Long time coming

It has indeed been some time since I managed to blog just about anything. For some reason when December started, we got swamped with work which is great of course, as it made up for the very slow beginning of 2009.

So I've been trying to find little pockets of time in between work and weekend with the kids to do something. Our Christmas presents for the family unfortunately still has to go out! It's awful and I'm fortunate my family has been quite forgiving about the lateness. I guess they get to have Christmas all over again... the gifts will finally and definitely will be out this week and I'm so looking forward to that!

I thought I'd share a few things I managed to get done over the last few months in pictures rather than words; or at least I'll try not to blah too much...

Our Advent Calendar: This is the finished version of what I blogged about some time ago here. A new tradition for us which we will be taking out of storage every Christmas. My first project that involved a lot of hand sewing and embroidery. The kids loved taking turns getting the ornaments out of the pockets.


One of the projects I thought I wouldn't be able to do this year - a December Daily - inspired by Ali Edwards. This gave me a huge sense of accomplishment as I managed to persevere in spite of all the late hours I had at the office. Plus everyone contributed, even daddy! I am looking forward to doing this again in 2010. Pictures can be found on my Flickr.


My first foray into making softies and dollies. This was from Wee Wonderfuls. It was quite an experience and can't wait to make more. Made these 2 plus 2 sleeping bags, 2 jumpers or overalls and 2 backpacks as gift to Margot, our French neighbour's daughter. They were all leaving Shanghai for good and I thought these were perfect to remind her of Samuel and Audrey. They've been playmates ever since we moved to the current address so it was quite sad to see them go...


The scarves for Stephanie and Bernard. I wasn't sure if I could do this as I've never sewn with silk before but wanted to use bits of silk I had lying around so decided to just do it. So happy with the results. Did not use batting as I didn't want it to be heavy since the cashmere wool on the other side was already enough weight.



Kidlets by JCasa. Made 6 for my colleagues each with their initials and different fabric.




There's actually more but I thought I should wait until my family has received their gifts or it'll spoil the surprise.

I'm working on a stuff for Chinese New Year... And stuff for kids to do over the 1-week holiday.

And also finished making a Tooth Fairy Pillow for Audrey. Check it out here.

My Life Now

A couple weeks ago, I outdid myself and finished a little book within a couple days! This was inspired by Molly Irwin's version (sorry Molly if mine is a bit of a replica to yours but I just liked your style and it was the easiest way to go about it) and link from Stacy Julian's blog. I thought it would be a perfect gift to myself as I turn the big 4-0. There's actually more stuff I had forgotten... Maybe I'll add it as notes on a separate page.


All are digital pages from various sources. The panel with the photos were printed on a linen cotton sheet (maybe this is also called a bookcloth) which I found while the other side was printed on a thick card stock in order to give the pages printed on linen some stiff support.

Birthday Goodies

So so excited with my new birthday goodies. Simon brought home loads of books and magazines from Hong Kong for my birthday and these will definitely keep me occupied for the next few days; we have 11 days off from work starting tomorrow.

And then I got some eye candy goodies in the mail from a local online shop. I've planned on doing more embroidery so these would be perfect to start off with. Don't the colours look yummy?


And some Zakka style leather strings which I will be using on some mini album projects I've got planned (more on that later). I love the colours and the texture.


Watch out for the Giveaway# 3 coming up on Friday.

More Bags

Quick sewing over the weekend. Practically finished sewing each bag within a few hours and quite happy with the results. Definitely will be sewing more bags.


This bag was from Pippijoe pattern which was one of the few patterns I've bought recently from here.


This was very easy to do and only took me a few hours from cutting to finish. This bag is a gift for our Senior Designer. Added a little detail with a bunny button available from aCloset.


This based on a pattern I've been waiting to do ever since I saw this on Rae's blog. This only became available just a few days after I ordered the Pippijoe one... Anyway, I decided to buy this pattern anyway to compare. The cutting took longer for this bag due to the size and my work table isn't that big. So had to work on the floor for that one.

For this bag, I decided to use an embroidered fabric I bought years ago from the very original fabric market in Shanghai. When I saw this, it reminded me of a Shanghai Tang coat so I thought I could make a coat with this as it's quite a heavier weight cotton. But prenancy, twins, and 3+ years later, it still is sitting in my tub of fabric stash. I thought it was time I used this fabric for this bag esp since this was big enough for the required material.

So happy with the result esp with the nice shade of purple linen cotton lining I used and hope the person receiving this will also like it (this purple is her favourite colour). This is a gift for her upcoming birthday...

Gift for Mick and Suzy

Finally finished sewing up a bundle of gift for my good friends Mick and Suzy who are expecting a third baby this September.



Here are the links to the patterns and gift tags:
Tags: aCloset
Bib pattern: Chickpea Sewing Studio
Burp cloth: here
Cloth shoes: Stardust Shoes which reminded me of the first shoes my twins wore.

If only I'd had time to sew when I was still pregnant (I was working until the day before I had to go to the hospital to deliver via C-section; my doctor had panicked...) I would have made these same stuff for them... But it is still as much fun to make goodies for babies as gifts.

I decided at the last minute to use snap closures for the bib. Bought extra moulds for the closures for this piece of machine I bought 6 years ago but didn't realize how useful it was until I took it out of storage a few weeks ago.

Handmade Gifts for a Baby

We had quite a productive weekend, esp. me. Finally managed to finish a lot of projects and a lump of them were for some handmade gifts for our neighbour's new baby. 

To wrap up the gifts, I made these wrappers which are free to download from here. An extra page is available in case you need to increase the length of the wrapper. Download, print, and cut the wrapper. Add a bit of double-sided tape on the edge of the wrapper. Write in your dedication and then wrap it around the gift.


For the gifts, knitted a blanket from Erika Knight's book Simple Knits For Cherished Babies with the baby's surname initial in the middle. Sewn in a little cotton/linen tag that says 'handmade' on the very edge/corner of the blanket. You can find the labels at aCloset.com.

At the last minute, decided to also crochet a little toy/blankie bunny, which I couldn't resist when I saw the pattern. For the latter, I improvised quite a lot. Did not use 2 strands to crochet, made the bunny head slightly bigger, used a contrasting colour for the edging and did a  lot of changes to the size of the blankie. If you want to do this, I would highly recommend adding more chains to the 'arms' because it was quite a challenge tying the knots. I've already added about 4 chains plus the edgings but because the yarn is quite thick it still was not easy tying the knot. Overall, the toy is quite easy to do.

Put all the stuff in a diaper bag that I did some time ago. You can find a few left on aCloset.com, too.