Shirred sun-top

I used the same heather ross sundress pattern but shortened it to a top. It took one metre of fabric and 2 bobbins of elastic thread for the shirring. I made wider straps this time.

Yippee, I actually remembered to align the checks when I cut the fabric! Shirring on this fabric was easy as I could just follow the lines on the fabric.

The sash was added after the bodice was shirred. It was hand sewed with little stitches onto the side seams. This top is a definitely winner because she wore it the day after I finished it :)

This skirt with the cute print doesn't fit me anymore. It fits my daughter but it was too long.

So I cut off 8 inches from the hem. My goodness, she looks so grown up in this photo!

And before I go, I have to show you this photo I took of a page in Chic magazine. I'm in cardigan love! I must go and look for an old cardigan in my closet and buy some cute lace trim and make this Chanel lookalike. By the way, if you live in Singapore, Chic costs only S$2.80 and is published twice a month, on Thursday of the first and third week of the month. It has fabulous photography and styling and gives you the scoop on fashion in the local shops.

no-pattern tunic

The patternless tunic is done, finally ... after, like, 3 months?!

I kept procrastinating on starting this project. As I didn't have a pattern, I had to think through how the various parts should be sewn and which parts should be sewn first.

Once I started cutting the pieces and sewing, it went quite fast. I made my daughter try out after every seam to see how it would hang. I had to make modifications (unpicking, cutting and re-sewing) along the way. It was my fault for drafting a pattern that was too wide and too long - the theory was that I could always narrow it down and shorten. It was a self fulfilling prophesy really. For future projects, I need to have the guts to draft a pattern that fits just right.

It's not too bad, but not entirely as I had visualised (see my earlier illustration below). First of all, the edge of the top part is wrong -there's some weird upward and outward look to it :) Second, the flap in the front wasn't supposed to be pleated. I forgot that the flap was supposed to be flat and the pleats were supposed to go under the flap. But fortunately it wasn't a major boo boo as there was only room for 2 teeny pleats on each side and the pleated flap still looks acceptable. Third, the tab down the front doesn't look sturdy enough, even though I used a double layer of fabric. I might sew 2 little round wood buttons to the tab if I can find the right ones. Lastly, the fabric is a bit too lightweight for the kind of drape I was aiming for, so it hangs rather listlessly, instead of having a bit more body, but oh well, it's a learning experience.

I sewed on the pockets after I had finished the tunic. Probably wasn't the best way to do it, but I had not figured out how to make the pockets yet when I started the project. I tried to make a pocket with gathers as in my illustration but it was disastrous! Eventually I had to abandon the cute gathered pocket and make do with a crocheted doily sewn onto the tunic. I like the wooden butterfly button. Oh I forgot to take a photo of the inside of the pocket. I wanted to show you that the pocket is lined with a blue floral fabric on the inside :)

I wonder if she'll wear it? We'll have to wait and see because she didn't seem the least bit excited about this one. Hopefully it will grow on her.

this n that

Oh dear, I'm afraid this blog is turning into a sewing blog with no knitting or croheting . That's because I have very little free pockets of time at the moment and sewing somehow just fits better into those little bits. But I miss the knitting and crocheting. So I picked up some leftover yarn and started this. It's going to be a cushion cover. Crocheted on one side and knitted on the other.

I did a bit of crafting with my daughter's new top from a cool shop called "Pull and Bear". She tried it on a few months back and loved it but didn't buy it. Well, the top was on discount when we went back recently. So it followed her home. But there was a big bow that she didn't like. So I snipped it off ....

... sewed running stitches on one end, pulled, made it into a flower and sewed it back on.

A close up of the flower. I'm seeing a lot of clothes lately, with flowers embellished on them. Don't you think it would be such a fun d-i-y project to convert a plain Tshirt into an embellished one?

My daughter's been baking. She made dozens of these adorable cupcakes for teachers and friends for Teachers' Day. She used her usual plain cupcake recipe. After baking, she dug a bit of the top off, filled it with nutella and topped it off with half a strawberry, and dusted it with icing sugar. I love the icing sugar. It makes the cupcakes look a bit magical :) She made another batch for our cell group meeting at home. Everyone loves this!

She got a bit tired of baking cupcakes and tried out Alton Brown's chocolate chip cookie, the version where the butter is melted before creaming. It didn't give her plump looking cookies. They still spread out kind of flat but the good thing is that they had the chewy texture. Oh and she used only 1 cup of choc chips instead of 2 cups. She brought a box to share with her girlfriends in school.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that I'm crocheting 2 of these doilies to finish some sewing project. I'll tell you more about it when (fingers crossed) I find the leftover fabric that I need to complete this project.

cheers :)

Heather Ross sundress

We have been invited to a wedding and the dress code is white or light blue. This is the first time we've recived a wedding invite that specified the colour for the dress code. I think it's going to be fun! But, as it turned out, my daughter doesn't have any white or light blue dresses. And, she didn't have time to shop for such a dress, given that she's having major exams this month and next. So I offered to sew her a dress. If you know me, you'll know that I have a teeny tiny issue of procrastination ... hehee, I could tell she was a bit anxious, from the way she was urging me to get started on it soon.

It took me half a day to cut and sew the dress. And the ruffly sash took another afternoon. The dress is Heather Ross' mendocino sundress and you can download the pattern here. I found the ruffly sash from this lovely wedding website called 100layercake. The ruffly sash was inspired by a pretty ruffly headband made by a talented girl called Rachel at heart-of-light. I want to say a big THANKS to these ladies for sharing their patterns and instructions.

The dress is made from a white IKEA Dvala flatsheet (S$15) and there's enough leftover for a gathered skirt. I like the fabric as it is soft 100% cotton and a good size - 150cm X 260cm. The shirring was a first for me and it really is easier than it looks. I used 3 bobbins worth of elastic. I had a bit of hiccup when I re-loaded the elastic into the bobbin case the 2nd time. It didn't shir much as I hadn't pulled the elastic properly when I inserted the bobbin. If that ever happens to you, don't fret. You need not unpick the three lines of sewing. You can fix it by just pulling the elastic at the back to the desired amount of shirr-ness (you know what I mean). I also added a lining to the skirt part of the dress because white is otherwise very transparent. By the way I used the S size for my daughter and it fits her exactly. But I have to tell you that my daughter is super petite, so the S size might be a bit small in the chest for most adults. The dress length is very long. I chopped off A LOT (sorry, I can't remember how much) when I cut out the paper pattern and then I hemmed it up by about 2 inches.

I sewed the sash (2 inch broad) to fit round her waist but I left the middle bit of the seam unsewed so I could sew on the ruffly petals to one side of the sash without the messy stitching showing at the back of the sash. I used about 50 or so satin petals and about 25 voile (I like their frayed look) petals. I stacked 3 or 4 petals together each time. After I was done sewing the ruffly petals, I hand sewed the opening in the middle part of the sash.

My daughter is thrilled with the dress and actually told me that she can't wait to wear it! Now, if only I can convince her to wear handknit cardigans.

July disappeared into thin air just like that. My son had an appendectomy and my husband and I took turns to stay with him at the hospital. He's home now although his recovery took a little longer because he had a secondary wound infection and was re-warded. He's a brave little fella and was his usual cheerful self throughout. Just thankful that he's now fine and going back to school tomorrow.

I did a simple bit of re-fashioning the other day. Cut off the bottom leg of my daughter's three-quarter pants from Gap that she no longer likes to wear ...

... and now she has a pair of pink shorts.

I wanted to show you her cute new sneakers :)

I'll leave you with a preview of the tunic I mentioned in my last post. I sewed it last month but it still hasn't got pockets yet because I can't figure out how to make them with a ruffle :)

June's almost over

It's the end of my kids' June school holidays. It wasn't much of a holiday for my older one as she had to go back to school almost everyday for 3 weeks. And, she had 2 exams and a coursework submission deadline during that time as well. Thankfully, she had a bit of a breather for the last week.

She and I had our girls' day out at Bugis. Had lunch at Shokudo. Followed by shopping. We couldn't help it, it was the Great Singapore Sale and the deals were irresistable :)

She baked these cupcakes all by herself,

and enjoyed baking them so much that she baked a dozen and brought them to share with her tuition teacher and friends.

She cooked teppanyaki (beef, chicken and garlic fried rice) for dinner and helped with the washing up as well.

So what have I been up to? Nothing much, so I have no FO to show, but here's a stack of fabric that are recent additions to the stash.

And, a sneak peek at something that I'm trying to sew for my daughter. It's a sketch I drew of a cute jumper (or is it called a tunic?) I saw somewhere. Wish me luck as I have no pattern for it!

By the way, this is how the front of my house looks like right now. There's some drainage upgrading works going on and we have to walk the plank each time we go out!

Halter top

I sewed something today! It went smoothly (for once). The machine has behaved perfectly ever since I found the correct bobbin size for it.

My daughter wanted a halter top. I found a suitable pattern in this book.

She chose this fabric when we went fabric shopping at People's Park.

I had cut up the pieces a long time ago but the sewing was stalled because I lost the book. I needed to refer to the book to follow the steps for sewing. I almost gave up looking for the book when it miraculously re-appeared last week. (My husband found it.)

This is a picture heavy post because I'm so happy with how it turned out. I wish all my sewing projects could have such a happy ending :)

I used the pattern for the smallest size and the only modification I made was to add elastic to the back for a better fit.

She loves it and so do I. Nothing beats having a satisfied customer :)

Final hanging on the door photos to give you a better view.

Sorry for the lack of words in this post. I'm not feeling particularly articulate. Quite tired actually. But happy, simply happy :)