Peasant Dress

Another dress from a japanese book titled "Dress Style Book". It's called peasant dress. I used raglan sleeves instead, with elastic bands inserted. I like how the elastic band makes the creases look neater. :)

Closer view of the dress. This was the first time I worked with bias tape. 

Matched the dress with Naraya hat form Thailand and shoes from Taiwan.

Kitty decided to join in the fun.. 

The dress is comfortable and airy for humid Singapore. My friend commented that it can double up as a maternity dress too. :) 

Stock take

Hubby shifted his clothes to the new wardrobe and gave up some space to me! :) A space so treasured by me cause now I nicely display my fabrics instead of chucking all into those ugly plastic Toyogo boxes. Thank you love!

Here are my fabrics!


Left: Fashion fabrics
Right: Crafting fabrics
Back: Basics

Back to packing my sewing nook! :))

Burdastyle Projects

You can imagine how happy I am to finally finish clicking through all 1791 pages of Burdastyle projects uploaded. It took me almost 4 months in all. I have no idea how many years Burdastyle has been up, but I was brought through a couple of seasons as I surfed. I could feel the transition of seasons just by looking at the type of projects completed, cool? Not just the seasons, also the festives! From Easter to Halloween and Christmas.

The journey was inspiring; to see so many sewing enthusiasts (many self taught) sharing their creations, patterns and techniques. I especially enjoy seeing how 1 pattern could be morphed into many variants, oh, and also how other people put fabrics together. Sharing with you some of my favorites!

What's next? I'm going to pack that messy sewing nook of mine and start sewing! :D

Fabric Bookmark

My colleague recently developed a passion for reading and she used receipts to bookmark (then had the hardest time looking for the thin slip of paper afterwards). I made her a personalised fabric bookmark, in her favorite hot pink colour, as an encouragement to continue reading. She loved it!

She can display her pretty name by the side of the book or...

at the top. Whatever makes her happy! :)

Apologies for the bad pictures taken in the night cause I intended to give her the bookmark the morning after making it.

I used cotton-polyester with medium interface, which also doubled up as stabilizer for the embroidery.

Antique

I stood around as hubby washed the dishes and discovered this antique item at Mama Chang's place!!


It's actually a stove lighter older than my 34 yr old hubby. Mama Chang said it is in good (working) condition, and more amazingly, doesn't require any refill!

So coool. :)

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My latest addition

My hubby asked me what I would like to receive for our first wedding anniversary (23 Dec) and christmas. I listed the top 3 on my wishlist:

Serger/Overlocker - to finish my seams nicely

Canon Powershot S95 - to take awesome pictures of my creations

Tripod - to snap pictures of myself in my creations!

That is how much I love sewing. :)

Guess what he got me?


Brother 3034D to accompany my Brother Innov-is 900. Thank you my love!

First Altering

Do you encounter this problem of friends asking you to help (at no cost) them sew this and that after they got to know you sew? I have my fair share of requests after uploading pictures onto my Facebook account.

I will feel bad for turning down their requests, but I don't want to agree either. See, I'm not sure if they would appreciate the items as much as a fellow sewer would. They seemed to be more concerned about the $$ they save, at the expense of my time.

My answer to striking a balance between their $ and my time is Altering. Yes, it saves them $4 to $12 and couple of hrs for me. Perfect!! :))

Then, a colleague of mine asked if I could help to shorten her dress. I thought "why not?". There, my first victim, all excited to snip off her dress. She hated the ruffles at the bottom.



This is her in her 'new' dress! As long as she's happy!



I got quite a fair bit of fabric from the snip. Perhaps I'll make a skirt for myself?


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Sewing Machine Maintenance

Each time I walked past stalls selling oil for sewing machines, I questioned myself if I should oil my Brother Innov-is 900 too. The last thing I want to witness is the machine breaking down due to lack of maintenance. So I did a search and found the following from Brother's website.

There is no need to lubricate the machine because the machine has been oiled enough in advance.

Lubrication can cause trouble. 
Please do not put the oil in your machine.

For a maintenance check, please contact Authorized Dealer or Service Center.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How nice! No oiling needed! All I need to do is remove the lints from bobbin area. :))

Where to get Fabrics in Singapore

Here are the list of shops I enjoy visiting! :))

Daiso
I tried my luck one fine day and found out that the store has a crafting section too! Fancy a $2 acryllic bag handles or cute fat quarters?

Spotlight @ Plaza Singapura Shopping Mall, Level 5
Singapore largest air-conditioned fabric shopping place. Need I say more about Spotlight? Keep a look out for sales!

Golden Dragon @ 101, People’s Park Centre, Upper Cross Street #02-51 S(058357)
This store is a crafting heaven! They sell everything you need for sewing, knitting, crocheting and crafting.

Chinatown People's Park Complex
You can find more variety of fabrics here at relatively lower cost. Many of which imported from China. There are a few shops selling Japanese imported fabrics from $12/m onwards. Try bargaining!

Shops along Arab Street
This is the place to go if you fancy beads, laces and printed fabrics. Some shops allow bargaining too!

Fabric.com
The shop I made my first online fabrics purchase. Costs similiar to Spotlight after shipping charges. Say yes to huge clearance sales!

Fabric TALES
Do you fancy Japanese cloth? I adore it! :) This is the english site of a Japanese online shop named Nunogatari. Fabrics are reasonably priced. 


Etsy
Love this place. Just do a 'Supplies' search and you'll find just what you need! :)

Forums
Sometimes home/overseas business owners organise fabric sprees in forums. The down side is that you will have to check spree listing often and the order, depending on when you ordered, usually takes 4-8weeks to arrive.

How to calculate the amount of material you need for curtains

Planning on making your own curtains?
I came across this link in Twitter! :)

No more headaches for my next set of curtains! Cheers.

Diaper Cake Tutorial

Cracking your head for baby gift ideas? Try making a diaper cake! It's pretty, practical and can double up as a great display for the party!

How to make a Diaper Cake
Things you need: Diapers (of course!), 8 to 12 inch cake base depending on your cake size, ribbons, scortch tape, scissors. If you're planning to do a 2 tier cake, you'll need something strong such as cardboard roll or milk bottle for support.

I used 40 sized M diapers for this project.

Stack the diapers together until it fits the cake base nicely. This step can be a little tricky cause the diapers keep slipping away. Get a helper to hold it for you, or try what I did - hug it with one arm, then use a ribbon to secure the diapers with the other. Spread the diapers evenly.

Tape the support to the cake base to prevent it from moving when you wrap the diapers around it. 

Place the diaper over the support. There! You're done with the lower tier. :)

Now, the second tier. Repeat the stacking diapers process.

Decorate it as you wish! I made 2 fabric ribbons and topped it up with a bow!  The diaper cake is good to go! :)

Wrapping is important for the temperamental weather in Singapore. I used pink polka dots disco paper.

Diaper cake beautified!

Enjoy your diaper cake!

Fabrics from Taiwan (Taipei)

I spent an afternoon at Taipei's Yongle Fabric Market (永樂市場) during a recent trip with hubby. To get there, take a train to Shuanglian station and walk towards  Dihua St (迪化街). Taipei's public transportation is really convenient. :)

Pity that I didn't carry my camera cause my hubby made a south bound day trip to Taichung while I was greeted with bolts and bolts of fabric! It was a bliss to walk the columns and rows over and over again until I was completely satisfied. There were a few shops selling Japanese imported fabrics, price ranges from NT$240 to NT$400 per yard. It isn't significantly cheaper than Japanese fabrics in Singapore, but definitely a wider selection.

Welcome to the family! 

Another picture with rolls of plastic coated fabric behind. :) Great for making water/stain resistant pouches and totes!

Summer Dress

Finally found time to take picture of the first dress I made - Summer Dress! Pattern from japanese book titled "Dress Style Book". The neckline is made higher than original. I've worn this dress out many times.. It's perfect for the most-of-the-time-sunny Singapore. :)

Look at those awful t-shirt sleeve tan lines on my arms! I should hide from the sun when I ride. 

Charlie Bag

I want to make that Charlie bag! :)

Currently...

Working on this.

There are many firsts in this project:

- using the 'eyelet' stitch

- sewing sleeves

- elastic sleeves

- drawstring collar

Diaper Cake for Lorraine

Today is J&K's Lorraine's 1st birthday party! :) Kelvin is a practical guy, so my gift choices were in some sense limited to vouchers, toys, clothes... Well, I chose diaper cake!

There are 2 methods to do diaper cakes - stacking or rolling. I preferred the stacking method cause it does lesser damage to the diapers when being tied together, and I think it's prettier. After bundling the diapers, I made 2 fabric ribbons and topped it off with bow. I was so engrossed it was 1.30am before I knew it! (-_-") Plastic wrapping was done this morning.

TK was home so I got him to snap a picture before I deliver the cake! ♥♥

The unwrapped cake

Lorraine playing with the cake :)

Interested to make one too? Check out the Diaper Cake Tutorial here. :) 

Low Waist Ruffles Dress

This is my 2nd dress from a japanese book titled "Dress Style Book". The original dress has 3 ruffles which I felt was too cluttered. I took a long time to decide using 1 instead cause I had the hardest time hemming all the ruffles! XD

Love the dress! Great for wedding dinners! 

Camping Play Set

This Camping Play Set made by xnickerxje is so cute!!

Safety first! The cat is wearing a life vest. =D

Linen Reversible Bag

Finally completed verypurpleperson's reversible bag tutorial this weekend!

I stole a little moment from each weekday evening after a tired day at work.... and progressed from printing pattern, piecing patterns together, cutting fabric to stitching it altogether! It took me one whole week.

My machine gave me problems when I topstitched the handles.. Have you ever encountered loose stitches? In desperation, I read the operation manual and realised the handle was probably too thick and requires a different needle. This was the first time I changed needle (cleaned up the bobbin as well). Problem solved after that! :)

KAM on one side, TK (my hubby) in a (my) heart the other side.. 

 I wanted to take more pictures but Summer, the very affectionate cat, decided it was his. I tried pulling him away but he'll come back each time before I manage to snap a picture. Maybe he likes linen?

Burp Cloths

Take a peek at my fabric stash and you probably could tell that it's all girly! So it wasn't difficult to decide on the fabric I'll use for the burp cloth for my cousin's baby shower. Happy 1 month, Jingwen. Stay healthy and happy. :)

Both burp cloths have towel material on one side. One with muslin, and the other with flannel on the other side. The muslin was pretty thin, so I added cotton batting. Loved how the machine embroidered name turned out. Maybe I should do make hand towel for myself. Anyway, these took me less than an hour (with interruption) to complete.

It's really easy with the tutorial from Handmade by Jill.

First handmade item for mama

I still remember the joy and love I received along with the cross stitch bag my mama made for me when I was 7. Yes, I kept it till now, and that kept me going. :)

How could I turn down my mama's request for a pouch to put her work apron?



I presented the pouch to her today with dozens of butterflies in my stomach. Started thinking in my mind if she will like the colour? the fabric? the design? But the butterflies flew away when she went "Ahh! This is exactly what I wanted! You're my girl!!", and immediately packed her apron in. Our hearts were filled with ♥.. :)

This time I didn't embroider the name. It was some alphabet stitch. Attached the band so it can be a wristlet when mama's hands are full or tired. The pouch measures 11.5" by 6.5".

Tutorial from MADE .

Reversible Kimono Shoe

I couldn't resist purchasing the pattern for this pair of Reversible Kimono Shoe! Used 100% cotton with batting for more warmth and comfort. It looks a little bulky due to batting, but it's all right, comfort matters more. :)

Pattern used: Sweetpea's Baby Kawaii Kinomo Shoe, USD$4.50.

Tissue Covers

Afternoon was spent sewing and unpicking (At least 10 times!) rolled hem for my dress's ruffles. Feeling so unproductive, I decided to do a small project.

So I made myself a tissue cover! No more ugly tissue packagings. :) 

Used Michael Miller's Christmas Trees fabrics. 

Zippered Pouch

Made a Michael Miller's Japanese Doll (Pink) zippered pouch!

Pets

Obi was allowed to roam freely while I clear his cage.. and he found a new hut for hiding! So cute!

Summer wanted to take picture with his furry friend...

Tmeed was in the queue..

Finally Tmeed's turn! laughs!

I love it when they look into the camera. hehee.

Etsy Shop

KAM Avenue is finally on Etsy.

Please visit to see what's on sale!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/kamavenue

Drawstring Pouch

I couldn't bear to use my elephant mini lunch tote everyday. 

So I made a drawstring pouch for that purpose instead. =D 

Made with ♥, using Michael Miller's Owl fabric. 

Mini Lunch Tote

A mini lunch tote to house my wallet & mobile phone!

I skipped merrily to the study room to share my joy with TK... but he ended up performing a stress test by pulling the bag at opposing directions... *pulls own hair*