More Christmas Presents!

My sister-in-law loves cooking and so I planned to make her something that she can use them while she cooks. I made a set for myself couple months ago and I found them very useful and pretty to display in the kitchen. I hope she'd like it!

A. Bird Shape Pot holder

I found the template and instruction from a Japanese website - apalog.com/studio-clip_craft/.

I don't read Japanese so it took me a long time to figure out every single step.

This holder has to stand heat. So a layer of insulation has to add in.

The fabric is made of cotton + linen. It's not as soft as cotton, 

so it's very suitable for making holder like this. The diagonal lines are sewn one by one just to make it prettier~~

what's the end product look like? you'll see!

Here comes the 2nd one:

B. Lid holder

This instruction was even harder to understand for this one and I felt so amazed that I could actually follow the step without understanding a single word of Japanese!!

Again, this needs insulation too. 

My fingers got really tired because I needed a lot of strength to push fabric along the sewing machine. These fabrics are now in 3 to 4 layers. They are thick!!!

bird shape pot holder + lid holder are made!

Christmas Time

It's Christmas couple days ago and this year I decided to handmade presents for my friends and relatives. Preparation started back in about end of October where I purchased fabrics online, usually took about 3 weeks for shipping. I didn't know what I wanted to make when I bought the fabrics though, but at least buying them was a way to start this Christmas project!

These fabrics were purchased from etsy.com and fabricworm.com

I also handmade some ornaments which I didn't know where I would use them but I just did them. 

These were made on the weeknights while my husband and I listened to the radio station.

I also bought some cards at 'One of a Kind Show' to go along with my presents. The special thing about these cards were the emboss texture which made them more unique than others. I would usually take pictures of the presents before I handed them out, as I know I would miss them a lot.

One of the presents I planned to do was this little cute fabric basket. This was just a demo I tested myself. It's easy to make and practical as anything that put in there made them beautiful!

I did two in a row =) Not bad eh?! The blue looks more standout but the other one looks more French.

Now it's time to make a real one for my friend:

That's all the materials needed for making a fabric basket! 

The bottom fabric is lining - this makes the basket stronger and can stand by itself.

My husband and I usually share this craft table at night but 

because it was full of fabrics and so he couldn't find a space to read....

but he was happy that he finally found a corner.  =)

The hardest part was to sew outside and inside basket (lining) together. I used canvas to make the  inside basket, so I needed a lot of strength when stitching them together.

I made it!

With a pair of socks inside made it even more like a complete present.

Last but not least, I added a little tag that I stamped it myself.

That took about 1 1/2 hours to complete and I enjoyed it a lot!

I hope my friend would like it too when she receives this present.

My 2nd project - Drapery + Lining

After our succeed in making our first draperies for our craft room, we have decided to move on to our master bedroom. It's gonna be even more challenging this time because the fabric we've picked has repeated floral patterns in them, which means I gotta match them if I have to widen the panels, which means... MORE CALCULATIONS!!!

In order to make perfect draperies, I can't be lazy, ironing plays an important part.

It's such a mess in my lovely craft room.

Keeping a long piece of fabric straight is very difficult when 

my working table isn't big enough, but my table is actually quite big already!!!!

Cutting fabric straight is also very difficult too. 

Many times I am off by half an inch, sometimes even an inch!

I did enough calculations for the draperies but I still have to calculate another set for the lining. 

My husband decided to help me on that as he is good in calculations!!

All these works are made possible because of the internet. I went through many websites to find out the type of window treatments I can handle and calculations for every single detail. 

Youtube has also helped me a lot as I went through many video tutorials too. 

Another DIY project completed!!!

This took about a weekend to do, compare to the first drapery for my craft room, I spent two weekends. It's a lot of work and they are heavy but I enjoy it! 

Will I do more?

ヽ(^。^)ノ 

You'll see.

My first sewing project

Believe it or not, my experience of sewing was only gained when I was at my age of 11 which I took a family study class in high school back in Hong Kong. We did an apron, a flute holder and... I guess that's it. We then moved to Canada, since then I haven't sewn a thing.

At the beginning of this year, my husband and I moved into a new house. Renovation costs a big chunk of money and so we started planning some DIY projects, hopefully this can save some $$ and at the same time and custom made some of our décor. I had the courage to start a big DIY project - sewing draperies for our 2nd level rooms. For people who have sewing experience might say this is not a big deal at all, but for me, who haven't sewn for more than 20 years is a challenge! 

To start a sewing project has to at least get a sewing machine - luckily, my mom got one which she bought before we moved to Canada more than 20 years ago. She stored it in her basement and has never use it. Well, let me be the new owner for this little piece of machine then!

Thanks to the Singer that starts my sewing life!! Compare to the ones in the market right now, this's sure a grandma but I love her!

The first room I did draperies for was my craft room. I got so excited that I can have my own craft room in our new home as I know I'll need plenty of space to do my art & craft projects.

I chose a very light fabric for my windows - linen. This is not an ideal type of fabric for window treatment but I just wanted to try it out anyway.

Later on when I finally started out, I found that linen is very hard to iron and sew... look, i was really struggling there... but because I had already purchased like 10 yards of them, I gotta finished it off....

That wasn't a great beginning (@_@;)

But I made it through.  (^___^)

I'm quite impressed with the work I did. Not only about saving money but mostly it's the courage to begin and the endurance to complete. Having said that, there are still many areas I need to improve, like my sewing techniques, as it's not easy to even sew a straight line... and calculations plays a big part in sewing.. it was such a nightmare calculating each panel accurately and then i had to cut and sew accurately in order to get all 4 panels the same height and width. I am a free hand person, i don't like measuring things but I guess in the sewing world, I have to change some part of myself!!! This is fun!

Finally, my husband was very happy for me too but i know he was a little unsure with the see-through fabric.  =)