March 2014 Round Up

Wow! Time really flies. I was just thinking of doing a March Round up of events when I realise that April is about to end soon too... OK let’s keep that for the next post. Now for the round up:

I covered LKPIM WP Putrajaya’s 3rd Annual General Meeting as a photographer. This shot was taken with a tripod and a timer. Not too shabby for an amateur picture taker, huh? The sewing part was my LKPIM uniform that I sewed a few days before the meeting. Can you spot me in the picture?
By the way, LKPIM stands for Lembaga Kebajikan Perempuan Islam Malaysia. Do follow them on Facebook here. I help manage the page with other admins.

Then, we got our second folding bike. This is a splurge. A friend helped us get one back from Taipei. Here’s me and Hubster taking it on it’s maiden ride in Putrajaya. All 24km or so. We were caught in the act by some friends who stopped by the road side and took pictures as evidence :)

We lost MH370. To date, it is still missing...

I’ve made some more telekungs. I’ve been focusing on telekungs nowadays. Orders came pouring in, Alhamdulillah and I’ve decided to buy my white cotton fabric by the bolt. I went to Jalan Kenanga and got me a bolt. Here’s some of my little customers with their telekung. I’m into making posters with PicArt apps on iPhone and post them on my Instagram. Follow my Instagram: #madebyrozirahman, #iammomquote

There was also a birthday party that we attended. Zharif and Qistina. I made a personalised embroidered towel for Zharif and a smocked dress for his sis.

I cook more now :)

Sausage rolls and fried chickens in my air fryer

Chocolate chip cookies

Minestrone soup with garlic bread

Croutons

Macaroni & cheese

Caesar’s salad with croutons

Asian marinated chicken with vegetables

Celeries and carrots with home made dip

and trying to have a small herbs garden of a sort. I toyed with the self watering system as we didn’t get much rain in March. My chill plant was just sprouting and I didn’t want it to die out of dryness in case I forget to water them so at least the system could last for a few days. 

And to wrap up the month of March, the Hot Air Balloon festival was is town. I just took some shots with my iPhone before going for my Saturday morning ride with my buddies :)

That’s a wrap folks!

It’s all about pleating

I received a gentle reminder from Fuzzy with regards to pleating her fabric for smocking. I’m very busy this week as I’m now holding the fort on my own. Hubby dearest is away at a medical conference in Germany for a week. And yes, we celebrated Hari Raya Aidiladha without him. Just me and the kids. Anyway, on with the pleating story.

So, I took down my pleater and dusted the box. Took it out from the box and my spool rack. Fuzzy sent me 6 fabrics to pleat. She even tag them individually as to how many rows she wants on each of it. I save the last, 23 rows and snapped some pictures here.

My spool rack and threads for 23 rows of pleating

I put the pleater on its box for the extra height

Fabric to be pleated and magnetic rod

Rolling the fabric onto the magnetic rod

Pleating in progress

Pleating completed

My work is done for the day

The fabric Fuzzy sent me are ever so cute. Makes me itch to do smocking again. Well, at least I can get this off my things to do list. Fuzzy, they’re coming home to you. Can’t wait to see how the smocking come out... Enjoy :)

p/s: I offer pleating services and charge RM1.00 per row. And if you just want to do smocking and you’re not very sure to put them together into a dress, I charge a small fee for tailoring too. Just email me and we can discuss the details.

p/s: I’ve yet to select any winner for my giveaway. Sorry for the delay. Will get on to it ASAP. Just bear with me.

Another Smocking Dress

Here’s a dress I finished after putting it down so many times. I did the smocking in three days but the construction of the dress took me so long that I was getting worried that it’d turn out as another one of my UFO (UnFinished prOject). I hate it if that happens but luckily it didn’t.

I took the bodice template from AE & E for an 18 months old but my Arwen is a bit on the petite side. I hope she can fill the dress by raya... 

Close up view of the smocking pattern. Fabric is too busy that it drowned my smocking.

I used snaps as closure. Too lazy to sew up the buttons and make button holes. Plus I have lots of snaps to last me a lifetime!

Baby gift for Ilisa Elania

I made a dress with smocking bodice and knitted a beanie and tube socks for baby Ilisa Elania, Liris and Rizal’s new bundle of joy and baby sister to Isabel Eryssa.

The template is for 6 months old but for Asian babies, I think this is going to fit the baby at one year old. 

I kept it simple with just one colour. Nothing much in my stash to embellish it even. I’m going behind the fact “Less is more”.

Simple beanie and tube socks. Fast and easy to knit using my stash yarn.