Colorful small things

A few days ago I went to Cottonfield, a fabric store in Kichijoji, and found this pretty fabric. I'm sure that this Echino prints by Etsuko Furuya is quite famous already. The fabric featured retro-inspired airplane images, stripes and polka dot patterns in pretty colours combined together .

I turned the fabric into into several mini wallets and a zippered pencil pouch for the shop. Actually there were two pouches, but I had to keep one of them for my colored pens.

And this one is mine ^.^

Scrap bucket

This month is Scrap buster month in Sew, Mama, Sew! blog, and they have so many great projects for fabric scraps. After browsing on those wonderful projects, I got inspired by this bucket and made my own version. The bucket uses scraps of Ikea fabrics that seemed to have never stopped overflowing my sewing room.

I sewed several strips together, the lines are not straight because the strips are in different widths. Then I ironed fusible interfacing on the back and cut them into 35x80 cm rectangle.

I wanted a circle for the bottom of the bucket, so the diameter of the circle is 80cm ÷ π(approx. 3.14) = approx. 25.5 cm. I also used fusible interfacing for the bottom.

The lining is patched together from bigger pieces of the same Ikea fabric. The construction is the same as the outer bucket, but without interfacing. When sewing the lining to the outer fabric, I inserted two strips of black cotton webbing for the handle.

I think the result is pretty nice! And because the bucket is made from fabric, the height can be easily adjusted by folding it down. There are still tons of Ikea fabric scraps (and of course the non-Ikea scraps), so I guess I'll never have to buy any boxes or cases from now on!

Mini wallet revision!

As pointed out by omelay, I made some mistakes in the measurement of mini wallet tutorial.

There are differences on the measurements of piece B1 and B2 between the preparation page and diagram page. Please refer to the diagram for the right measurement. I've also revised the pdf tutorial, so the link is now pointing to the revised version.

Thank you very much for telling me and I'm very sorry for the mistakes! m (_ _)m

DOWNLOAD HERE.

Etsy front pages and other thing

I just found out that my madras dress and one of these reversible bags were featured in different Etsy front pages a few days ago. There they are, first one on second row and first one on third row! They are my first Etsy front pages, ans since I don't update my shop too often, I'm pretty happy that some of my stuffs made it to the front page.

The screen captures are from the flickr group: Etsy Front Pagers- Treasury Screenshots which have screen captures of most all Etsy front pages.

On another note, Sidra said that he wanted to sell stuffs too like mama. So I put up a special corner in my shop for small prints of his drawings. As long as he's happy doing it, and I think he can also learn some things from the activity.

And he just had one print sold! The original drawing was done in crayons, the title is 'Gojira' ( ゴジラ), that's how they say 'Godzilla' in Japan.

Sidra was very happy when I told him the news. He put his signature on the back of the print in pencil (in Japanese letters), just like a real artist. Then he started to plan about what he's going to do with his seven dollars earnings (^.^)

Wallet tutorial

Here's the tutorial for these wallets!

The tutorial includes two variation of the closure, one with tab and velcro and the other with fabric loop and button.

For the tutorial, I made a pair of wallets from pink Japanese cotton fabrics, one in polkadot and the other one in floral pattern. The beige linings are Indian cotton fabrics. I hope the colours of the fabrics are not too muted in the pictures.

The tutorial can be downloaded here, it's a 7 pages of PDF file. Please contact me if you have any difficulty downloading it, or if anything is not clear.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and make your own version. Instead of velcro or fabric loop, you can also use snap-on button, magnetic closure, or plain elastics without the fabric loop. When you finished, you can add your wallet to my flickr gallery here.

You may use the finished products for both personal and commercial use (craft shops or markets only - no mass production). Please do not pass off this tutorial as your own. Thank you! (^.^)

DOWNLOAD HERE

(Another) Striped T-shirt

It has been quite sometime since I made clothes for my husband. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about it, I want to make many things for him, but it's that he doesn't need any more clothes that he already has now. He takes care of his clothes and of course he doesn't grow up quickly like Sidra that he always need some new clothes.

I made him this jacket for his last birthday. He still wears it and it still look as good as new. I was thinking of making another jacket or a pair of pants, but then I decided to make a long-sleeved T-shirt because that is something that he would wear often. I've made him a long-sleeved T-shirt before, and it's one of his favourite.


The T-shirt is made from organic cotton knit. It's very comfortable because the fabric was intended for babies ( bought in the section for babies' fabric). I finished the neckline with bindings, not very neat though. The sleeves and hem are finished in simple zigzag stitches.

I made my own label from a piece of linen fabric, stamped with fabric ink pad. The stamp that I used came as a big piece of rubber stamps with all the letters. I just cut my selected letters and put it on a cork to make my own stamp.

The word 'Pretty World' is from a song by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 that he gave to me before we met. And that's how my world is since then.

Happy birthday Papa!

Today is my husband's birthday! \(^.^)/

Sidra had been saying that he wanted to learn sewing, so I suggested that he sewed something for Papa's birthday present. He excitedly agreed, and we went to the nearest fabric store. Sidra picked this loose weaving red and blue fabric, put it on himself and looked into the big mirror. Then he said that he would make a scarf from this fabric. The store attendants seemed amused to see a little boy running here and there choosing his own fabrics.

It was his first time with the sharp fabric scissors and needle, so I was a bit cautious about it. But he hardly found any difficulty with them. He cut the fabric in two and sewed them together to make a long scarf. The he cut some felt scraps randomly and attached them to the fabric with some blue buttons. I showed him the first few steps and helped tying the knots on the threads, and he did the rest himself.

When it was finished, Sidra put it on and looked very proud of himself. I was very proud too! He drew a birthday card and wrapped the present himself. No, mama was not allowed to help. "I can do it! I can do it!"

Sidra gave them to Papa this morning and we ate cheese cake for breakfast. My husband said that the scarf looked really good, the jagged raw edges and the scraps and buttons give it some character. I know it's mom's talking, but I think the scarf is adorable too!

Happy birthday Papa! We love you so much!

XOXOXO!

Boxy pouch - Fuchsia and yellow

After teaching my friends how to make some boxy pouches, I got inspired and made one myself. This is such a nice little project, the fabric is IKEA scraps I had in my stash with yellow lining inside, yellow zipper, and yellow cotton webbing for the handle.

I still have like tons of fabric scraps that I accumulated in one and a half year in Japan and whatever I do with them, they still keep growing (and I still keep buying *sigh*). I don't know how people can have such a nice and neat sewing room, mine is a mess!

Boxy pouches for sewing session

Aren't these pouches so pretty?

But these are not made by me. Today we had another sewing session at my friend's house as they wanted to learn making these boxy pouches. I'm always a bit nervous about teaching something to people, I'm afraid my explanations wouldn't be clear enough or they wouldn't understand. These friends of mine don't even speak English (only one of the three can), but then I guess we didn't really need to talk much. Let's just cut and sew those fabrics.

Anyway, I really love their fabric choices, the pink one with ice creams have very sweet colourful floral pattern lining (which I've forgotten to take pictures of).  The handles are cotton webbing with lace sewn on it, and the zipper pulls are a piece of pink lace (for the pink ice cream) and cotton twill tape (for the purple floral); eliminating the need to sew fabric handles and tabs. The hardest part was sewing the zipper, but after that everything went smoothly. They finished it in about 2 hours (with lots of chatting in between), so I think we've all made it! I'm so happy! \(^.^)/

Mini wallet tutorial

Yay I finished it! This is the tutorial for the mini wallet in this post. For the tutorial, I made a pair of mini wallets in Japanese cotton with colorful houses pattern on it. I really enjoyed making them and the tutorial.

The tutorial for the bigger wallets is still in progress, and it will be posted soon when it's ready!

As it would be too long as a blog post, the tutorial is made it into a pdf file that can be downloaded here (edited: here). Please contact me if you have any difficulty downloading it. This is also my first time making a pdf tutorial, so do tell me if anything is not clear.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and make your own mini wallet. This little project is perfect to finish up those fabric scraps in your stash. Combine different colours and patterns together. You can also opt out the elastic and button and change it to snap-on button, velcro strips, or magnetic closure. When you finished, you can add your wallet to my flickr gallery here.

You may use the finished products for both personal and commercial use (craft shops or markets only - no mass production). Please do not pass off this tutorial as your own. Thank you! (^.^)

DOWNLOAD HERE

EDITED: DOWNLOAD HERE - revised version

Scrap buster month