Nil’s grandmother was a crafter – sewing, knitting, crocheting, embroidery (I suspect), a bit of painting – so when she passed away, Nil together with his dad and uncle had the task of sorting through a lot of things. Coupled the crafter’s natural “ability” to stash, Grandmama was also a hoarder of some sorts. She was never one for wasting or throwing away things, something I find to be common with people her age (she was 94 or 96 years old at the time of her passing). When she first passed away, Nil passed me her nearly new 70s sewing machine which is still in use today. (I should have serviced it in Singapore but forgot due to the rush with the packing, etc.)

When we moved to Dole, we took a lot of the furniture that she left behind – dining table with chairs, armoire styled bookshelf, buffet or dresser (something similar to this but bigger and with more drawers) and a work table. Nil surprised me with her sewing storage kit – “I figured you might want to use this since it’s just sitting in the garage and no one else has a need for it.” So I adopted it.

This little kit opens up just like your toolkit and at first glance, contained a whole boatload of things. I never got around to examining its contents until recently. The bags you see behind it are actually trash – Grandmama had A LOT of things. From four pairs of the same scissors (she has a total of 10 over scissors), to bobbins and spools of threads, cross-stitch bundles, buttons (I need to sort through this), accessories for bra repair, reclaimed zips (basically zips from clothing that you don’t need), FIVE measuring tapes, tons and tons of sewing needles (enough to last me this lifetime and the next), timbles, and what-not. She used very old metal contains to keep some of her things so I hung on to those – they are very cute and no one uses such tins these days.

As you can see, I’ve reorganized it to fit some of my sewing material – I can’t say that I’m any better than her as I have bobbins and spools of thread in another storage container, buttons, felt, scissors, and other things. And oh, Nil even found my sock blockers when he assembled my spinning wheel earlier and they fit in this kit! Another thing I love about this is that when it folds up, it doesn’t take a lot of space and doubles as stand for my pot of aloe vera!

So yay to my new storage kit!

Quilt #4: Log Cabin
Width | Approx 200 cm
Length | Approx 150 cm
Pattern details | Cotton strips from fabric from Cotton & Colour & Spotlight
Batting | None
Backing | 100% broadwidth cotton fabric from Spotlight
Binding | None

My project from when I was pregnant with Eva is finally done and as predicted, it is a lovely single sized quilt. Yes, they are definitely getting bigger although I might go back to making baby or children-sized blankets for Noah and Eva (she loves her Red & Pink Cuddly and will roll around on it, in it, etc) since we’re heading back to Europe and just in time for winter too!

Initially, I had planned for the quilt to have a “lighter” look to it with a pale border instead of the royal blue which Nil insisted that we try. He also pointed out that white or anything pale wasn’t exactly great since it would get dirty more easily that dark colours. So I decided to go for blue…again. (I will definitely opt for a green-blue-white blanket next time around – am getting tired of the whole dark-colourful combo!) For the back, I chose a printed fabric instead of plain because I wanted to give it some variety; a big plain piece on its own, I figured, didn’t really look nice at all.

For the finishing, I decided to do a pillow-case styled edge by sewing both right sides facing each other and turning it inside out before topstitching around the edge for reinforcement. Initially I toyed with the idea of a zigzag around the edge but after inspecting my machine, I thought I’d play around with some of the untested stitch designs. It turned out to be quite pretty but ate up a lot of thread and I ran out halfway around the edge only to find myself carefully positioning my needle in order to start on the right spot. It took about 30 minutes to finish the topstitching.

The result is a simple, not-too-fancy quilt which we’ll probably use as a sofa cover-blanket. I’m still not very convinced about the colour combination and would have preferred to see it in something other than blue like cream-beige or a very pale latte colour. O’well…next time, *I* must have dibs on the colours for the border and backing! In the meantime, it’s back to more packing and trucker gps software assignments.

I have been using these template pencils for all my quilting projects and never had any issues washing them out – they are washable, in case you’re wondering – until bloody now. At least five of my handmade toys have template pencil stains which will not go away even after two washes (with detergent), application of stain removers as well as things like lemon juice + baking soda paste. I may have to resort to oxygen bleach in order to get the job done but that means risking a bleached-looking toy (which definitely cannot be added into the shop’s inventory). ARGH! This is just as annoying as having blackheads on nose which won’t go away!!!

This has been bugging me for the last two days; I ended up spending at least one to two hours just trying to remove the stain(s). Right now, I’m sick of sewing and am awfully tempted to break the offending pencil into two. And in case you think I’m joking, look at the picture below and see why I’m not exactly in the best of moods right now. Hmpr.

Army of Piggies
Fabric | 100% cotton (remnants)
Pattern | Lenny the Guinea Pig from Bit of Whimsy Dolls

These are actually made for the give-away which I held recently for the shop. Three will be going out to the winners together with some booties which I’ve been struggling to crochet up (it’ll be a month since the draw OMG) because of my crazy schedule – me falling ill (and am still recovering – I got hit by a double dose of flu back-to-back) didn’t help at all. The fourth piggie – seen above and called Winnie – will be heading off to a lovely home in Lyon to Nil’s friend who just recently became a dad to a very cute baby boy.

I’m actually thinking of including some soft toys into the inventory and phasing our baby bibs & burpies for the store – a few people have asked if I’d like to sell these. I’ve always felt that sewing is way more faster in terms of product gratification so it’s left to be seen if I’d like to continue on with the booties. Apart from guinea pigs, I’m thinking of adding the usual repertoire of creatures like the dog, cat and lamb to the list and a newbie – the hedgehog for that added twist of texture.

Trouble now is that I just need some extra time to squeeze in the sewing on top of the stuff that I’ll be doing and oh, the move. Yes, did I mention that we’ll be moving to our new place at the end of this month? Talk coping with a crazy schedule! ARGH!

When I need to take a pic or video, my camera batteries break down or just throw a huge tantrum. My previous phone was fabulous for this sort of thing because it took pretty good pics but alas, I lost that phone so am stuck with my other mobile which can’t take pictures good enough to save its life. I doubt pumping it full of e-vitamins would help.

Hai. Looks like piggie pics will just have to wait. Sorry folks.

Sewing is much more gratifying than knitting – at least that’s the case for someone like me who is struggling with knitting projects more than her sewing and spinning WIPs. I lack stamina when it comes to these things plus it’s always so hot that there never seems to be a good enough reason to knit.

I had initially planned to work on these soft plushies over the weekend but a bout of food poisoning left me too tired out; in fact, I’m still battling the aftermath but it’s getting better despite going on medical leave today.

One thing I discovered about sewing up toys is that it uses up a good amount of leftover fabric that I have in my stash, which is good news for Nil as he often remarks on how my stash of fabric never seems to go down. Oddly enough, he never says anything about how it never goes UP. Gah.

Anyway, after a nice afternoon nap to recover, some Prevera reviews and a trip to the babysitter’s to pick Eva up at the usual time, I spent the night relaxing in front of the sewing machine and churned out two rather cute little piggies in under two hours. Only thing left to go around the eyes, nose and mouth – no buttons here as they are meant for kiddies – plus to cut out more fabric combinations to make more piggies.

Heck, I won’t be surprised if we get a piggie invasion over the next few days! LOL!

In an effort to cut back on my fabric stash, I have inadvertently added to it. I’m planning on sewing up some plushies and had to hunt down some chenille, fleece as well as some fat quarters in green. So before my food poisoning episode came, I made some time from all the usual stuff I do online (hcg diet reviews, etc) and offline to hop on over to Spotlight with Eva in tow.

Not a great idea because an hour after lunch, my stomach aches got worse and Eva got fussier. By the time I was done with the shopping, I was pretty much dying and even Nil remarked that I looked awfully pale. Instead of going with him to meet his friend, I took my shopping and myself home (he got to spend some time with Eva instead). Heck, even the cab driver noted that I was tired because I fell asleep in the cab!!!

Anyway, that aside, I managed to score some ivory and brown chenille – no black unfortunately – together with some skin colour felt and other fabrics that I think will look great as part of a toy. They didn’t have fleece in the colours that I wanted and no plain flannel so I ended up with wool felt instead. I figure it should be just fine.

I think I shall start prepping for my sewing projects once my tummy gets better. Hopefully it’ll be by tomorrow. *sigh*

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!

DIY Mei Tai
Fabric | Cotton drill (Spotlight), regular cotton fabric (IKEA), fleece (for padding)
Pattern | Mei Tai tutorial

I was supposed to blog about this earlier but got caught up with a lot of other things, namely housechores, groceries, picking Eva up from the babysitter, house-hunting and so forth. Still, I surprised myself by finishing this quite quickly once I sat down to it. I had been slowly working on it on an on-off basis and often blamed it on my lack of sewing mojo (sometimes I think my sewing mojo needs some form of insurance like an NC health insurance). Well, no more!

When I first started off this project, my sewing machine was already a little clunky. Then halfway through when I was putting the fleece together with the drill, it died on me. I went through a few breaks in the thread before it finally came to a halt. So off it went to the doc’s – well, he’s just a guy with a stall at the market near my place – and the prognosis was quite grim. The machine needs to be serviced, it’s been a while and well, it’ll take a couple of days and I’ll let you know the cost. For a moment there, I thought he was going to tell me that it would cost an arm and leg, but no, it turned out to be an affordable $60. Well-worth it consider that the machine hasn’t gone for servicing since the 80s!

After I got it back, I could tell that there was a lot of difference to how it ran – smoother and definitely quieter! But I didn’t really get to work on it often as Eva was going through some teething-related sticky bouts and my nights were more for relaxing instead of sewing (*shifty eyes*). So it sat in one corner and finally saw the light again when Eva started going to the babysitter. Before I knew it, I was very close to the end of it all.

Then it happened.

I broke THREE needles try to put the hood strap loops onto the straps! All that padding and folded killed three needles before finally submitting to a leather needle. Of course I had to go ultra slow as well. But yes, three needles! *shakes head* But when it was done, I realized another mistake I made. I sewed the hood straps on the wrong end of the hood!!!! ARGH! After more ripping, or rather snipping, I did some simple zigzag sewing and voila, it looked right and proper again!

Eva and I tested it out once she got back and I tried front as well as back carry. Found back carry to be a little strange and I suspect I still need time to adjust to the weight on my back instead of in the front like how I’ve been carrying Eva all this while. But hey, I wore her with this when my parents were around and found it surprisingly airy despite the hot and humid conditions here. It’d be perfect for European weather though as drill cotton is quite thick. I would sew it better the next time and am even tempted to make the Japanese version called the Onbuhimo which has two rings at the waist instead of a waist strap. One annoying thing about mei tais though – storing them with those long straps! Still, at least now, we’ve got a back-front carry carrier that works for Nil and myself! w00t!

…well, almost.

Just earlier this morning, I decided that it was time to dust off those WIPs in hibernation and put my knitting needles to good use. Nil had remarked that I switch hobbies far too often and bemoaned the status of my non-moving yarn which we paid to move here together with all our stuff. Heh. Okay okay, I get the drift. I need to kick myself in knitting again.

So I took a look at my Rav project page and decided on what WIPs to bring out of hibernation and such. One the list was my Ivy wrap which has been on hibernation for a longgggg time. I managed to make some headway with it towards the end of my pregnancy but alas, fell short of the finish line. So this time, I was determined to finish it by hook or crook.

Now, I was about to start working on my Ivy wrap when a rather large-ish order for crochet booties came in. So once again, it’s KIV…for now. I’m hoping to be able to work in a few rows in the evenings. The plan is to work on the shop items (booties and sewing) while Eva takes her afternoon naps and reserve my evenings for time with Nil and doing my other hobbies like knitting, spinning and sewing up non-shop items like my quilts. Hopefully this plan works out…

*keeps fingers crossed*