Dress 'Gap'

This dress I made for Nia is based on my SIL, Fiza's request to follow a Gap dress she found on the net. Somehow it turned out a bit different but I like it. Excuse the model, she's just too busy playing. I going to make another one for Dina but somehow I couldn't get the shirring done the second time.

At first I meant to have buttons at the front and a simple plain back. Somehow I made the back too big and had to pleat it coz it looked too loose.

After doing that I feel that the buttons look better at the back and have the pleat in front.

So there, my happy baby!



The dress which I was supposed to follow.

Dina Dress 1

I made this dress for my niece Dina. Not sure what I should call it since every one I read on the blog has a name for a project, I'll call it Dina Dress. Initially my SIL, Kak Fiza wanted me to make a pyjama with the fabric but it is too sweet and not so cheap for a pyjama. Alas it turned into a Dina Dress. I plan to upload Dina's picture in the dress and show the full length of it in another post. Hence the Dina Dress 1. I used the Simplicity pattern and added the front yoke pleat and tier at the bottom hem to just a bit of 3D and added the ribbon at the back and lace on the front. This is a first short sleeve dress I made. I must say I am very happy that this particular dress I made is very kemas.

The treasure box

Oh yes, I really do treasure this box. I was doing some reorganizing and found that I have accumulated priceless things within the few months of my sewing history. Some self bought, some hand me downs and some were gifts for my happy 'clients'.....:-)

From top left, clockwise :Scissors, a jar of thread, needles, pin cushion (yet to make a nice one for myself), samples of stiches from my sewing machine (all 70 of them), ropes (tali guni), laces

There are also different kinds of buttons, zippers, hooks, interface, bias tape, elastic bands

A plastic cookie jar filled with things like measurement tape, needles, seam ripper, different sewing feet, bobbins and sewing machine accesories. I've got to get a better storage.

It makes it easier as I had a very faithful assistant who loves to arrange the buttons, mess it up and rearranging it again. She takes her job very seriously.

All that packed into one treasure box.

Like a candy store, it attracts other kids as well.

Finally, my latest project. It's 90% percent done. Will update soon.

Away and having fun

I am away for work in the East Coast, Terengganu Darul Iman. Terengganu is famous for its local batik print. So what does an avid sewing hobbyist does while away alone in a fabric famous state? Buy fabrics of course. Bought a few but all for my cousin's wedding. It's a culture, can I use the word culture here?, that each side of the family of the bride or the groom to wear the same colour tone to show support, togetherness and just because it's fun.

So for my cousin, the groom's upcoming wedding, there will be gold - for the akad nikah, turquoise for the bride's reception and lilac - for the groom's reception. 3 colours I tell you. Itu tak masuk masa meminang and bertunang but all in the name of fun.

So I stopped by at the Noor Arfa boutique. It has it's own building now, apparently since 2008. Very big and nice. After that went to a fabric store near the hotel I'm staying in Dungun.

Colour theme : Turquoise
Top left : Linen for hubby's shirt (decide he's not wearing baju Melayu for this one cause he'll only wear it this once and probably wear it again in 2 years time), sending it to tailor
Bottom left : SB Line for DD, Baju kurung pesak Pahang, will be done by moi
Right : A fabric called Sarong Discharge from Noor Arfa for bottom and a gold/turquoise embroidered lace for top, may do this myself.

All in not more than RM130. Good job eh? Have not worn lace for the past few years. Excited about this.

This lilac-ish batik print called Sarong Masjid Terapung (for some reason) was purchased at Noor Arfa. I actually have the lilac top I made for raya. So we'll see how this goes.

And what does an avid sewing hobbyist bring for bedtime stories when she's away? Recently bought sewing magazines, of course.

More Raya picture

This is my blog and I am allowed to post variations of pictures of the same kind right? YES.
My daughter wearing the tiered dress I made months ago.

Bottom : Kain kembang payung, Fabric : Italian cotton

Top : Semi circle kaftan, Fabric : Chiffon

Baby's dress : Tiered dress, Fabric : Japanese cotton

Hairband : Flowered lace lined with velvet and glued to an elastic band

Is there any difference between Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Italian etc. cotton?

Or it's just the designs are made there?

Raya

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri from me and my family

As promised, the skirt ala princess cut ala kembang payung I made using the batik print. At the moment this is the clearest picture I have of this skirt/bottom. Full length is probably in other cameras. I'll try to post them next time. This was worn on the first day of Eid. We went brown this time. My daughter, Nia's baju kurung pesak was bought last minute in SACC Shah Alam because I only had time to make one, the purple one. I didn't try it on Nia until that morning before the Eidul Fitri prayers. Lesson learnt, never assume a 2 years old baju kurung ready made will fit an actual 2 year old head. Lucky for me I brought the sewing machine back.

This was taken on our way back to Penang. The van in front of us actually had an industrial sewing machine at the back which I thought was funny coz I had my portable one in our car. The normal 3 1/2 hours drive took us 5 hours which was not bad at all considering my parents in law drove to Kelantan for 12 hours.

This picture below was taken right in front of the house in my hometown in Penang. I bought extra 1.5m chiffon in this colour as it matches the skirt more and I actually bought 3 metres of lace to sew at the edges of the arms but was told not too because the lace looks el cheapo :-( I bought a contrast purple lace which I might add to this anyway. I like it regardless. This top is actually a round kaftan, a semi circle. For the edges, I used the narrow hem and just sew way below the armpit to the waist, not sewing right up to the bottom hem. I made this in Penang in just 30 minutes....easy peasy...

And the purple lace flower hairband was made by my cousins. Love it!

2nd Hari Raya Aidilfitri poses...

I purposely wanted to post the dress I made after raya so that not to spoilt the mood of raya celebration...my mood that is. Gives me a bit of excitement...self satisfaction.

My dress is more of a modern baju kurung. The skirt is kain kembang payung and has the shape of princess cut but not actually using princess cutting. The fabric is Italian cotton which is bought many months ago. I am happy with the result. I used the same pattern as the batin print skirt/bottom I made for the first day of raya. I will post this in my next post.

The top is chiffon and the cut is very simple. I used my existing top as a guide and copy it 100%. I didn't even make a pattern. I used the shoulders as centre fold and cut a long the arms and sides as whole piece. All I have to do is cut the head hole and sew along the under arm up to the sides. I had to send to the tailor for overlocking. I used the round stitch (at this moment I do not know what its called). I added the purple lace at the arm and bottom front hem. I am going to add beads and pearls after this. Last minute punya hal.

And not forgetting my little angels baju kurung pesak I made last minute. A mother-daughter number.

I still wish I made them more kemas on the insides tho.

Diaper Stacker

A diaper stacker for a very dear friend is done. I used the same flannel I used for a blanket I made for another friend who gave birth. I utilized one of the 50 decorative stich on my machine. I loved how it brings out the comelness from a plain gingham pattern. However I am not too sure if flannel is a suitable material to use for supporting weight. Eventhough they are just diapers but 50 diapers does weight quite a bit and a flannel tends to expand a bit. I hope she likes it.

Cast sandals

My dear sister had a minor accident at home a few days into puasa. While busy and focus doing dunno what, she kicked a luggage bag laying on the floor and broke one of her toe. Isk! According to her it actually went northeast instead of north. Ouch! So she had to cast her whole foot up to the knee to avoid movements. So the thing is she has been going in and out of the house wearing a plastic bag over the cast to avoid from getting it dirty...macam sarung nangka. Hehe

She suggested I make a sandals for her cast. It was all her suggestion actually. Saya cuma menurut perintah. Pictures.....Iam making a few more. She'll have it on this for Raya as well...

Princess-seamed skirt

I am making this for my baju kebaya sulam skirt (bottom) for raya. The top I've sent to the tailor. I am not confident enough and don't want to risk it plus it wasn't cheap. :-P I'm excited about this project. Of course most of what ever I'm sewing from now on is still the first. I've only been sewing for about 6 months now. Minus work, sleep, taking care of Nia, bath, cook and all the works, I've only been sewing for a few weeks probably, maybe less. I'm proud to say however, the number of projects is more than the numbers of my fingers but still within the fingers plus toes. I am getting better at some things (like berangan, imagining the projects & wishing I had more time) and no progress at some (like neaten my sewing, lessen the usage of seam ripper (very essential this) & measuring the owner of the dress). Hopefully I've not gone backwards, same or more is definitely good.

OK back to the project, most of my long skirts & knee length skirt have always been ala princess seam or mermaid cut. I believe it accentuates my waist down (yang besar di tengah-tengah). I am doing this with a batik print I bought in Kelantan 2 years ago. I didn't have the right top to match the kain. So now I have. Yeay!

Above was what I imagined.

Hopefully it will look something like this when it's done.

I used this as my guide measurement for the skirt pattern. HOWEVER, it turned out to be slightly big. Err..1 inch at the waist and hip and 2 inch at the knee, big. Owh yes, I've check the finished skirt measurement. It is right on the dot as per the measurement but I believe ease was too big for a tight fitting skirt like so. I will just need to amend and alter a bit.


The pattern. Cut the basic skirt pattern and cut and paste the desired pattern. True meaning of cut and paste. Hehe

Isn't this lovely. I love the pattern and I love how it suits the top that I'll be wearing with. At first I wasn't going to use the back batik print (left print in the picture above). I don't know what it's called. Usually we use it as a guide where the pattern is supposed to place nicely at our back which covers the waist back, bum to the back of the heel. I wanted to just use the flower pattern on the full skirt but somehow there wasn't enough cloth. The wrong measurement explains it. I'm just glad that it was bigger instead of smaller.

I will not do it now. I'll put the skirt aside for a while and probably finish the diaper stacker first. I'll come back to this later. I read the McCall book, it says a good seamstress (who does not have time) usually does not finish a project in one sitting. A good project results usually comes after a few sitting and at a convenience of the seamstress. It is better to have a few good quality projects instead of many projects done but less quality. As for me, I'm not too sure if a project finished in a few sittings will still give me good quality. I'm still working on it.

Ahoy there!

The designer, the assistant and the models

OK I promised to update on the pirate themed birthday party.....it was a blast. We all had fun. My relatives from Penang came over for the weekend to join the party. I managed to finish up 2 dresses, 4 corsets, one jacket and one pants in less than two weeks. In fact I finished the jacket, pants, one dress and 3 corsets the day before, in fact come to think of it actually about an hours before the party starts. Things you CAN do under pressure. My sister in law, Annie, helped to come up with the patterns for Haykal's, my nephew, jacket and pants and cut the fabric though. I hope she learned something from my limited experience.

The birthday girl....having fun playing games with friends.

Limbo Rock time!

Well from my previous post I showed the picture which Miya chose from the net the dress she wanted to wear on that day. Not bad don't you think? I made it too big at first. I used the Anna Maria Horner's Prairie Dress pattern for the top and just added the skirt to make it into a dress. As usual I did not measure. I just imagined and assumed Miya's size and wipped up a dress for her. When will I ever learn? I wanted to cry when a mini skirt dress turned out to be a maxi with shoulders too off. I braved myself and ripped off the seam. To my amazement it took only about about 1/2 an hour or so to amend. The results were satisfying BUT I should have gathered the skirt instead of leaving it to the elastic waist band to do the job (gather effect). What was I thinking?

The Jack Sparrow inspired pirate. My sis in law, Annie, came up with this idea. I didn't have enough time to draw the pattern and cut the fabric so she volunteered which made the job a lot more easy.

And of course, the angel herself. She floated on the clouds from heaven and landed in my arm.

My lovely models.

Great job guys.

Till the next themed party. :-)

First costume project and baby stuff

Next project......


A pirate woman dress for my 6 year old niece. Erk! She wants to look like this. But fret not my dear friends, I'm gonna tone it down.....slightly. Let's see how the results will turn out. I'm making one for my DD also. The party is in 2 weeks time. Stay tuned!

And a diaper stack that looks like this for my 26 years of childhood friend, popping out anytime soon. Better get this one done too.

Busy, busy....

* pictures taken from Google image