Linen + Patchwork Pouch

I must admit that I have to catch up with my crafting life.
There are lots of projects I've been wanting to work on
but it has been just so busy that I couldn't really commit
to work on a big project. Christmas is just a month away, isn't it?
This makes me happy and sad at the same time. I'm happy
because I might visit Joe's family for Christmas which will
for sure be fun as it has always been. I am sad because
it looks like I won't be able to make handmade gifts for
as many people as I was hoping.. too little time left
for a super slow crafter like myself.. I've seen lots of
fabric baskets filled with Christmas gifts this year again.
Thank you so much for making those ;) I might have to make
some for my folks too since you guys' baskets look so inspiring!
Let's see how many baskets I can make...



I'm glad I finally made a pouch using this metal opening.
I bought a few of these in my last trip to Japan.
This is such an interesting material; the only thing you do
to open the pouch is to squeeze the ends. so quick and convenient!
I thought some of you may be interested in getting those, so I was
looking for some websites that sell these metal opening
thingies, but I really couldn't find one, since I have no idea
what these metal opening thingies may be called in English.
Googling with random attempts didn't help.
I'm very sure there are etsy shops that carry these though!
Does anyone know what these are called..?



I really like how it turned out. I love all the fabric
I used for this project. Most of the fabric is from Japan,
but the plaid print is a feedsack I snatched at ebay.
A French theme + a vintage twist + little craziness +
Japanese influence = too cute!

By the way, the pouch has been listed in my shop ;)
As always, let me know if you come from here to snatch
an item in my shop - I'd love to include a little gift!



The linen I used for the right and left sides of the
pouch comes from this stash. I got this extremely quality
linen from this shop. (Sorry this is only in Japanese, but
it looks like they ship internationally.)
When I got this stash in my mail, I was so super excited
that I couldn't stop touching it, smelling it, and taking
photos of it. I even started dreaming about starting my own
business by building a linen factory or something. How crazy? I know!
I just sometimes wish I could get my hands on good linen
like this much easier in the states. haha.



Here is a set of fabric that I kinda want to do something with.
Maybe another pouch? ... with linen? Any ideas..?





Thanks for coming and reading!!

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Tutorial: Scraps + Magnet = Fun?!

Oh my gooodness! You guys are just the sweetest people ever!!!
It's so super nice to know that I have people like you who
are as happy as I am (and Joe is) about the contribution to
the Stitch magazine. I still carries the mag with me everywhere
I go because looking at it not only does remind me of the happy
thing that happened to me but also makes me think of you guys,
how warm, supportive, and encouraging you guys have been..
and that just makes my day. So a BIG thank you for all of you!!!!





By the way, I am so bummed that I missed out the Scrap Buster Contest.
I thought the deadline is the end of this month, but I just found out
that the entry has been closed since the deadline was the 23rd of October.
Ouch! You may have had enough cool tutorials that use up scraps by now,
but I made a little quick tutorial anyway, so let me share it here today..

This is really one of the quickest things to make that I can think of
that is decorative and practical and can be a little last-minute gift.


I used this magnetic tape (1" width).
It doesn't have to have the adhesive tape;
as long as it's a magnet that can be
cut into your desired sizes that would be great ;)


I grabbed some scraps that match well together.
Sizes of scraps don't matter as long as the length of each scrap is
at least 1" longer than your finished project.
Here, each scrap of mine had to be at least 2" in length.


Here is another combination I came up with.


And this one.


After ironing the scraps, I sewed them up, making sure
seam allowances are about 1/4".


Then I opened and pressed the seam allowances.


Now I cut each patchwork panel into approximately 1 3/4" x 4".


For each panel, prepare a scrap that is cut
into about the same size. Here, I recommend using
light-weight cotton fabric.


With WRONG sides together, I sewed all around, making sure to leave
one short edge unsewn. I also made sure that the width between
the two long stitching lines are about 1 1/4" so that the
1" width magnet can be easily inserted.


Then I cut out magnet into 3.5" length.


I then inserted the magnetic tape in there.
Here if you use magnetic tape with adhesive,
I suggest that you make sure to insert it
in the way that the raw magnet part faces the back side.


Fun part! Fill it with polyfil. Lots and Lots of
polyfil gives it a nicely puffy and firm look, so don't
hesitate to use a lot of it! I use a chopstick
to press polyfil further. Make sure to put polyfil
to only FRONT side of the magnet. Between the magnet
and the back panel of the fabric,
there should not be any polyfil..


Time to sew up the opening now.


Now trim the edges. It might be fun to use a pinking scissor here!


This is how the back side looks like..



Now let it stick to your refrigerator and have fun!

Oops! time to go..!

I hope this tutorial was clear enough and
is something you want to try out ;)

I'd love to see yours in this flickr pool.

Thanks for coming and reading!!

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Stitch Magazine Cover!!!!

Hi all. How are you all doing?
I'm sorry I was so quiet for a while here.
Thank you so much for your lovely, thoughtful comments,
e-mails, and letters that always cheer me up!
I just needed a little break for some reasons,
but I am back now and am so super thrilled to finally
share with you guys this excitement!

Yeah! my handmade tote bag made the cover of the Fall
issue of Stitch magazine!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!
Had I ever thought about seeing my own sewn item
in my favorite magazine in a bookstore?!
I can still hardly believe this really happened.
I am so happy to be part of the crafty contributors
that I have been admiring for a long time like
Rashida of I heart linen. (Go check out her blog
if you love to stumble upon a place that inspires you,
although I doubt there are many of you who haven't
checked it out... her work is just incredibly beautiful.)



I would say that I am probably not the one that
was excited the most about this magazine coming out.
Joe was checking out the bookstore like everyday
since a week before it got published. When it became
available, he got overly thrilled and couldn't help telling
the bookstore staff that the bag was made by his girlfriend
and rushed back to work and showed it off to every
co-worker he encountered in the day. LOL.
I really think I am so lucky to have met this guy.





I thank all of you who have continuously encouraged me
to get crafty and to allow me to share my work
with you guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you all!!!!!!

Thanks for coming and reading!!

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Custom Order

Hi all! Sorry I haven't posted for so long.
I really missed updating this blog.

There are lots of things that have been
keeping me pretty busy and productive.
I like my life this way, but I have to admit
that I tremeduously miss spending time in
my sewing area and blogging with a cup of tea.

Some of you may feel the tea cozy above looks so familiar.
I know! I've made a tea cozy just like that one before!





I received a longest list of a custom order
and one of the handmade things requested is
a tea cozy that is just like this one that I
made a long time ago. Since some of the fabric
I used for this one is gone, I wasn't sure how
similar of a tea cozy I can manage to achieve,
but I think it came out just like a twin.




Using some scraps...





I have been working on some coasters
that match the tea cozy.







By the way, I was so thrilled to receive an e-mail
from the girl who snatched this skirt from my shop.
She was so nice to share with me some pictures of her
beautiful, adorable, daughter in the skirt. I was too
excited not to ask her permission to share with you guys
one of her pictures here. I don't mean to sound gushy but
I literally thought the skirt was meant to be hers, and
I felt blessed about the opportunities this sewing
blog world has brought for me.

Thanks for coming and reading!
Have a great Sunday!

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Lunch Bag & Coasters

Hi all! Hope you all had a great long weekend.
I went on a little trip down to Santa Cruz with
my friend last Saturday. Our main destination was
Hart's Fabric, a fabric store there
that I am truly in love with. I've explored lots of
fabric stores in America, but I think Hart's Fabric is
probably my favorite for its huge selection of modern fabrics.

It was my second time ever to stop by there, but
every time I go there, I spend at least 2 hours
looking through the great fabrics and notions they have.
This time, we spent roughly 3 hours which made one
of the clerks say "Are you still here?!" LOL.

To me, being at a nice fabric store is therapeutic.
(And I am sure some of you know what I mean!!!)
When I was living in Seattle, I was lucky enough to
live by a great fabric store called Pacific Fabrics.
It was like oasis where I escaped into when I got
overwhelmed with workloads from school. Being
surrounded by beautiful fabric and imagining
what I would create using the fabrics there
eased my stress level a big time and helped
me better focus on studying afterwords.

San Jose has got the best weather but there is
no fabric store in this city like 'dessert'..
I was overly excited at Hart's Fabric last weekend
and brought back a lot of fabric stashes ;)



On the way back, we stopped by BroadWalk in Santa Cruz,
and look what we found!! I had never seen a pelican
so up close like this before!!! There was a huge excited
crowd in front of him to take photos of him, making the
seagulls a little jealous.



"I am the king."






On that night, we had fun sewing up until 3am!
I was teaching my friend Victoria how to make this
lunch bag but I was so bad at giving instructions
that much of the time was spent with a seam ripper
rather than with the sewing machine.
(Sorry Victoria!!)

Victoria's unfinished lunch bag is still sitting
here, but I managed to finish up mine during the weekend.
I made this one for Joe and I think it turned
out very nice, very boyish.



I love this design because it makes this interesting
looking bottom and it comes out reversible.



I think Joe likes this side better because
it's more guy-friendly. Both fabrics are
from Hart's Fabric ;)

I used a ziplock plastic container to come up with
the pattern for the perfect fit. I was using only
the plastic container (the bottom part) to measure
but did not take the lid into consideration...



Oh my. That's right. I totally missed that part out!
This plastic container still does fit in the bag with
the lid, but it gets pretty tight. It's ok though,
because I think it is still good for sandwiches and
rice balls that I make for Joe's lunch every once a while.




Using scraps left over from the recent projects,
I made a set of 2 coasters which is in my shop now. I love
Kona Cotton of Charcoal color as much as natural linen.



Back sides are pretty cute too!


Thanks for coming and reading!!

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Girl's Skirt

When I found this fabric by Moda Fabric at a local
fabric store, I had the urge to make a skirt for
a little girl with it. It is unusual for me to simply
use only one fabric to make anything, but this
patchwork-looking design allowed me to be completely
satisfied with using it by itself.



I love kids' clothes...
Although I don't have any children, I really enjoy
window-shopping in kids' clothes sections.
There are lots of adorable, colorful, and rhythmical
kids' clothes that make me feel like I want to become
a mother of children right away.
(Shallow reason? maybe. lol.)
I think with kids' clothing, expressing
really fancy designs is possible.

I think this skirt came out really cute!



And I think this binding matches perfectly with
the skirt. I wish I had a girl to try it on,
but I don't know any 4 year old girl in person...

I've listed this skirt in my shop
in the case any of you know a 4 year old who'd enjoy
a skirt like this ;) Remember to let me know you came
from here when you shop in my etsy shop so that I'll
include a little gift for a little appreciation ;)

Hope you are having a great Sunday!

Thanks for coming and reading!!

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Placemats and Potholder completed!

Thanks a million for your warm congrats on the calendar
and the magazine! You guys always make me smile ;)

Today I want to show you some things I finally
finished recently. I have to admit that this pink logcabin
potholder turned out really lovely.



Pink is definitely my favorite color.
When I was living by myself in Tokyo,
I made it a point to make everything pink at home,
and being in the apartment made me feel
girlie and sort of mellow dramatic.



I don't particularly collect pink fabrics,
but for some reasons, I happen to have the largest
collection of pink fabric stashes.
I guess I am subconsciously picking out pink
ones when I shop for fabrics.





This is the placemat I was working on.
I was going to use simple natural linen
in the middle, but this vintage feedsack
looked so perfect there that I decided to
follow my instinct.




Funny how it gives both 'modern' and 'retro' feels
at the same time. I think it looks rhythmic and fun.
Machine-quilting is not my favorite thing to do, but
I think this turned out really good.




But this one didn't turn out as good. For the first one
I used quilting spray to baste but this second one was
hand-basted before quilting. I dedicated much more time
on this one but the result says that I should've sticked
with the quilting spray method. I love it anyway though.



For the backing I used Japanese cotton/linen print.
.....Cute! *smile*





These placemats as well as the pink potholder have
been listed in my shop.
As always, let me know if you come from here when
snatching items from my shop. I'd love to include a little gift!



Thanks for coming and reading!!