Ballerina Bag 芭蕾舞包包

After finishing the ballet shoes bags, I moved on to making bigger bags for ballerina. Made two pieces this time, in different sizes. Spent quite a bit of time on the design and patterns of fabric to be used. 

I know Pink would be the favourite colour for most girls, so I made one in Pink shade. For the other bag, I chose Red. Well, I actually thought the Blue would go quite well with the ballerina prints fabric, but Blue is not the colour for most girls at elementary age (that's based on my daughter's remarks ha!). So I go for Red instead. 

 Hope the little ballerinas would like these bags I have sewn.

Red shade ballerina bag

Each side of the bag is fastened using red velvet ribbon

Bag handle decorated with red polka dot fabric

Inside the bag - lined with orange stripy fabric

Pink shade ballerina bag

Cute ballerinas

Fastened with pink checked ribbons

This one is lined with pink checked fabric

Bag handle decorated with lace

Tried making my own tag :)

Raggedy Ann & Andy Tote Bag 送给自己的礼物

I have been busy making stuff for friends and family and just realised that hey I haven't made any nice thing for myself. So, one fine morning I ran through my fabric collection and picked up a piece of fabric with Raggedy Ann & Andy prints. I bought it at Sampeng Lane, Bangkok during my last trip to Bangkok. I fell in love with this fabric the minute I spotted it.

I love how the character of Raggedy Ann & Andy was created.  It was purely a love of a father to his daughter. It's amazing that Raggedy Ann & Andy have been around for over 90 years! 

Here is the gift for myself - Raggedy Ann & Andy Tote bag :)
 

Raggedy Ann & Andy tote bag

A new bag for myself!

Wooden button & leather strap as the closure

My very own copy of Raggedy Ann & Andy story book

A peep inside the bag

Lin Craft House :)

 

Ballet Shoes Bag [continued] 芭蕾舞鞋包[续]

With the third ballet shoes bag I made which I was finally pleased with, I made another three ballet shoes bags based on the pattern and measurements of this third bag I had sewn. One in baby blue, one in sweet pink and one in soothing apple green. 

The ballet teacher likes these bags a lot. I'm glad :)

Ballet shoes bag - soothing apple green

Ballet tutu image

Purple, pink, apple green & baby blue, which one is your favourite colour?

Ballet Shoes Bag 2 芭蕾舞鞋包

Quite a number of my daughter's friends at the ballet school like the ballerina bag that I had sewn for her. Even her ballet teacher likes it very much too. :)  

I was asked by her ballet teacher if I could sew a few bags for the school. Wow, what a surprise! I agreed to try and come up with a few designs and show them. 

What I had in mind is to make something small for a start. I decided to sew ballet shoes bag. After trying making using different patterns and measurements, I'm finally satisfied with the third piece I sewn. First one was made a bit smaller than the expected size. So, the second piece I improved on the measurements. The size of the second piece came out just right but I wasn't satisfied with the finishing of the drawstring part. Hence, I made the third one. At last, I'm pleased with the third one, it came out the way I wanted it to be.

I used different colour combination of fabric to make three ballet shoes bag. I love to play with mix and match!

It was such a good opportunity for me to improve further on my skills as well as creativity. Here it is, the three ballets shoes bags I had sewn over the week. 

I plan to make another one with apple green fabric. Stay tuned!

The third piece - purple ballet shoes bag

Ballerina cotton tape as the cord casing

Sweet ballet tutu image made using felt, ribbon and fabric net

The second piece I made - pink polka dot matched with tiny floral prints

Sweet pink ballet shoes bag with ballet shoes image

The first piece I made - baby blue polka dot matched with blue strips

Baby blue ballet shoes bag

Friends Forever 友谊万岁！

最近爱上制作手作书。前前后后制作了好几本。除了相框，我想手作书应该会是个不错的礼物吧。送给大朋友或小朋友都一样合适。送给小朋友可以当画册，日记或者是拿来收集喜欢的贴纸也不错。送给大朋友嘛，可以当记事本或日记。不晓得在这个电子时代还有没有朋友和我一样还在用着纸质笔记本。：）

无论如何，我还是想为我认识了20多年的几位老朋友制作一本手作书。毕业后各奔东西，也并不常见面，大家都为着自己的生活而忙碌。虽然如此，大家都不曾把彼此忘记。

物轻情意重，希望老朋友会喜欢。

在这里先跟大家分享制作好的两份礼物。

手缝书两本

French stitch 手缝法

可爱兔兔图案

泰迪熊图案

正面

背面

脚踏车造型书签

正面

背面

叶子造型书签

老朋友准备签收！

Gift for Baby Ariz

This year is definitely a busy year for baby gift making. This time it's also a baby boy. Running out of time as well as ideas on what to sew, I decided to make a gift using resin clay. 

My all-time favourite gift for friends is the photo frame as I believe everyone for sure has a collection of photos; family photo, baby photo, group photo with friends/colleagues or scenery photo taken on a trip. It would be such a waste if those beautiful photos are only kept in the memory card of your camera or mobile phone. Hence, I like to decorate photo frame to make it as a gift with a personal touch. 

Here is a personalized photo frame for baby Ariz. Congratulations to my friend, Ana, on her new baby boy! May her new baby fills her life with joy and love!

Photo frame with a personal touch

Congratulations!

Bear & balloons

Blue for boy

Colourful bunting flags to celebrate the special occasion

Custom made greeting cards

Gift done up in SAA paper

French Stitch Bookbinding 手作书 2

The craft of hand bookbinding is really amazing. It combines paper, fabric and threads into a piece of art. I fall in love with this craft instantly after attending my very first bookbinding workshop three months ago. It's simply because I can play with paper, fabric and stitching at the same time! Isn't it wonderful!

Since the workshop, I have been binding quite a number of different sizes of books. It makes a perfect gift for friends. :) I was hungry to learn more about bookbinding. So I signed up for another workshop to learn a different style of book stitching. This time, I went with three lovely people, my sister-in law, whom had also joined me in the first workshop, a friend who love to sew and her daughter.

The book binding style that I'm learning this time is called French Stitch. The stitches resembles twisted 'X's. The historical forms of book binding are simply beautiful! 

Looking forward to binding more books!

French stitch book binding

Retro camera charm as bookmark

Front cover

Back cover

Another hand-sewn book done!