Anybody interested in Amy Butler’s Book Pre-order?

Remember the book I blog about here? Well, I’m just wondering if anybody is interested to get the book. I might organize a pre-order if there’s enough people interested in owning the book. I’m thinking of a 3 part payment, say, RM50 (non-refundable) when you express interest to join the pre-order; Another RM50 before I place the orders and the balance just before I ship the books to you. I’m not sure how much the supplier is going to price the book but it should be in the range of RM120 to RM150. The recommended retail price of the book is USD29.95. The courier charges by Poslaju is estimated at RM10.00 for Semenanjung Malaysia and RM15.00 for Sabah and Sarawak.

This is not a pre-order post. This is more of a survey to see if anyone interested in a pre-order. Please leave a comment if you are (interested). Another thing, the pre-order books are NOT autographed.

A perfect fit!

My heart was bursting with pride when my husband appreciatively donned the shirt I made for him for his birthday. So handsome, my husband... 

Birthday present for my hubby

Berpeluh nak siapkan this shirt for my hubby. It’s his birthday today and I didn’t win a Blackberry Torch through Nuffnang contest so, I’ve got to stitch up something for him. It’s a simple man’s shirt pattern from Simplicity which I’ve downloaded quite some time ago. I stick together the pattern pieces yesterday and only started to cut the fabric after dinner last night. Early this morning, I continue with joining the sleeve, hemming and making the button holes. Oh, and by the way, this shirt is throughly made with my new machine. It was quite pleasant working on this machine and simply love the one step button hole maker. I use to be quite intimidated to do button holes and would rather substitute snaps to making button holes but with the new machine, it was a breeze. Looks like I’ll be starting another collection for buttons soon.

Anyway, this is to my dearest husband, my best friend, my other half, my better half, my pillar of strength, the father to my children. Thank you for your endless support and love. Thank you for closing your eyes when the house is in a mess as I sew away. May Allah bless you with rezeki, health and happiness always. 

I almost forgot, I need to sew the buttons on to the shirt before he gets home. We’ll be taking the birthday guy for a treat tonight and hopefully he gets to wear this.

P/s: I forgot to mention, the shirt is made with Joel Dewberry’s Ironworks in Forest. The fabric is still available at Lil Arwen

Personalized Towel

Arwen is still asleep so when I was getting her things ready for when she wakes up, I thought I’d do a quick test run on the machine again. Yesterday, I managed to get some melt-away stabilizer which is ideal for the topping so I personalized Arwen’s towel. I used cut-away stabliizer for the back. In my earlier tests with scraps, I only use paper as the stablizer. I’m quite happy with the result as the material didn’t pucker much around the embroidery. Now I know that you don’t really have to make the fabric really taut.  Made a barter trade with Faziah to get the embroidery thread. I want to try out other designs with more than one thread colour.

Amy Butler’s 12 Easy Ways to 26 Wonderful Bags

Alhamdulillah! The Law of Perpectual Transmutation and the Law of Psychological Reciprocity is in action. I’ve been giving free consultation to my "business associate" and in his recent trip to the States, he brought me back this BOOK!!!! I’ve been eyeing this book and in fact it’s in my Amazon.com wishlist. But getting this book is very special because it’s autographed by the designer herself, AMY BUTLER! I’m over the moon three times!!! These are some of the bags in the book which is going to be in my ’To Make’ list.  

Embroidery at work

Testing and tweaking my new friend. 

Three is a party!

Introducing another addition to my sewing room, my brand-new, pre-loved Brother Innov-Is 900. Like my school motto, ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici’, which means ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’; I went all the way to Kluang, Johor to inspect the machine and with great satisfaction and agreement to the price, it came home with me, Yeay!

It all started when I received an email from Faziah a couple of weeks ago about my earlier post here. She has the exact machine that I wanted and asked if I’m interested to purchase it from her. With a few emails and smses going to and fro between us, we agreed to a price. I even told her that to be fair, if she gets other offers for the machine, she has the prerogative to offer is to the highest bidder. What more, she’s in Kluang and I don’t know if it’s possible for me to go down to check the machine out. After all, it’s a big price-tag item, it’s not something you’d buy and pay for courier without inspecting the item first, right?

I’ve always believe in the Laws of the universe; anything and everything that you’ve ever wanted is coming to you and this is the perfect example. What are the chances of Faziah stumbling over my post on my dream machine? 

Anyway, initially, my ever supportive husband gave a tentative date of November 13 to go to Kluang to inspect the machine. However due to some changes in his work schedule and taking advantage of the public holiday, we made the trip during the Deepavali break.

The landmark for Kluang

The whole process to me was like going to ‘merisik’ (loosely translated ‘to ask a girl’s hand in marriage’) We arrived in Kluang around lunch time, grabbed a quick lunch and contacted Faziah to get directions to her house. Long story short, despite being our first meeting, we quickly connected like old friends. The common interest in sewing and crafting linked us and bridged the age gap. We closed the deal and the machine followed me down to JB for some RnR.

Me being so excited, tested the machine that very night and fell in love with it even more. Thank you Faziah and family for welcoming us to your home and making it possible for me to materialized my wish list way ahead of schedule. 

As for the rest of the weekend, we stayed in JB, went to Singapore on saturday to hang around with my younger brother in Pasir Ris and checked out Sentosa Island. We’re on a shoe-string budget so nothing fancy. Danial however did go on the Skyride and Luge three times; once with Azrai and twice with me. I didn’t want to go window shopping in Orchard Road, or Bugis Street which we can do in KL itself. Here are some pictures I took. Being the photographer, I don’t get to be in any of the pictures.

Arwen’s passport 

Danial @ Sentosa Island

Love this!

the Luge

Being away from my sewing room gave me the chance to knit and try out the two socks at a time from the book I bought recently. I made one for Arwen in Knitpicks sport yarn in Orchid and used some scrap yarn for Danial’s. 

Arwen’s socks. She use them as bed socks.

Working and Danial’s socks while waiting for them splashing around in the hotel pool

All in all, it’s been a great weekend for me. I got a bunch of photography magazines and books from my brother, some curtains that he bought from India but never use and a lot more. 

All these are possible due the grace of God and the support of my husband and kids. Thank you Muhammad Azrai Shamsir for your love and support. Thank you for your willingness to take me to Kluang to get my machine and then taking us all for a break in JB and Singapore without asking for anything in return. Semoga Allah murahkan rezeki suamiku, Amin...