Arwen's Polkadot Tiered Dress

Last Saturday, we're supposed to attend Danial and Arwen's aunt's engagement. The theme was turqoise. Unfortunately, both my kids were down with coughs and flu. Arwen was running a mild fever even. Therefore, only Azrai went to represent the rest of the family.

Staying cooped up at home doesn't stop my little diva to dress up. Any little girl loves dressing up. I took her to the nearby park for a quick photo shoot session. You can never tell that she is having a fever from the pictures can you?

We forgot to take the shrug along when we were at the park so I took some last minute pictures using our front door as the back drop. I made the shrug a few weeks earlier. A simple lace pattern that I took from one of the magazines. I used Knitpick's Worsted cotton yarn in Sky and used up 3 balls of yarn.

Arwen simply loves her dress. Makes her feel so grown up. There'll be more full length dress for Arwen in the near future...

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 :)

A Pinafore, A Pair of Bloomers and Pants

 Feena from Langkawi sent me these gorgeous fabric. It’s silky soft but at the selvage it says it’s cotton. She asked me to make a pinafore dress and a pair of bloomers to go with it. She also asked for a pair of pants if there’s enough material to make one. Good news, there’s enough fabric for a pair of pants.

These beauties are going to meet it’s cute owner, Feena’s princess soon. Just in time for CNY.

Apple of my eye dress

My first attempt to combine my two favorite crafts; knitting and sewing. I knitted the bodice a few weeks back. It’s knitted seamless from the top down; raglan style. I used the cotton boucle (pronounced ‘bou-klay’) yarn that I stashed from Knitpicks which is super-soft. The neck and sleeve borders are knitted in garter stitch while the rest of the body is in stockinette stitch. The weather and the upcoming festive celebration are some of the factors that inspired me to make this as most of Arwen’s dresses are sleeveless and I thought something like this would keep her comfortable. Even if the weather is warm, the bodice would not be too warm for her.

So this morning, I joined the bodice to the skirt. It was a quick fix. I used Robert Kaufman’s Metro Market Apples in Black by Anne Kelle. (This fabric is on CNY promo in Lil Arwen) I cut the fabric about 14” length, serged the edges, joined the selvages, fold in about one inch for the skirt hem and sew; make gathers and join the bodice to the skirt and TADA!!!! It’s ready to wear.

Maybe it’s the Chinese New Year mood, I’m into red lately.

Some more photos of the apples of my eye clowning around.

Arwen adores her big brother, Danial

Danial is trying to imitate Naruto

5 minute break

Enjoy Thaipusam public holiday folks, or what’s left of it, anyway.

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

More on Arwen’s peasant dress

A picture’s worth a thousand words... so I let these pictures do the talking :)

Arwen’s new facination, the stairs at Nenek’s house

Doing the beauty queen wave on the stairs

The stare

I did it!

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!