Arwen’s Baju Raya #1

Marrying the two things I like, knitting and cute designer cotton. This is Arwen’s baju raya #1. The pattern for the bodice is somewhat my creation. I need to fine-tune the pattern before I upload it for future reference. I love the knitted bodice, don’t you? This is still a WIP. The skirt is only pinned to the bodice. I fell in love with it and couldn’t wait to take a picture and share :)

My Knitted Socks and a Break

I’ve finally casted off these pretty socks this morning and had to get hubby to help with taking the picture after several attempts with the self timer failed miserably.  I love the colour and it feels nice. 

I’m here to announce that I’ll be taking a break from taking orders for the whole fasting month this year. I’ll be doing my own sewing for the family but I’m going to finish all the orders that has been firmed. Learning from last year’s experience, I felt I’m going to take it easy this year. I almost end up not having time to sew my own baju kurung last year, and not to mention the stress of not meeting the deadline. 

Oh, and by the way, Lil Arwen is having it’s first anniversary sale. Sale of fabric would still continue throughout Ramadhan. Do check it out.

Having said that, here’s wishing everybody ‘Eid Mubarak’. Selamat berpuasa from me and my family. Here’s a picture of my son light-painting an anak bulan (crescent) with the help of his daddy. 

A Birthday Present for A Special Friend

I have a date with a bunch of girlfriends tomorrow morning for brunch and it will definitely stretch out to, who knows. One of them is celebrating her birthday this month so I thought I could make a bag for her. I’ve been using a lot of Gypsy Paisley in White from the Gypsy Bandana Collection by Pillow & Maxfield and I just love it. I looked around for a bag pattern not too difficult to make in a short period of time and decided to make the Ava Bag, a Tanya Whelan of Grand Revival Design. I’ve had this pattern for over a year and made one bag for my mom last year for mother’s day.

I love the fact that it’s reversible and mix and match it with Patty Young’s Zen Garden in Pear from the Sanctuary Collection. It’s not my neatest of work but given the time constraints, I’m quite pleased with the outcome. I just hope that Birthday Girl is equally happy with this little gift.

To make it interesting, I’ve spread out the contrasting fabrics that I used for the background of the picture. You can see the crease in the first picture :P

To my dearest friend, Nazlina Noordin,

I’m wishing you another year
Of laughter, joy and fun,
Surprises, love and happiness,
And when your birthday’s done,

I hope you feel deep in your heart,
As your birthdays come and go,
How very much you mean to me,
More than you can know.

By the way, these fabrics are available for sale at lilarwen.blogspot.com if you’re interested :)

Sanctuary by Patty Young available at Lil Arwen

I’m doing a cross promotion for Lil Arwen.  Great offers for May to celebrate Mother’s Day and Teacher’s day. Find out more at Lil Arwen.

Take advantage to do your early Hari Raya shopping with the deals offered.

Handphone Pouch

A handphone pouch to fit Nokia E72 made from Amy Butler’s Star Paisley in Apricot lined with green linen. It measures approximately 6” x 4”. 1” bigger both width and length-wise to my earlier version of the handphone pouch seen here. I’ve always enjoyed making one of these beauties. One of my favorite quick projects.

For durability, I’ve used lightweight interfacing for both the outer and inner fabric as well as the straps. I love the feel of fabric fused with interfacing.

Thanks Fazila. I hope you like it :)

The final series of the lumbar covers

This is the final update on my new lumbar cushion covers with Amy Butler’s Lotus Pond in Ivory. The other entries are here and here. Now my sofa has a fresh look. It’s true that you can’t force creativity. I was dragging this project after the first two covers. Took me some time to finish the third cover. When the mood set it last night, I finished the final two covers (the left and right most covers in the picture above) in less than an hour. 

Now, on to the next project...

A notebook cover and more tops and dresses

I’ve promised a friend to make her a notebook cover (netbook to be exact) when I saw her own cover was rather ‘tired’ looking with coffee stains. As usual, it went down the list of things to make and yesterday I had a reason to get it done. We’re break fasting together at Restoran Mukmin (a branch of Haji Shahrin Low’s) in Shah Alam; a good time to pass her the cover. So I cranked up the machine and got this made in a couple of hours. I hope you like it Atty. 

I also made another Sweet Knot Dress and Capri set for Soraya in Robert Kaufman fabric. Simply love the combo.

Sophea, Soraya’s elder sister gets a peasant top with bodice.

Sophea and Soraya’s mummy requested a handphone cozy from Soraya’s scraps and here it is. I hope she likes it.

I have another break fast sessions with friends on Merdeka Day and thought of giving them my CD Toters. I’ve made one, four more to go. Just snapped the picture with the mess on my sewing table. 

Just a mention. I’m still doing the CD Toters on made to order basis. I’ve been busy with so many other sewing projects that I haven’t got the time to make stocks and put them up on the blog but if anybody is interested in the CD Toters, email me and we can discuss the details.

A knot dress, a pinafore and tie top

My sister inlaw gave me the honour of making some dresses and tops for her two princesses. Being very new to dress-making, there’s a lot of guessing game when it comes to sizing. I hope the mommy like them and the princesses get a lot of wear out of these dresses and top lovingly made by Aunty Rozi.

Sweet Knot Dress for Isabel

Pinafore for Ilisa

Tie top for Isabel

Designer Baby Bibs

Yesterday, I was busy making these bibs for my clients. Easy and fast but they took me the whole day with so many intermissions like supervising unifi installation, feeding my kids, watching hypptv and what have you. Here they are for viewing pleasure

Projects in Ramadhan

I’ve been busy making CD Toters for a good customer. This time it’s with a twist. She sent me her own material to work with. On top of that, I got a bit adventurous and added trimmings to the toters. Got bored with the square patchwork so I made free motion or crazy quilting in some of the toters. There’s supposed to be 10 toters but I took only 9 pictures. Already packed them for delivery so can’t take the one I’ve left out. You’ve seen one toter, you’ve seen them all I supposed. Nevertheless, here they are for my archive:

I took a week to finish up on the toters. Once I’m done with them, I started on Hannah’s tops, pants and capris. I am so honoured and touched when Hannah’s mommy said that this year she’s not shopping at Sogo for Hannah’s clothes. She sent me some pictures for inspiration and here’s my interpretation:

Sweet Knot Top and Capri pants.

Back view

Lil Arwen label

Sweet Knot Top and Capri pants in Grand Foliage and DelHi dots in pink

Capri in Dandy Damask Cocoa/Pink

Girl’s Easy Lounge Pants in ZigZag Zoo in Pink

Easy Peasant Top in Garden Friends Strawberry

Thank you Hannah’s mommy for your trust in my sewing skills. I hope Hannah gets a lot of wear from them.