Missing my babies...

Yeay for Reds!

This dress/blouse was made based on Nani Iro's pattern and it was my first attempt at square neckline. I have to admit that it was quite difficult to get the neckline right and it took me a whole load of ripping to get it done perfectly. The pattern is in Japanese so it was not much of a help. So I just figure things out myself and went along with it.

And this is the result. I absolutely love it! I wasn't too confident with the fit while cutting the pattern. It looked very small. But somehow it just worked when it was all pieced together.

The back closure. I use a cute star button given by my niece all the way from Aussie. Thanks Mayam!

Note to self for next time:

1. Lengthen the skirt. Nuha wears it as a blouse rather than a dress.
2. Try fully lined yoke, rather than half lined (which i think makes it more difficult to sew)

Yeay for reds!!!!

Nuha supporting Ayah's fav team...



Scenes from my backyard...

Some pictures of the plants and trees happily growing in my backyard...


Juicy pineapple. Yum yum! I did not plant this, it somehow got there. How lucky are we!




Yummylicious!




Mangoes!!




This is another 'lucky' plant. It grows right in the middle of mine and the neighbour's fence. None of us planted it.




Nuha's favourite. She loves isi kelapa muda. I used to drink a lot of air kelapa muda when I was pregnant with her too.




Pandan, serai, lengkuas and kunyit...I plan to plant these at our new house. But with super small yard, not sure if it can be done.



Princess Closet Giveaway

This is my first time entering giveaway...I stumble upon this wonderful blog..A lot of inspirations from K Azidah. She even smocked! Her blog will definitely be my go-to site for smocking inspirations! Thank you K Azidah for having the GA. Bestnyer kalau menang Ottobre magazine tu...I've been wanting one for sooo long but the shipping and exchange rate cost makes me think twice. I am already dreaming of the many cute and pretty outfit I can make for Nuha...like these..so cute

image from ottobre blog

Work In Progress

This was meant to be Nuha's birthday dress. But I got distracted with other things, I failed to complete it before her birthday. Sorry Nuha. This is still in the WIP pile.

What's on my hook??

A few months back I started learning crochet. And since then I'm hooked..haha...I got my crochet starter kit (all the way from Sydney,thanks Mayam) and a few ball of yarns. My first attempt was to crochet a flower...This is the result

Not bad for a first attempt huh? Then I thought why not make a headband with it? So this is the final result. I did not manage to take pictures of it on my the little miss as she refused to wear it. sob sob.I should have known better not to make any hair accessories as she hates wearing anything on her head (even hats!)

After a successful first project, I thought why not start a 'bigger' project? So I decided to make a granny square blanket. This blanket was meant as a gift for my SIL who at the time I started this was still pregnant...but since the baby gender is still unknown I selected a gender neutral colour. 

Then, I got bored..huhu...It was lying in the 'unfinished project' until my SIL delivered a healthy baby girl last month...Haha...maybe I should not have attempted such a big project just yet...Since I did make a pledge to myself to give my SIL a handmade gift, and was too lazy to finish the crocheted blanket, I decided to start on something simpler, but still with some crochet elements.

So enter the crocheted edge blanket...

I use this pink cotton flannel I found at my local fabric shop. And the backing was a pink circle motif cotton that I already have in my stash. I use Nuha's baby blanket for the sizing guide. I found a fantastic tutorial here http://yougogirl.typepad.com/you_go_girl/ to make the crocheted edge.

I'm very happy with the result and I'm certainly going to make more of these. The crochet edge certainly add a little something special to a plain baby blanket.

Sewing goodies...

Some pictures from my sewing archives.

 My mum made this gorgeous light blue dress...she designed the pattern herself.

 Little miss first smocked dress. It was all handmade including the pleating. No pleater involved. My mum teached me the basic of smocking using this dress. I smocked most of it but the construction was by my mum. The dress was worn during my nephew's wedding. It was a dress initially but now she wears it as a blouse.

 First handmade PJ by yours truly.

Another handmade PJ. I only have the picture of the pants though.

A gift for my mum. I made this bag using the Margaret Bag pattern. The fabric is mum's choice. A muted brown heavy cotton. She loves it. She said the bag is very roomy and she even requsted me to make more!!!

Coming from a women who is an accomplished sewer is an honour. Thank you mak!

Smocked Bishop Dress

This is my first attempt at smocking a bishop dress. I used light blue voile. The fabric is very lightweight and very sheer. The fabric is perfect for hot weather like where I live. But it is quite difficult to sew, especially when you make a lot of mistake like I did. The pattern is a variation of the bishop dress from AS&E Issue #83.And here is the result.

The front view

Close up of the smocking details

The sleeve details. This was my first attempt at bullion roses. Not too neat I must say.

The back placket. I stitched the bullion roses on the buttons. But it went crooked somehow...I was just too lazy to fix it

Some action pics on the little lady...She is impossible to photograph...So this is the best pose I could get.

The verdict: I absolutely love smocking a bishop dress!!! It's quite simple once you figure out the techniques. My reference was the AS&E magazine and I learnt a lot from this fantastic blog too: http://sewnso.blogspot.com/. Laurie has the most wonderful bishop tutorials. And I'm also lucky to have a colleague at work who give me some tips and pointers on how to tackle a bishop dress.

I'll be making more bishop dresses I hope. Just need to find the time...