Paris Street Everyday Tote Bag

I added a new tote bag in my shop - it's a Paris Street Everyday Tote bag.

This medium sized bag can carry several books inside or it can hold all of your daily necessities around.  I think it's perfect for everyday use - for shopping, for school, for a trip to the library, or to be used as knitting/crocheting bag... or for any occasion that you can think of  :)

 Close up of the fabric... I love this French inspired fabric!  The fabric is a Japanese imported 100% cotton. 

The bottom  of the bag is reinforced by adding medium weight cotton in brown x blue polka dots fabric.



Here is the side view.  The width of the bag is approximately 3 inches (7.6 cm).

And yes, this tote bag is reversible, too!  I used this pink x white gingham check flannel fabric for the reversible side, to add that extra loveliness to the bag :)  For the handles, brown heavy cotton webbing is used for durability.

I had treasured this French inspired fabric for many many months, and finally I decided to make use of it.   I used up the entire stock of this precious fabric, so this is a true OOAK (one-of-a-kind) bag out there!! 

I hope this bag can find a new home... we'll see ;)

Thanks for viewing and have a good day!

Birthday gift set to a 9 year old girl

Hi all!  Hope you're enjoying your November days.

I had a couple of gift items that I sewed in the last few weeks which I hadn't posted here yet.  And this gift set is one of them.  It's a birthday gift to a newly turned 9 year old girl, who is a good friend of my younger daughter (a 3rd grader). 

 Because the gift recipient (the birthday girl) is returning to Japan for good in the coming months, I made a bag set for her that can be used in Japanese elementary school.  

Japanese school bag (with a birthday card kept in the pocket).

In a typical Japanese grade school, besides the leather backpacks that children carry on their backs everyday, kids are required to bring several fabric bags of different sizes to their school. 

With these extra bags, grade school kids carry various school items inside, such as indoor shoes (in Japan, kids are required to change their shoes everyday at school), P.E. clothes, cloth napkins for lunch, musical instruments, and so on.  (Most of the time, the textbooks will be stored in their leather backpacks).

As with many of the bags I make, this bag is also reversible.

Close up of the pocket area.  My daughter really likes this fun Japanese fabric with animals and candies, and so do I!

Here is the matching drawstring bag I made,  a bag intended to store P.E. clothes or indoor shoes.



Drawstring bag is also reversible.  Inside is baby pink.

I hope the girl liked the gift set... and I hope that she can make use of these bags when she returns to Japan!



Thanks for reading and I will be back soon ;)

Honey bag (embroidered by our daughter)

Well, I know that Thanksgiving is just around the corner here in the U.S., but today, let me post about one more project that we made for last week's Halloween.

It's a trick-or-treating tote bag embroidered by our 10 year old daughter, and sewn by her mommy.   We'd like to call this simple bag a "Honey" bag.

As I've mentioned on this blog earlier, our 10 year old was a bumble bee for this Halloween.   And on the day of Halloween (last Sunday), just only few hours before we left for trick or treating, our daughter came up with this idea of carrying a trick or treating bag that matches her bee outfit... She specifically wanted a yellow bag with a word "Honey" on it.

I insisted her to take the good old plastic pumpkin container for trick or treating, but

 this girl is so stubborn (just like who?) that she just had to have the "Honey" bag that matches her bee outfit...

So she embroidered the word "Honey" on to a yellow fabric (in less than an hour)...

And her mommy quickly sewed it into a bag (in a little more than an hour)...

Because I was in such a hurry, I did not use any batting nor interfacing when whipping up this bag.

However, I still wanted to make this into a reversible bag, so that my girl can use this bag throughout the year (even on days when she is not a bumble bee!)

Reversible side is black/white corduroy polka dots from my stash.

Bag opening area

By the time we came back home from trick or treating,  the Honey bag was filled with candies.  Our bumble bee couldn't be happier!

Here is a small image of our bumble bee with a Honey bag on Halloween night.

And guess who is that Snow White behind the bee? 

Yes, it's me! 

 I sure enjoyed dressing up for Halloween as much as our kids did :D

And I guess because of my height (I'm only 5'1" or 153cm) I was offered many candies while trick-or-treating with the kids... In the darkness, people probably thought that I was one of the kids and not the parent... But I'm sure they noticed that it was the (middle-aged) Snow White and not the young and lovely one that they offered the candy to, once they saw me under the porch light...! Ha ha!

  Halloween was so much fun, even for the (middle-aged) Snow White ;P

Halloween sewing no. 2 (bumble bee) ミツバチの衣装作りました

Hope you all had a happy Halloween!

Well, our kids, too, had an exciting Halloween, with costume parades, Halloween parties, and lots of candies. 

But their mommy is exhausted tonight after walking around our neighborhood for two+  hours straight with our girls (and few of their friends) for trick-or-treating... The kids never seemed to stop knocking on peoples' doors to get more candies, no matter how much they've got in their bags!

Anyways, let me post about the costume that I sewed up for my 10 year old daughter for this Halloween.   She was a bumble bee.  (Also see this earlier post for the little cat costume that I sewed up for my 8 year old).

We purchased the bumble bee antennae and the wings, so all I had to make was this yellow and black top (T shirt).

It may look like a simple T shirt here, but this was a very challenging top to make, because...

Yellow/black stripe fabrics intended for the bee costumes were totally sold out at our local Joann store, so I had no choice but to sew together many many strips of yellow and black (stretch knit) fabrics to create the "bee" striped fabrics...

Lots of serging involved here

After creating the "bee" top, I made these matching ribbon pony tail holders for my girl (per request of our daughter).



The end result: a happy bumble bee flying in our backyard!

Thanks for reading and hope you have a wonderful November!

Halloween sewing (little cat)

Yesterday (Friday) was the Halloween costume parade at our girls' elementary school and this outfit is what I sewed up for my 8 year old daughter earlier this week... a little cat.

Instead of buying materials and supplies, I searched around our house and found useful stuff and refurbished them to make this one.

For instance, I used this hand-me-down black t-shirt for the top.

First, I cut two strips of leopard print fleece from my stash and quickly serged one side with the rolled hem function.

Then, I made ruffles using big stitches (by hand) on the opposite side of the strip and then sewed the ruffles on to the neck area with my hand again. (I couldn't use my sewing machine because the fleece ruffles were too bulky). I made two of these ruffles.

Double ruffles completed.

Then, I cut out three pieces of the same leopard print fleece to make a skirt.
Just like the ruffles, I serged the skirt hem with the rolled hem function.

For the skirt back, I made sure to cut the center in half to place the "cat's tail".

 This furry thing is used for the "tail".

The furry "tail" is sewn between the back skirt panels.

After sewing together all skirt panels, I folded the waist area in double for the elastic to go through.

 

With this cat head band (a store bought item from a few years back)...

Little cat costume is complete!



I think the best part of this costume is that it can be worn to school even after the Halloween.  (Only if I don't forget to remove the tail from the back skirt :P)

Our third grader at the school costume parade... She was a happy little cat!



Besides this little cat costume, I had sewn another costume earlier this week (for my ten year old), which I plan to post here soon...

Meanwhile, I hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!!



Handbag for my mom-in-law (and the zoo)

I can't believe it's already been a week since I last posted here. 

I've been making things almost everyday, but I just couldn't find time to sit in front of my computer and enjoy blog posting... :(   

Because of the time lapse, it took me a while to figure out what to post here today, as I almost lost track of things that I've posted already and the ones I haven't yet.  Well, the *memory loss*  may be due to the simple time lapse, or maybe it's just part of my aging...  ha ha :P 

Anyways, today I'd like to post about this zipper handbag that I made for my mother-in-law recently.    I used this Japanese print with pink roses and blue birds on a navy background.  I think this fabric suits my mom-in-law's image - Oriental taste with a modern touch.

 The shape of this handbag is exactly the same with these pleated wristlet clutches that I previously made for my shop, using 9 inch zippers for the opening.   

The only difference is that instead of the wristlet handles sewn to just one side of the bag (as shown on the below left), I attached two bag handles to this one (to the below right), to be used as a shoulder handbag.

Just like the pleated wristlet clutches, this handbag is roomy enough to carry cosmetics, keys, cell phone, etc. inside... although my mom-in-law does not own a cell phone of her own ;)   Oh, did I mention that she is 80 years old?  (But she looks way younger than her age.)

I hope she likes the bag :)

Besides my usual crafting/sewing stuff, today I wanted to share with you some of the pictures of the animals that we enjoyed looking at the San Diego Zoo that we visited over the past weekend. 

San Diego is located at approximately 2 hours drive south of the Los Angeles area, and this zoo is a home to 4000 rare and endangered animals, including giant pandas.  This is a very fun and exciting place to visit, especially if you have kids!  Highly recommended!

 One of our favorites at the zoo were these polar bears... They were so playful in the water, chasing with each other and having fun!

And koala bears... Many of them were sleeping on the eucalyptus tree like this.



And of course, the giant pandas!!  Oh my gosh, they were so cute!! 

And my personal favorite were these meer cats, taking naps comfortably together  under the sun...  Oh how much I wanted to join them and take naps together... he he!

I took more animal pictures at the zoo, but I shall stop here before I turn this blog into an animal blog ;)



Thanks for reading and hope you continue to enjoy your week!