Thursday 31 January 2013

Lovely Hair Clips 可爱的发夹

My girl has long hair. She loves to keep her hair long since she was a little girl. The thing is she has very thin hair when she was little and it took her a very long time to grow her hair long. She can finally tie her hair in a ponytail only at 6 years old! So she is very precious about her hair. Like all mothers, I love to dress up my girl. I didn't get the chance to make her hair when she was little as her hair was short. Well, it's never too late to do it now haha..

There are many nice and beautiful hair clips available at hair accessories shops. But they are not cheap. I searched through my collection of ribbons and I'm making my own hair clips! I made four french hair clips this time using the ribbons which can easily match my girl's clothes. She is very excited and can't wait to wear them :)

女儿从小就是很“男仔头”,不是说她的性格,而是她的头发啦。。。哈哈!
从她小的时候就很想帮她扮得美美的,奈何她的头发就是稀稀疏疏的,长不长。
所以多美的发夹都无用武之地啦。

终于等到她六岁时,头发终于可以帮她束成马尾了。
她很开心,因为头发终于留长了。
我也很开心,因为终于可以在女儿的头上大展身手了。:)

看看这些超可爱的作品,全都是利用我的私人珍藏做成的。。。
女儿迫不及待的别在头上,可以看出她真的很喜欢它们。

她开心,我也开心。
这就是一个母亲对孩子的期望,不是吗?

Four lovely french hair clips

Red and while stripe perfect for Chinese New Year
Pinky flower 
Sweet polka dot 
Cute chocolate brown 
New collection of hair clips

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Mickey Mouse Drawstring Backpack

Both my son and my nephew love Mickey Mouse. They are both born in the year of Rat. Not sure if that is why their loves towards Mickey. :) 

I went for fabric shopping with my sister-in law the other day and I came across a Mickey Mouse print fabric.When I show it to my nephew, he was beaming with joy. I know I have to get it. The boys sure will like it. Not sure what to make for the boys yet at that time though. Then, a few weeks after that, I saw a children drawstring backpack picture in a Japanese craft magazine. Yes, this is it, I'm going to sew a drawstring backpack for the boys. There is no pattern included in the magazine, so I have to draw my own pattern. First, I took the measurement of my boy's upper body. I used it to determine the size of the backpack. Since the fabric background colour is red, I chose black as the matching colour for the backpack. The only problem is the string. I initially plan to use black colour cotton or nylon string. I've searched a few shops but couldn't find the right size/thickness of string that I wanted. If there is, they don't have black colour. :( A lady at the  last shop I stopped by recommended me to use mustard yellow instead. Oh yes, the mustard yellow actually matches red and bring out the colour of the backpack even better than black! Thanks to the lady, I have a perfect matching string with the backpack. :)

The boys can use it to keep their ang pow this Chinese New Year!

Front and back view of the backpack
Perfect match of the mustard yellow string with the red Mickey fabric
Polka dot for the inner lining of the backpack
Check out the Mickey Mouse button!
Cute Mickey Mouse drawstring backpack


 


Wednesday 16 January 2013

Kitchen Window Curtains

Chinese New Year is around the corner. I'm sure all who celebrate it is busy spring cleaning the house, I'm no exception. Some households may buy a few new furniture and decoration for the house to welcome the lunar new year. Purchasing of new things, to Chinese, symbolizes a fresh start. 

Instead of buying new, I'm going to make it myself this year. First in the list, I want a new look for my kitchen, no budget for a big renovation, I will do it in a small scale. A nice curtain would definitely give a fresh look to the kitchen! Though red is the predominant colour used in Chinese New Year, as it symbolizes joy and prosperous, I go for blue for my kitchen window curtain. I like blue because it brings peace and calm. I always dream of a cottage country kitchen, though I can't have it entirely, I can have it partially and I'm happy :)  



Lovely zakka style curtains

Favourite spot in the kitchen

Thursday 10 January 2013

Princess Coin Purse

It is really amazing about the job a sewing machine can do. It can turn a few pieces of cloth into a beautiful simple things like table cloth to pillow cover, curtains, bag, dresses and so forth. Just added a bit of creativity, you can make yourself a unique dress or bag :). Thanks to the advancement in technology, sewing machine nowadays is very easy to operate. Anybody can sew! 

I like sewing little things for my family and for home deco, though I must admit that my needlework is not as neat yet. Well, practice makes perfect! I still have the princess print fabric left after making the pencil case and water tumbler case so I've decided to make a coin purse. This time I used baby blue checked to match the princess blue. I added the white lace as the finishing touches to the coin purse. 

Thinking of what to make next...


Princess print with baby blue checked coin purse (front)

(Back)

Sunday 6 January 2013

Ballet Shoes Bag

Of late, there is a great fervor over felt in crafting. Honestly, I don't quite like felt stuff, as it attracts dust easily. Nevertheless, I bought some anyway from a local craft shop to try and see if I can make use of it in my crafting. There are different types of felt and of course the prices are also different. The type that you can get from stationery/book shop is cheaper but it is usually harder and not so good for craft work. The softer type of felt you can get it from craft shop or shop that sell sewing tools and accessories. Felt also comes in many colours and patterns. You can buy pre-cut felt or it also be purchased by meter. Of course, it is cheaper if you buy it by meter. But if you don't need that much, it is more economical to buy the pre-cut one. As for me, I bought the pre-cut felt to try it on my project. 

My girl loves to dance. In order to help her develop further her interest, we signed her up for ballet lesson. There are two pairs of shoes that she needs for her ballet lesson; ballet leather shoes and ballet character shoes. I don't like her to just chucked her shoes in the bag every time she goes for her ballet lesson. To solve the problem, I made her a shoes bag to keep her dancing shoes. I used the felt to make the image of ballet shoes. 

Now the ballet shoes have a home. :) My girl's friend at the ballet class like it so much that she asked me to make one for her too!


 Ballet shoes pattern made from felt

Thursday 3 January 2013

Fabric Shopping Spree!

It is not easy to get nice fabric for needlework from where I am staying, especially linen cotton blend type of fabric and fabric with cute prints. Most of the textile shops here sell fabric for dressmaking and tailoring. There are specialty stores in town but their prices are not cheap. Cotton materials are hard to come by nowadays too as the import costs are too high. Cotton materials, as I understand it, were used to import from Japan or Taiwan. On the other hand, the demand for needlework craft in the country is also not that encouraging, hence, the limited supply. In Taipei, there is a needlework craft heaven, called Yongle Fabric Market, in Bangkok, there is Sampeng Lane. How about Malaysia? I bought most of the fabric/needlework accessories for my projects from online store.

On the second last day of 2012,  I went for fabric shopping with my sister-in law. We came to know about the sales from a blog. It is an opportunity that all needlework maniac shouldn't miss! There were lots and lots of fabric in that little room from cotton, linen cotton blend, lace, cotton tape to bag accessories. Anything you need for your needlework craft! We spent about two hours browsing and choosing. It was quite a damage to our wallet that day haha...Here are some of the fabric I bought..

From cotton to linen cotton blend fabric

Fruitful shopping!
Cute prints fabric

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Stationery Organizer 兔娃娃文具袋

If you take a look inside a child's school bag, you may notice that there are quite a lot things other than books inside the school bag. Glue, scissors, sharpener, papers, toys, etc. You may think that these stationery should go into the pencil box or case. But a lot time, it isn't the case, simply because either the pencil box is not big enough to store all the stationery a child needs for his/her school or it is too troublesome to find things in a 'crowded' pencil box, hence, they just chucked it inside the school bag.

My girl is having the same problem, too many things in her pencil box! To help her organize her stationery, I have came up with the idea of a stationery organizer. I love this cute rabbit print fabric which I bought from a fabric market in Taipei. The size of the rabbit image is just the right size for an organizer. 

With this stationery organizer, I'm sure my girl will be able to find her marker pen or sharpener in no time.  

漫长的学校假期结束了,又迎来了新学年的开始。孩子们又要开始面对新的挑战了,身为父母的当然希望孩子们在学校能够快乐学习,享受学习的乐趣。
如果你有观察孩子们的书包,你就会发现到现在的书包内除了学校的课本,作业簿以外,还会有一些小工具;而这些小工具就将孩子们的铅笔盒撑得鼓鼓的。塞不进去的就可能会放在书包的某一个角落,将整个书包都弄得乱七八糟的。 

早前收集到这份可爱的布料,就让这可爱的兔娃娃来协助孩子们将书包变得更加整齐,有条理吧! 孩子们可以将他们的小工具,如剪刀,马克笔,铅笔削等等,都放进这兔娃娃文具袋内。这样一来,原本的铅笔盒就不会有太多的东西了,找起需要的文具时也会比较方便了。

喜欢吗?
 

Lovely rabbit organizer (front look)
Back view

Unfasten the string to open

Take a peek inside the organizer