Finishing Up

Somehow March has just snuck up on us... what we thought would be a long long month, is now it's almost over. Easter is just around the corner (not a big event here in Shanghai expat for the expats as Chinese don't celebrate Easter, however Easter this year is celebrated on the same day as Tomb Sweeping Day).

With the weather going crazy - one day cold, one day hot, one day snowing (yes, we had a big snow which did not settle though, in March), one day rainy, and so on... everyone's been sick with the colds.

Anyway, been trying to finish a lot of stuff that are way overdue. Reading other people's blogs at least gives me comfort that it's not just me but also some of you out there have those unfinished projects.

Finished the tooth fairy pillow for Samuel, which turned out more complicated than I had planned. Pattern to follow soon.


A cardi for my boy... I love the red accents and how everything turned out nicely. I'm hoping he would still be able to get into this next winter.


And finally, matching jammies for the twins. I didn't manage to get a good photo esp since they were both doing all their kungfu moves! These were supposed to be our new Christmas tradition - new jammies for everyone - but I only managed to make the bottoms for everyone this time. The kimono top took a backseat so it was a great feeling to finally finish the whole set. The kids were quiet ecstatic and Samuel told me he didn't want his jammies washed for a long time (oh no!).

I love the versatility of these Oliver + S patterns that unisex because I can cut the pattern for both and sew both in one go.

Matryoshka Tooth Fairy Pillow

Okay, I know it's been a while since I last updated this blog. So many things just somehow happened all at the same time and as much as I wanted to stretch waking hours to 24 hrs, just couldn't...

Anyways, a couple weeks ago my daughter gave me a bit of a scare telling me one of her tooth was loose. So that got me scrambling to do a tooth fairy pillow. Searched online but couldn't find anything I liked so in the end I did my own design.

I used felt to do this and pretty much hand sewn everything except for the outline which I used a sewing machine just to make sure the filling inside don't come out. Along the way, I also slightly made some changes to the result so feel free to do your own based on the template.

The tooth, when it falls out, would be placed inside the pocket of the apron. For now, the pillow is hanging on their room door... next I need to do one for my little boy - a robot one.


Click below image to download a printable PDF.


It would be great to see what you made. So please post to Flickr group pool here.

Bubble Dress Finished!

Managed to get a few hours of sewing time and so so so happy that I managed to finish the Oliver + S Bubble Dress for my little girl. This was supposed to be a birthday dress but it got put on hold a bit.

Audrey was excited to wear it and we did on a little picnic outing and lots of races. She wondered why there's no 'bubbles' as shown on the packaging's picture.

On the dress, this was a great pattern to work with but approached it a bit with trepidation because it looked complicated and not sure about my sewing skills. But it turned out actually easy and just loved the way it turned out and still cannot believe I made this. Now, on to the next Oliver + S pattern... or another Bubble Dress.

Kids' On the Sewing Machine

The past couple weekends the kids have been fighting for a chance to try their hand at my sewing machine. They've finally learned to take turns. What surprised me was how well they somehow knew how to use the machine. Audrey looked like she's done it before (maybe she has while I'm at work) and Samuel... well... he's a little 'engineer' like daddy. He's seen me change the foot of the sewing machine once this morning and immediately he knew how to do it! They've learned to change to setting it to different stitch settings and using diff. foot for certain stitch style.

Kids' Messenger Bags

Just in time for our trip next week, managed to finished the messenger bags for my twins. This is based on a fantastic easy-to-follow tutorial from mmmcrafts.

When I printed out the blog post and showed to my twins what design they would like to have, Samuel immediately told me he wanted a blue guitar and Audrey said she wants a pink butterfly. So the easiest was to draw a these icons and use felt to cut them up and applique them onto the flap. Followed the great tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew! blog on how to do machine appliqués. As this was only my second time to do appliqués on my sewing machine, you can see there is still room for improvement. The little pieces and details were sewn in first onto the main body and then used the sewing machine to appliqué the entire design onto the flap.

I've reduced the size for these bags as the size specified was a bit big. I think I reduced the width of the bag by 4 inches. The pink one uses cotton canvas and the blue is denim linen. For the latter, I had to add some batting to give it body as it ended up a bit too soft even after the lining was added.

The greatest feeling was the big smile they had when I showed them their bags and immediately wanted to put stuff in. They didn't want me to take pictures of it as they just wanted to walk around the house with their bags.

Kids' Activity Pack

At last we will be able to go on a short vacation after all. Kids are very excited and I definitely am, too. When we found out we can travel, I started thinking again an idea I had for some time now but have never managed to materialize it. Our friends were going on a vacation before us so I thought it was a good opportunity to start with a pack for Owen and Liam to take on their vacation.

Here's a few pictures of what I've managed to put together. You can download the tutorial (PDF) here. This is just a guide on I made our packs so feel free to customize it and share what you've made. This is for personal use only. As this is my first tutorial, please don't hesitate to let me know what improvements or how to simplify this.

The notebooks I added in the pack were extras I had and covered with scrap fabrics left over from other projects. You can find the tutorial here. The road map included in the boys' packs can be downloaded from here.

Add any goodies/toys you have in hand. Most of what I've included in each of the kids' packs are stuff I already had and so it was good to do some de-stashing at the same time. See more pictures here...

I may do more to give as Christmas presents... what do you think?

Baby Shoes

My 3 attempts at sewing the Stardust Shoes... Yes, I did 3 pairs of these for friends who's had just given birth or is having a baby.

The pattern is quite easy and the tutorial very clear. My only problem was trying to add the elastic onto the shoes which was for me, a beginner, a bit tricky. Actually, I waited a couple weeks in between sewing the first pair and the second and third as I needed to 'be inspired' or otherwise I'll do a bad job. The waiting paid off and the 2nd 3rd pair turned out better.

Would I sew this again, I think most likely yes! I just wished I'd learn how to sew back when my twins were still tiny babies and I probably would have made dozens!

Flower Power

Last night, I had an itch to do and finish projects before the weekend. Weekend evenings are typically impossible to do anything after the kids are in bed except flop down in front of the TV and knit or crochet and let my mind go 'blank'... So, I ended up doing this fabric ranunculus that I read about on House on Hill Road. Thanks for the tutorial, Erin.

Used Audrey's jersey blouse from H&M which I bought last year but has since been hardly worn... (she thinks it is not interesting enough as it doesn't have much on it...). With bits of extra fabric from another dress I made for her and a bead, voila! It was easy to do after I 'mastered' the zigzag part. And above all, she was very very pleased with it when she saw it this morning. I'm glad, too.

It's not 'perfect' and I definitely will be doing a couple more :-)

Sewing and Knitting

Found this post on SouleMama about Heather Ross's Mendocino SunDress and I knew I just had to try it. This is also sort of the current trend in Shanghai women wearing various summer dresses or tops with smocking. And it so happens I had a big big spool of elastic thread bought 4 years ago or a project which never materialized so it's never been used.

I found that House On Hill Road has an even better, more in-depth and detailed tutorial. ThreadBanger also has a video tutorial where I got the idea for the strap.

After Audrey's dress, I'm now working on a version for me using a really nice cotton poplin fabric (which I never really appreciated until just now) bought almost 5 years ago for only U$0.75 a metre, and never got a chance to use it until now.

Lessons learned: I've to sew slowly with the elastic thread to keep the stitches straight. And to add more spacing in between lines as I made them a bit more dense...

Sacs A Tout

A few weeks ago, I saw a blog post on Non-Dairy Milk showing her 'les sacs a tout' and this got me really inspired to make one for my twins. It so happen I was reading on 'Creative Family' about creating some 'sleeping bags' which the kids can put pajamas in along with books and whatever they want to take to bed with them. So I merged these 2 concepts together and this is what came out of it.


I had loads of fabric that I bought almost 4 years ago and never managed to get anything made out of them. Okay, the background story is, when we moved to Shanghai about 9 years ago, I couldn't find clothes that fits because most Shanghainese women are very small and thin. Hence I discovered how cheap it was to just buy the fabric at the market and getting a tailor to do it. Of course there were the good and bad experiences in between. So when I had my twins, I've stopped buying fabrics and getting clothes made. Recently I decided to dig up these and found a lot of 'treasures' I had already forgotten I had. Years ago when I purchased fabrics, most of them were 'girly' ones and none suitable for a boy so had to buy the blue aquatic one for a mere US$1.00 per metre.

Last weekend, I started with my bag (the brown one) to try out the pattern and instructions (which was only in French) from Guirlande. Made mistakes along the way but overall, was happy with it and it is quite roomy and big enough to put my knitting/crochet projects in.

Then during the weekend when I finished my bag, I started cutting up the pieces for my kids' bags. They were eagerly anticipating their 'sleeping bags' and kept coming into my new craft room to check on the progress! Last night I decided to stay up until 3am to finish both bags. I was inspired to finish these and trying out different ways of making it.

The kids were very happy to wake up this morning and seeing their finished bags on the coffee table. Audrey filled hers with a couple books and her current favourite teddy. Samuel immediately emptied some mini figurines of Disney characters into his bag along with a couple of his current favourite books.



The one major thing I changed was the handles as well as adding some extra stitching on the edge of the bag esp near the handles for durability. If I were to make this again, I will still use cotton canvas fabric and not soft ones like linen and they don't hold their shapes well.

Anyways, so happy with how they turned out and I might make some more for some kids we know for Christmas. Never too early to start. This is a good way to use up my stash of fabrics.