Drawstring lunch bag made with laminated cotton ラミネート布でお弁当バッグ

Our girls bring lunch to school everyday, which is six days a week (including Japanese school on Saturdays), and their lunch bags gets worn out fairly quickly after such heavy use. So I  made my younger daughter a new lunch bag.

This is the top view. It is a drawstring lunch bag made with vinyl coated fabric, or oilcloth.  The top drawstring part (gingham check fabric) is 100% cotton.

Side view. 

This red/white heart oilcloth fabric is imported from Japan.  

The bag is lined with the insulated fabric, or Insul-Bright.  It helps keep whatever stored inside the bag hot or cold.   I also use these insulated lining fabric when making hot pads and oven mitts.

I think I need to add another layer of lining inside the lunch bag, to sandwich the Insul-Bright with the outer oilcloth and the additional lining, as our girls are really good at making spills inside their lunch bags.  

(They're very messy.)

I wanted to make a lunch bag that can store this plastic container flat inside the bag, to prevent any leaks from the pasta sauce, etc. from the lunch box.

Therefore, the bottom is square shaped.

As you can see, the square shaped plastic container fits perfectly into this new lunch bag!  Yay!

I'm very happy with how this lunch bag turned out, however, my daughter now complains that this new lunch bag is too big to fit in her backpack...

I guess I need to make another one that is smaller in size... Oh, well.  I'm pretty used to the picky end users of my finished products (our daughters) and in most cases, it's not easy to please them!

Baby blue crocheted flower

I crocheted this flower this week, in my car, sitting in the parking lot, while I waited for our girls' after school activities.  I like the soft blue color of this cotton yarn.  I attached few fake pearls in the middle of the flower with a matching embroidery thread.

The back side of the flower looks like this.

When I crochet flowers, I usually make them with one or two layers of petals, like this one below (with two layers of flower petals).

But for my first attempt, this time I crocheted a flower with three layers of petals...  Can you tell?

Snoopy everywhere

As you may remember, last week I carved a Moomin eraser stamp, and this week, I carved a ... Snoopy eraser stamp!  I've never been a big fan of Snoopy, but I was inspired by this fabric that I found at the remnant section of our local Joann store...

I just couldn't resist this cheerful and somewhat retro fabric of Snoopy!  Although I'm not sure what I shall make from this fabric...???

And I've had a few more Snoopy inspirations lately ...

We visited the Knotts Berry Farm as a family, which is an amusement park located in Orange County, California.  And Snoopy is the official mascot of this park.  There were Snoopy everywhere inside the park.

Can you see the Snoopy riding a red canoe on top of the waterfall?

Then there were the gigantic Snoopy and Woodstock sitting inside the candy stand...

Snoopy on top of the store roof...

And many more Snoopys!

Oh, don't forget the Woodstock...

Viva Snoopy and Woodstock!!  

And after carving Moomin stamp and Snoopy stamp, what character shall I carve next??  Hello Kitty?  Mickey Mouse?  Or maybe a Doraemon?  (Note: Doraemon is a Japanese cartoon character, who looks like blue racoon but actually a cat without the ears).
 I'll see...

Doraemon

Another patchwork & linen reversible tote

Today, I'd like to share with you what I have made recently.  It's another patchwork linen reversible tote that I  made for my girlfriend with a musical talent, who regularly plays piano and a violin.  It's a tote bag made for her to store and carry her music (or musical scores) around.

Front and back sides of the tote bag is made using linen and patchwork fabrics.

A "tag" made of my hand carved clover stamp is placed on the side...

The other side of the "tag" is the red ribbon stamp...

The reversible side with a large linen pocket...

I used my favorite repro fabric again!

My girlfriend likes lavender, so I placed a lavender sachet with hand carved matroshka stamp on to the bag handles. 

I've already given the bag to my girlfriend as her birthday gift. 

She seemed to like it, which made me very happy :)   It's one of the fulfilling moments in my life...When my handmade gift makes other people happy as I am! 

Fabrics, and more!

Look what I've got over the weekend... yes, more fabrics!  Our local fabric store was having a fabric remnants sale and I got these fabrics for $1 each.  I think that most, if not all, of these fabrics are imported from Japan.  Some of these remnants are in fat quarter sizes, and some are smaller in size.   I washed and pressed all fabrics (which is my favorite part) and they're ready to be sewn!

And let me show you what I got from a generous and talented crafter from Singapore, Wynn, of zakkaart...

Yes! I won her giveaway (for the first time in my life)!

She sent me all of these goodies to me (in Southern California) all the way from Singapore... Thanks, Wynn, for the postage!

Beautiful fabrics.  I especially love the floral print on the top.

Buttons, ribbons, and more

Pastel colored yarns

Thanks, Wynn, for your generosity.  I can't wait to make use of all the goodies you sent me :)

And... last but not least, I have another exciting news to share with you.  
My previous eraser carving post (below) was introduced in the "5 Great Finds" by Meeks of Juggling Motherhood blog!!   Her blog is very informative and fun, so please go visit her blog if you have a chance.  Domo arigato, Meeks, for having me in your post! You made my day ;)

My Hand carved eraser post that was featured

Well, thanks for reading, and hope you have a great week!

Spool, key and a pair of scissors

Quick post today... Above is an image of a couple more eraser stamps that I carved this week... a pair of scissors, a spool, and an antique key... I personally like the way the key and the spool turned out.

And I also carved a smaller version of a matryoshka girl. 

The one to the right is the original one, and to the left is the new smaller version.  I love matryoshka!

Do you know Moomin?? ムーミンの消しゴムはんこ

I carved an eraser stamp of Moomin, a Finnish character from my favorite T.V. cartoon series.   I used to watch the Moomin cartoon series in T.V., back in Japan when I was little, and I just loved it!  

Moomin lives in the Moomin Valley, in the forests of Finland.    For a long time, I thought Moomin (the white hippo looking guy in the above image) was indeed a hippo, or even a gigantic horse or a donkey - but I recently learned that he belongs to a family of trolls!

The story of Moomin is written and illustrated by Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer Tove Jansson. 

 The Japanese cartoon series of Moomin was very popular in Japan when I was growing up (below image).

I recently found these Moomin candies at a local Japanese grocery store.   Inside the tin can are some colorful candies in different fruit flavors.  Yum!

I also found some Moomin images in this Japanese embroidery book that I own.

"Small Embroidery from Scandinavia"

ISBN-10: 4834728021

ISBN-13: 978-4834728026

Oh, the Moomins... so lovely and nostalgic!

Small gifts and our kids' "bento" lunch boxes

 I made these small gifts over the weekend... They are fabric covered magnets, individually wrapped with a bit of decoration using my hand carved "strawberry" eraser stamp.  

I love making these small gifts.   These are quick and simple projects, which normally takes less than an hour to make, yet still gives me a sense of accomplishment.

And by the way, below is an image of our girls'  Japanese style "bentos" or lunch boxes from last Saturday morning...

On regular school days, our girls' bring sandwiches, pastas, tacos, and all sorts of  "American style" lunches to their school from home.  However, when they go to the Japanese school on every Saturdays, they like to bring these Japanese style "bentos". 

 For this day's "bento", I filled their lunch boxes with "edamame" or boiled and lightly salted soy beans, "ta-ma-go-yaki" or lightly sweetened Japanese omelets, BBQ style beef, and some fresh cherries.  Besides these small portion of dishes, the girls also brought a couple of rice balls with sea weeds.  These are traditional style Japanese lunch box menu.

I used these colorful silicon cups normally used for baking cupcakes, to divide and fill different food in their bento boxes.  They're nice because it's washable and reusable.

The girls seemed to like their lunch, their bento boxes were empty when they returned home! 

Gift set to (my mom's) best friend

I made this drawstring bag and a pouch set for my mom's best friend's birthday.   Although she's a good friend of my mom, all of my siblings and myself  have known her all our life and we like her very much :) 

Here is the close up of the doilies that I sewed onto the bags.  These doilies are from local Joann store, and I simply machined sewed them onto the bags.

Actually, I made the drawstring bag recently, and this pouch was made a while ago by me.   You may remember from this earlier post...

Can you see the tiny "key" charm attached on to the zipper opening?  I just love the "key" charms!

My mom's friend is a frequent traveler, so I made this drawstring bag as shoes carrying bag.   Just to give you an idea of the size of the bag, I took a picture with my sandals next to it.

Inside of the drawstring bag looks like this.   Darker colored fabric is used for carrying shoes...

I hope she likes the gift!