Thursday, December 30, 2010

Ipad Cover ver 1.0

 My first Ipad Cover. I don’t have an ipad. It’s for a friend. I’ve looked up some ipad cover tutorials and took whatever I like and came up with this simple slipcover. It’s approximately 8”x10”. I hope it fits. I did a ribbon closure just to girlify it a bit.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

See How Good They Look Together



Photos courtesy of Faudzi Din
This is the sequel to my post on Not The Normal Notebook Cover. See how good they look together.
This sexy pocket notebook is getting a second cover. Stay tuned...

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Not The Normal Notebook Cover


The green board has been generous to a friend of mine and she got herself a new toy (she wouldn’t call it a ‘toy’ but I would :)). It’s a Sony Viao pocket notebook, P series in this gorgeous orange. Isn’t it cute? She asked me to make a cover for it and so I did but it’s no ordinary notebook cover. 




 I saw something similar to what I’ve made on the net but it was made out of felt and a no sew cover. I searched some more and found that it’s an Amy Butler’s Laptop cover design. All the more appropriate, using the Amy Butler’s design as my inspiration on Amy Butler’s Geisha Fans in Clay fabric.

The lining material is corduroy in khaki. I thought the soft texture of corduroy would protect the cute pocket notebook from scratches. But it’s also reversible! I have a thing about things reversible hahahah! Enjoy the pictures below:


I’ve also sandwiched batting between the two fabric for added protection. Here’s my mark: 
To my friend, I hope the green board is ever generous to you. Thank you for letting me go wild with my craft. I hope you like it and more importantly I hope it fits. (I got the dimensions out of the product specification on Sony website) Otherwise, how the h**l am I going to find another Viao P series notebook owner to sell this to?!!!


Friday, December 24, 2010

My first Amy Butler Bag-Cosmo Bag




I’ve been working on this book for the last three days and completed it early this morning. It’s my new Cosmo Bag from my Amy Butler book. The main exterior is cotton denim as I want it to be hardwearing (lasak). I used Erin McMorris, Floral Swirl for the second exterior fabric for the trimmings. 

The interior is a scrappy combination of matching fabric. I modified one of the pockets so I get one zippered pocket and two big pockets on the inside. The bag is really big. I can actually put my little girl inside! While I was so engrossed in putting the bag together I totally forgot to attach my favorite item for a big bag, a Key ring strap!!!! Good thing I couldn’t kick myself, otherwise I would have. You know how things can disappear in big bags like this, especially car keys.

Inside view


I used a combination of light weight and medium weight fusible interfacing as I don’t have enough of one type of interface for the whole bag. When I started preparing for the bag, Arwen was down with fever after her vaccination shot so I wasn’t able to move around to get my supplies. After all, there’s no hard and fast rule for crafting, is there? I didn’t put any interface on the exterior panel as the fabric is thicker than the normal cotton. For anybody who’s attempting this bag in the future, my advice is, the lightweight fusible interfacing is sufficient to add body to the bag and easy to handle. I don’t quite know if it’s the equivalent of Pellon ShapeFlex SF101 as stated in the book. I think any thicker, it will make edge/top stitching a nightmare. 


The construction of the bag wasn’t as intimidating as it appears in the book. Maybe because there’s few pictures and a lot of words describing in length the steps to take. I’m more of a visual person, I like pictures. 

One of my labels (yes, I have two on the bag) goes at the bottom right hand corner of the exterior panel. The bag uses a one and a half inch covered button closure. I had the button done at Karysma, Bangi. Can’t wait to use the bag and show it off to my girlfriends.

By the way, I just realized that my blog is one year old on December 21st. After a year, I made great friends among fellow crafters, I have 129 and more followers (some of them just read my blog when I share it in my Facebook but don’t follow officially) and this is my 150th blog post. Wow!!! How cool is that?!!! 

Just in case I don’t make another entry before the year ends, so long 2010. You’ve been good to me. I hope 2011 brings more blessings and good fortune to everybody. 

Happy New Year 2011!!!!



Wednesday, December 22, 2010

My first photobook from Blurb.com


I’m super excited. Just placed an order for my first photobook on Blurb.com. Here’s the preview. I hope the hardcopy is as good as the preview. I ordered 3 copies so I can give one copy each for the two neneks on their birthday.

I think this is a good way to showcase all the wonderful photos. With digital camera, photos never get to see the light of day unless you switch on the computer. How many of us do keep photos in an album anymore?

Blurb has a 15% discount for December. The code is: DECEMBER. Not too late to make your own photobook.



Sunday, December 19, 2010

Check out Corduroy at Lil Arwen’s

I did a pre-order shout out for corduroy and denim here. Managed to get some corduroy and denim and put them up for sale at Lil Arwen. Check it out here. Fell in love with a new color they have, Khaki. Danial’s short I blogged about here and here are made from this material



Itsy Doodles Gang Came To Visit


I got back to Putrajaya from my mom’s in Setiawangsa at about midnight. i was so sleepy and nodded off in the car. When we reached home, both kids were fast asleep and we took a child each up to bed. After all that, I tried to sleep but it’s no use. Mata dah merajuk. I’m wide awake. I was surfing in the darkness on my Ipod hoping to get sleepy again but instead, I’m more awake than ever. So, I checked out a few websites, sent some emails and organized my photos. I came across these set from Naza and kids’ last visit a couple of weeks ago and decided to edit and post it here.

Naza and kids had visited us before but it never crossed my mind to take pictures or mention about it here. This time, Naza asked to check out my camera and we shot a few pictures here and there. Here are some of Akif, Naza’s youngest. Teruna pemalu nih :)

Here’s one of a dusty flower arrangement on my side table. Showcasing the camera’s ‘bokeh’ effect. I edited this shot with Photoshop Elements 9 for the extra contrast. Read about my camera and Photoshop Elements here.
Thank you for the visit Naza and gang. I hope you don’t mind me putting up Akif’s photos here.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

His and Hers Personalized Pillows


My uni-mate commissioned me to make these pillows as a wedding gift. The fabric is not as ‘yellow’ as it appears in the picture. I’m playing around with my Photoshop Elements 9 and used the Lomofied effect ie. making the photos look like old photos. Now, my challenge is to find a bag big enough to fit these pillows.


Friday, December 17, 2010

Danial’s Shorts Ver 1.1

Danial’s second shorts or three quarter pants to add into his new 2011 wardrobe. The difference between ver1.0 and ver1.1 is basically the pocket flaps. This one is done in black corduroy enhanced with Monaluna’s Mingle in Red for the folds, lining, waist band and pocket flaps. I’ve embroidered Danial’s initials on one of the pockets. This time, I remembered to put the water soluble stabilizer on top of the fabric before embroidering as it is recommended to do so for fabric that tends to ‘sink’ the embroidery like terry or in this case corduroy.

Socks for Laling Hubby-Simplicity

This socks was done a week ago but just got Laling Hubby to put it on and put his feet up to model it this morning before he goes to work. He likes it. But then, any husband would love anything made by the wife, don’t they?

A new project-Girls’ Shrug

Usually I’d post an entry on finished project. However, activities in my sewing room has been rather quiet lately that I’ve decided to blog about a new project I’m about to embark, a shrug for my primary school classmate’s daughter.

The wonders of Facebook, reconnecting old friends. I found my classmates from my primary school years in Sekolah Rendah Convent (2) Sg. Nyior, Butterworth. One of them, has eventually moved to Putrajaya and send her children to the same kindy as Danial but we’ve yet to meet.

Its funny when my schoolmates recalled Cikgu Aminah and our little needlework projects. I don’t know whether it was in the syllabus but we used to have a session on sewing lesson at least once a week. We’d have a sewing assignment which we have to finished and by year end, on price-giving day, we get to display our work for the parents to view. The teacher would choose the pretty ones of course. I remember I did a string-bag with simple embroidered motives and for standard 5, we made gingham skirt with embroidery around the bottom edge.

I’m so touched that many of my friends and family follow my blog quietly and supports me in their own special ways.




Sunday, December 12, 2010

Danial’s Day Out

Danial didn’t waste time sporting his new shorts or three quarter pants I made for him earlier today. He likes it very much and said that it’s very comfortable. The only complaint is how come adik’s face (Lil Arwen’s label) is on his pockets. Looks like I’ve got to make a different label for him and perhaps the birth of my kidswear?

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Danial’s Shorts

My weekend project completed today. Danial’s shorts. Well, it’s actually a three quarter pants. He needs new shorts for his daily wear as his wardrobe has not be updated for quite some time now.  I made it using the corduroy fabric and now I’ve decided that the colour is not teal but more moss. I used ZigZag Zoo print from my stash for the turn ups and the pocket linings to add a little bit of character to the otherwise dull pants. I’ve also embroidered Danial’s initials on the pockets. 
The pattern came from this book that I bought sometime ago from Amazon.com. Lots of beautiful patterns to try. At least this is the first from the book. 
I’m going to add this in Lil Arwen’s range of kidswear for custom order and maybe do a few ready mades (finding time to do that is another challenge!)

Will try to take photos of Danial wearing the pants later. Till then, have a nice weekend folks.


Friday, December 10, 2010

My Labels Are Here!

Had Azaidris from Itsy Doodles over for tea and the kids had their play time today. Talked about fabrics and more fabrics. We’re both waiting for our labels to arrive from kucinpurple. I was about to give up hope of getting it today when I heard the Poslaju van honking. Yeay! It’s here!!! Love it. Thank you kucinpurple.

For those who’s interested to have their own personalized ribbons made, visit kucinpurple.blogspot.com

Learn to Knit Anyone? In 30 minutes, I promise




I don’t know why I’m sleepless tonight so I’ve been blogwalking amongst the many blogs in Craftzone. I saw a few crochet projects but very, very few knitting projects. In fact, i only know one other blogger, Wie from My Handmade who knits. So, I’ve been thinking, would anybody be interested to learn how to knit? It’s actually very easy. There’s only two stitches to learn which is knit (the top  picture) and purl (the bottom picture) and I’m sure if you’re interested enough to learn, you can master these two stitches in less than 30 minutes.

I have some extra straight needles lying around and lots of extra yarn that I can offer for practice. So, I’m offering my time and my tools for anybody who’s interested to pick up knitting. I’d like to start in Putrajaya. If you can get a group of 3-5 people, I’d come and teach at your location. I’d bring the yarn and needles and I promise you you’d be knitting in no time. 

It’ll be more of an Intro to Knitting class where for a fee of RM10.00 per person, you’d get to use my needles (on loan) and my stash of yarn to knit a gauge. You’ll learn to do the stockinette (another term for knit) stitch, garter stitch and purl stitch. And you get to keep whatever  you’ve knitted. Upon completing this class, you can decide if you want to take up knitting more seriously and start on a simple project like knitting a cushion cover or even a baby’s sweater. Then, I can help you get started with getting your own set of needles and yarn.

You don’t have to wait for Malaysia to snow to start knitting. I was like that before and thought that knitwear would be unsuitable here. But when I started knitting seriously, I found that the yarn are not just made from wool but there’s cotton yarn, linen yarn, bamboo yarn that is very suitable for our weather. Most of the things I knit, I use cotton yarn. It’s lightweight and suitable to wear in the office if you find the aircond is a bit chilly or at the  movies. It’s suitable for babies and for those who’s allergic to wool ( I just found out that you can be allergic to wool).

So ladies (and gentlemen, if there’s anybody interested out there), do keep an open mind on knitting. Let me share the joy of knitting with you :)

Sewing Room Facelift and SEX


I’ve added yet another table into my sewing room as to make room for my sewing machines. It’s a second hand still from my husband’s office. It’s actually ours from our old home office. I kept one which is my current computer table and hubby took his to office. Then he bought a new table and I asked for the table to be sent home. It’s a lovely big table, great for cutting so I’m trying to keep that as clear as possible.

Ironically, I’ve been locked out from my sewing room. The lock on the door got stuck and it’s now jammed. The only access to the room is through the adjoining bathroom from Danial’s room. Maybe the room wants to stay neat and tidy before I trash it up when I start sewing.

After the tidying up, how do I reward myself? Why, by a Stash Enhancing eXpedition, what else. This time, my find, corduroy! It only came in 3 colours, dark blue, dull green or teal (something like the secondary school boy’s pants) and black. Since it’s quite difficult to get  and it’s only available in 3 colours, I grabbed all three. Anybody interested in these? I can organize a pre-order. The price is RM18.00 per meter. It’s 45” wide.
I found cotton denim too. I don’t know if it’s the correct term but it looks like denim but cotton or quilt weight. 60” wide. RM20.00 per meter. Open for pre-order too.

Email me if you’re interested in the pre-order. I’m just going to have this pre-order open until 24 December 2010. I might go to the shop on christmas. The price is not inclusive of delivery. If you’re interested, I would request a 50% deposit and full settlement before I send out the fabric. if it’s out of stock, I will refund your money.



Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Wall of Magnets


I ran out of fridge door to put up my fridge magnets. My friend, Lynne displayed her collection on these boards you can get from IKEA so I copied her. It was a Maal Hijrah’s project for my husband to drill and put up the boards on the wall. When I transferred my magnets, I have more space to put up more :) These magnets were bought during our vacations and from my brother who’s a steward. He’s helping me build my fridge magnet collection.

Now, how is this related to craft? Non whatsoever. Just thought of sharing the idea though.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Embroidery

MamaDaniel has given the green light to publish this photo of the embroidery work I did for her baby quilt that she’s doing for a friend. I didn’t take a snap of the whole quilt as I feel it’s MamaDaniel’s privilege to post it in her blog. Just for viewing pleasure, I zoomed in on the embroidery work that I’ve done. And for information, there’s not typing error. the name is spelt that way. 


Nuffnang