Monthly Archives: July 2010

Becoming more pro-active

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Helping Daddy decide what to eat for lunch at Sushi Tei.

Since turning 10 months or so, she has started becoming more vocal about what she wants, likes or doesn’t like and so forth. At restaurants, she’d grab hold of the menu and start flipping the pages, but sometimes I suspect it’s more because they resemble books and she just LOVES books. That aside, it is slowly dawning on us that our baby is becoming a little adult already.

Gone are the days when she would placidly smile back, and well, it was easy getting her to do things, even regular stuff like just going for evening walks. If she has had enough or is bored, she makes it clear; in fact, she makes it very clear! So recently, I started digging out a book I have on discipline (I put it aside due to my crazy schedule at home with best acne cleanser reviews and crocheting booties) just to see what I can do to make things comfortable for everyone and by comfort, I also mean that she doesn’t go out of bounds by screaming, throwing tantrums and shouting – something which I find common and would like to avoid.

So far, we are still alright on the quiet, calm and polite grounds but I do foresee a quiet storm brewing in the near future. Looks like we have a little opinionated miss on our hands and in a way, I think that is just fine.

Eva’s first DIY dress

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Eva's #1 handmade dress: The front view Eva's #1 handmade dress: The back view Eva's #1 handmade dress: The reverse side

The Reversible Pinafore
Fabric | 100% cotton (Spotlight and Etsy)
Pattern | The Reversible Pinafore from MakeMePrettyDesigns

For a while, I’m been tempted to make something other than blankets, bibs and small items but I always held myself back because I wasn’t too sure how the quality would turn out. But after a while, I decided to try anyway; after all, you’ll never know until you try. So think of this more as a prototype (did you know that even wrinkle creams have them, eg prototype 37c?).

After hunting around the Internet for a few patterns, I settled for one by the above Etsy seller since they looked pretty lovely and simple. She had a bundle set option so I got that and after shopping around for some fabric combinations, I started work on it. It was a pretty fast pattern to work on – I was done in under three hours from cut to finish.

I opted for a snap finish instead of buttons because I haven’t quite mastered sewing buttonholes using my sewing machine; the last time I tried it, it was a disaster so I wasn’t really up to the task again. I used the KAM snaps I bought last year for the shop and it turned out awesome! I let Eva try it on the next day and while it was a little roomy, as expected since it’s size 12 months, it looks nice on her, especially when she has pants on. (I should take an “action” shot soon!)

Now that this is done, I’m quite tempted to sew up more designs in the other fabrics that I’ve purchased. In a way, I’m glad that I did this – my mum made a few dresses for me when I was growing up and it’s something that I would like to do for my own daughter now that I think about it. So yes, do look forward to more outfit-related goodies!

Fabric haul for Eva’s dresses

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Fabric haul for Eva's dresses

Inspired by an idea followed by some random pattern search on Etsy, I decided to go ahead with thoughts of making Eva a simple dress. I know, I have too many hobbies and ideas, and then to go randomly searching for things like groomsmen gifts at redenvelope.com. Sometimes I don’t follow through with those ideas but this time, no way! I just had to try my hand at it.

Now, I have quite a bit of fabric in my stash but none were suitable for a baby girl’s dress except the brown animal print (see below). So I scheduled a trip to Spotlight here in Singapore in search of some complimentary prints after having decided on the pattern. I hadn’t really anticipate to find anything interesting in terms of cute baby prints but was pleasantly surprised to discover that they had stocked some very cute children’s print under the quilting section.

Why quilting cotton? Well, I could have opted for knit cotton but I didn’t find any interesting prints and I didn’t really feel comfortable matching different weight and feel fabrics together. I bought a few matching prints and at the cashier’s, promptly felt the pinch. At least three of the prints cost way more than what I would have paid if I order it online. Hai.

Anyway, now that I’ve got them, it’s only a matter of time before you see something yummy on this blog! Watch out for the next post…one cute dress is going to pop up!!!

Combo #1 Combo #2 Combo #3