Sewing with my serger

Ever since I got a  serger for myself, I've already made a couple of items using my favorite machine.

For instance, I sewed up this summer lounge pants for my older daughter recently.   The fabric is seer sucker from Japan, which was on sale for less than $2/yard.  Oh, how much I love bargains... especially if it's for the fabrics ;)

The pants pattern is from this Japanese sewing book.

Title: "Handmade Summer Clothing for Girls 120 cm - 140cm in Height"

ISBN: 978-4-8347-3031-9 (4-8347-3031-X)

The book has many cute patterns of shorts, pants, blouses, and dresses for young "tweens".

I also whipped up a chiffon scarf with serger recently.

This was a super quick sewing project, in which I simply cut out fabric with a pair of scissors and serged all four edges using the rolled hem function.

rolled hem

It was so quick and easy that I made two scarves at once.

I decided to send one to my mom-in-law in Japan. 

 The best part about sewing with sergers/overlockers is that it makes normally hard-to-sew fabrics such as this chiffon, knit fabrics, spandex, etc... so easy to tackle without any special techniques.   And I can't wait to sew more garments using my serger!

Happy serging and happy sewing!!  Hope you have a relaxing weekend ;)

Gift from our aunty

Using my hand carved eraser stamps, I just made and sent a thank you card to my hubby's aunt in Japan.

The thank you card is for the gifts that we received in the mail earlier this week.   In the package we found...

These crocheted dish sponges made by our aunty.

Aren't they lovely?

These are too cute to use in our kitchen!

And another special gift is this.

Nuno-zori, or handmade Japanese sandals made of fabric strips, one for my hubby and one for me.   These are so comfy to wear in barefeet!

I have never made one of these Nuno-zori fabric sandals by myself yet, but these are very popular in my home country. 

It's very eco-friendly, because they can be made out of recycled fabrics found in our house (such as old clothing, towels, sheets, fleece wear, etc. etc.)  And the best part is that these fabric sandals can be machine washed (and line dried), so they're great for wearing as room slippers, especially during the summer time.

Just to give you an idea, I found an online English tutorial and Japanese tutorial on how to make these Nuno-zori.

Being a craft lover myself, I love to give and receive handmade gifts :)  Thank you, aunty, for the fabulous gifts!!

Hexagon piecing for...

Using scraps from my ever growing fabric scrap box, I pieced these hexagons to make one hexagon flower.

I've mentioned on this blog before, but I found this tutorial from He Sows, She Sews very helpful on how to make hexagon piecing.  

Back side looks like this

I haven't exactly decided on what to make using this hex flower, but I will post it on here as soon as a project is completed, so hope you will be stay tuned ;)

Handmade summer scarves

Today, I wanted to show off a handmade scarf that I've been using all this summer, for sun protection purposes and as a fashion accent ;)  

No, this scarf is not my handmade... but instead, it's a scarf that I purchased from my blog friend, cocostitch's etsy shop several months ago. 

The fabric is 100% cotton voile, which is very comfortable to wear around my neck.  And I love how these beautiful fabrics from Anna Maria Horner are combined together.

It's really nice ^^

And because I love wearing scarves (in both hot and cold weather), I made a simple gingham check scarf using linen/cotton blend fabric from Japan.

I simply tri-folded the seams of all four edges and sewed all around the scarf.

Then, I stitched this Eiffle tower tag that reads "Handmade Linen & Cotton" near one corner of the scarf. 

Thank you cocostitch for this cute tag!  I love Eiffle tower motifs, and I can't believe how a small tag as this one adds special touch to the simple handmade scarf :)

This scarf became a gift to my younger sis #1 who lives in Japan.

(All of my four younger siblings live in Japan).

Since I have a bit more of the same gingham fabric left on hand, I will definitely make another scarf like this one for myself :)

Because a girl can never have too many scarves... right?

More pencil pouches

Hi, everyone! Today is the first day of August, and I hope you're all enjoying your summer.

Right now in our household, we have a young guest, who is the 11 year old niece of mine.   We just went to the Disney California Adventure with her, which is a theme park adjacent to Disneyland.  We had a good time and we all enjoy having her!

With three young girls to take care of (my niece and our two daughters), I haven't had much time to craft lately, but that's okay.  But today, I still wanted to post about a few more items that I made a while ago.

When I made this pink terrier pencil case, I also made two more similar pouches...

 The pouch #2 that I made is this strawberry pouch.  I like the combination of the strawberry fabric and the green/white check fabric.

The lining of the strawberry pouch is red/white polka dots.

The pouch # 3 is the apple pouch.  This apple fabric is from Japan.

I matched the apple fabric with the green/white polka dots handles and the red/white polka dots bottom, to resemble the colors of the apple :)

Lining of the apple pouch is red solid.

Which one do you like?

Pink terrier pencil case

My 10 year old is invited to her friend's birthday party, and so I made a gift to the birthday girl.  The girl is turning ten in early August.

This time, I had the birthday girl select her favorite fabric from my stash.

And using the pink terrier fabric that she selected, I made a pencil pouch with handles/small bag. 

I think I've made way more than twenty of these pencil pouches already for my girls and their friends, and it seems like most of our girls' friends own one of these pouches.  It just makes me smile when I see our girls' friends using my handmade pouches when they visit our house :)

Here is the side view.

Attached to the zipper opening are (toy) beads on a chain.

It can hold many many pencils, pens, erasers, and other small goodies inside.

My daughter plans to put some necklace, etc. inside this pouch as additional gift.

Hope the girl likes the gift ;)

My new tote (IKEA fabric)

Using one of the fabrics that I got from the IKEA store recently, I made a new tote for myself.   I finished the bag on Saturday night, and I began using the bag from Sunday morning!  

I know, I know, I have too many handmade bags and totes already, but I just can't help it, because I love making bags using my favorite fabrics :)

From my recent IKEA fabric purchase. 

These are all canvas weight fabrics, which are great to make tote bags.

When I was organizing my sewing drawers, I found few *tags* that I had purchased a while ago but forgotten about it. 

So I attached one of the *tags* on to the outer pocket of the tote.  Flower motifs and French words are printed on the tag, but I have no idea what it says... :D

Close up of the outside pocket area

This is the bag bottom.  For my first attempt, I inserted a plastic bottom plate between the outside and the inside bag to retain the shape of the tote.

The bottom plate of the bag does not show in this image, but can you tell from the boxy shape of the bag bottom?

The tote is reversible.  For inside, I used 100% linen fabric in navy.

Then, I stamped my favorite stamp on to the inside pocket ...

Pocket area close up, with the stamp sewn on.

I think this IKEA fabric costs about $8 - $9 per yard.  And I used a little more than half a yard to make this tote.

This fabric design is very simple yet original, and I really like how this tote turned out :)

Well, I'm sure you all know by now, but I just love to sew, and no matter how much I sew, I just can't get enough of it... :P

Sewing just makes me happy :)

Long Beach Quilt Festival 2010

Yesterday, I had a chance to visit the International Quilt Festival held at Long Beach, California.  The show is open throughout this Sunday, July 25th.

This was the first time in my life to visit a big quilt show like this one, so I was pretty thrilled!  

And despite the $11 admission plus the $10 parking (so expensive just to park a car!), and although I did not have enough time to walk through and enjoy looking at all the displayed quilts slowly and spend as much time as I wanted,  I still had a very inspiring and motivating time.

I took several pictures of the exhibited quilts, both contemporary and antique, but I will only post the antique ones which were made in the 1800s and early 1900s, by the unknown quilters.

antique quilts

According to the information provided, some of these antique quilts are multigenerational quilts.   Can you imagine making the same piece of quilt, made by your grandmother and your mother, and eventually completed by you?  That sure is time consuming!!

 

 I just loved looking at the elaborate handwork of the quilters from the centuries ago...

And after I saw all the quilts, I quickly walked through the aisles of booths, booths, and more booths at the convention.  

At the booths area, they sold fabrics, yarns, notions, sewing and quilting machines, baskets, stencils and supplies, irons, antique items, and you name it, there were just too many interesting things to see!

And here are the items that I snatched from the quilt show...

My first feedsack set.  Included are nine pieces of 7" x 7" fabrics.

Lace = 3 for $5

Fat quarters in red, blue and white.  They were approximately $1 - $2 a piece.

Another fat quarter of a Japanese floral fabric

Well, I guess that's it for today.... 

Thanks for reading and hope you all have a good and relaxing weekend ;)

Cinnamoroll small bags シナモロールのミニ巾着

For a quick sewing project, I whipped up these small drawstring bags for our girls last night after dinner.

Our girls like the "Cinnamoroll" character from Sanrio, who is this white dog with long ears.   So I used small pieces of Cinnamoroll fabrics from my stash to make these bags. 

Cinnamoroll

Another view of bags

Recently, I purchased this rack (above and below) from the local IKEA store.  It was about $10 a piece, and I was able to assemble the rack on to the wall by myself.  Yay!

As you may already know, many IKEA products are DIY products and some of them require extensive assembly that I could NEVER be able to tackle myself. But thankfully, this one was simple enough for me to put together... phew!

Besides the rack, I also got some fabrics from IKEA.   I like the Scandinavian taste of the IKEA fabrics.

I'm thinking about making some bags out of these fabrics.   But I have a super long list of projects that I want to sew, so I'm not exactly sure when I can sew bags using these fabrics, though... I'll see ;)