rainy day!

Cucumber sandwiches and tea?

There's this craze for Cath Kidston products that imitations are sprouting up everywhere. I saw a Gath Kidton which made me cringe. Why I brought this up 'cos I bought this fabric that reminds me so much of this designer's fabric. Can you guess which one is it?

Eight flat pencil cases made from variety of Japanese and Korean imported cotton and linen. Some of the prints are uber-cute :-) Insides are fully-lined with matching polka dots or gingham checks. Lightly interfaced too and I added a cotton tab at the side, just because I can... LOL!

Which one do you like?

Have a blessed day!

Decisions, decisions, decisions

I've been spring-cleaning lots while on my self-declared break from sewing. I did sneak a bit of sewing, of course, but not as much as usual. I've also been bitten by the bookbinding bug and I'm imagining matching journals and pencil cases even when I've not started on my first book. I'm dreaming of coptic and codex stictching and hardbound books. Of scrapbooking and stamping and punching. I've even thought of doing a handmade item a day for a year. Maybe I'll just settle with one a week at the rate I'm currently at.
That's the thing about spring-cleaning. I discover stuff and I think, this would look great as a ____, or maybe reworked as a ____ and I get carried away. With so much to do, where shall I start?

< space reserved for the first matching hand-bound journal and pencil case ... LOL! >
A pic of the cleanup would seem more apt, no? I have accumulated 1 overflowing shoebox of selvedges! I'm wondering what I shall do with them. So many possibilities for one of a kind designs :-)
Have a blessed, decided day :-)
ps: I return to my spring-cleaning....