Set up your original mark in the address bar (Blogger)

Like I did with my blog, it is possible to change your mark that is shown next to your blog's html address in the address bar! I don't know about how other blogs work, but they probably work just like Blogger so that you have control over your entire html codes on your blog. This is how I made my own pink penguin mark to show up there. 1) Make your icon using a photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop to create 16px by 16px image. 2) When saving the file, make sure the name of the file ends with ".ico" just like "Penguin.ico". 3) Go to your blog's editing page where you type in when creating a new post. Then click on "Add image" button. 4) Upload the mark you just created. 5) In "Edit Html" you'll see a long cord for the image you just uploaded. Look for the direct link cord that comes after src=" and end with .ico" Copy the link. (the quote marks exclusive) 6) Then go to Layout/ Edit HTML page. 7) In the editing text box right before </head>, type in... <link rel="shortcut icon" href="(Your code for the image that ends with .ico)"></link> and save the template. 8) Now go to your blog and see if the mark in the address bar has changed;) *Note* This does not seem to work on some web browsers such as Internet Explore 5.0 or below but it's supposed to work on most of the common browsers. Was this clear? I am not very knowledgeable about html, but if you have any question about this particular fun little html project, feel free to ask me! Thanks for reading and Good Luck if you are trying this!

Before and After : My Ironing Board

If you have seen any of my sewing tutorials, you might have noticed how icky yucky my ironing board was... It was quite terrible. I got it from a thrift store for $2 or something in Seattle a couple years ago and burned the surface with an iron like a million times. I never liked how this looked, but it is so wee that it's easy to use and store. I've wanted to change the fabric used on the ironing board so bad but it literally took ages for me to take an action. But anyway, this is what I did. I got rid of the top fabric cover. That felt really good when I threw away the dirty burned fabric. Yay! Using a staple gun I attached this heat-resistant fabric. I think this can be found at any local fabric stores like Joann and Hancock. Then on top of it, I attached one of my favorite Amy Butler fabrics in the same way... Tada!! Isn't it just amazing?! Just the top fabric..which has been changed..but now I LOOOVE this ironing board!!! I used to store it in the closet so that I didn't have to see it besides crafting time but I think from now on I am leaving out somewhere around my sewing space because it looks so pretty that it could be a part of decoration that I am working on right now. I am so impressed by what fabric can do for you. -------------------------------------------- I also made another little nice change.. Look at the address bar above on your computer! Do you see that you don't see the blogger mark anymore next to the html address but you see... Pink penguin mark! I've wanted to do this but finally figured out how to do this today. If anybody is interested, I can sometime write about the tute on it.It's super easy! -------------------------------------------- I am planning to make a new sewing tutorial for this blog. This is a little sneak peak! Thanks for reading!

Make your own lip balm

Worrying about chapped lips is only because I am here in north California, where air is quite dry. If I were in japan at this time of the year, oh boy.. I would be dying for this dry air. Humidity in summer time in Japan is insane. I make all sorts of necessary skincare cosmetics, but lip balm is definitely one of the easiest ones to make. It should take about 5 mins and it's fun because you can make your own lip balm that fits your need. You might like peppermint or chocolate scented lip balm or you might have preference in the level of thickness. Of course you can make it 100% natural. And the best of all, it's really inexpensive! Anyway, This is the ingredients you need. -1 tsp Beeswax (grazed or pellets) -5 tsp Carrier oil of your choice such as almond oil, jojoba oil, or avocado oil -3 drops Essential oil of your choice such as lavender, peppermint, lemon, or orange 1) Put Beeswax and carrier oil of your choice in a glass jar and heat it like this. 2)When it's completely liquidized, add Essential oil of your choice, stir well, pour into a container, and wait until it cools down and solidifies. That's it! Isn't it so simple? Fun part is that you can really make up your own recipe of lip balm. Beeswax could be replaced by cocoa butter if you like the scent and the emollient effect, and the carrier oil can be anything! Just one kind of carrier oil like apricot kernel oil? Sure! A mix of some oils to make it more original? Sure, why not?! Essential oils work the same way: Choose whatever you want as long as it's applicable to skin. All the ingredients should be available at natural grocery stores like Whole Foods but you could buy them online too.(FromNatureWithLove has got a plenty of everything!) -------------------------------------------- Woo Hoo! Here comes one more beautiful fabric basket!!!! Fabric Basket by Billie of Tweety's Nest I am really impressed by so many creative and beautiful fabric baskets! Thanks so much for making;)

Fabric Basket for me!

I made a tutorial for a fabric basket and have created three baskets in the past,,, but I never made one for myself! So here I am with my new fabric basket that I just finished today;) Hooray! It's mine! I used this knit top that I thrifted from goodwill. I love this retro-ish pattern and 70's inspired colors. I knew I had to make something out of this beautiful knit and the fabric basket was my first try...and I'm liking it quite a lot! If I have to say one thing about this knit though, it's a little smelly. It was sitting there in the messy dusty thrift store for like a half a year. I know some of you know what I mean by "Thrift smell" but this knit seriously has a strong thrift smell! The fact is that I personally don't care that much. Secondhand stores are like heaven for me because much pleasure of life comes from the thrift experiences and I am absolutely used to the particular smell...But not Joe. When he smelled this knit he was like.."Oh My Goodness! Wash it Wash it!!!" Washing knit? Hmmm.. no thanks. So, the fabric basket will carry the scent. Sorry Joe! ----------------------------------- By the way, I found an AWESOME bird pattern/tutorial on SpoolSewing's blog! Look for a link to the pdf in the sidebar. I found the pretty birdies when browsing on flickr, stunned by them, curious how it was made, jumped over to the blog, and "WOW! There is a free pattern for it!!" Do you know how this feels? I love it. Thanks for reading!

Two Oven Mitts

Up close to an oven mitt I finished today. I like random patchwork. No worrying about all the lines straight or perfectly 90 degrees! Yay! This oven mitt was made to match with this plastic bag dispenser I sewed a while ago. *smile* I like it! I like how the vintage flower print fabric stands out quite well in the busy crowded patchwork world. I also made... to match with... All of these are for a girl in Japan for a custom-order. I strongly hope she will like them;) ------------------------------------------ Do you remember the jelly mold I thrifted a couple days ago? I made custard pudding using it! This glass dish used for the pudding is, of course, unquestionably, from a thrift store too! I love making almost everything around me "Thrifted"! Joe (who has been a big couch potato this entire weekend because of the new video game he's got,) liked the pudding too! Thanks for reading!!

Cath Kidson

I think Cath Kidson is such an amazing designer. All of her designs are so soft, sweet, nicely girlie - just the right amount, and very uplifting! While I am attracted to the sense of this retroness, I also feel like breathing in a rose garden in some modern Victorian garden somewhere in Europe. Have I ever been to Europe? Nope! (LOL) But I just feel like it! ------------------------------------------- Check this out!! Fabric basket by casserole Casserole made another beautiful fabric basket!! So pretty! Now I want to make some for myself!! Thanks, Casserole!

Vicarious Experience

I thrifted these items today. Thrift is seriously addictive! I've got so much stuff from many different second hand stores but never feel like I've done enough shopping. I just don't wanna miss any treasures that somebody might have recently dropped at any of the stores. And the fact is, I do find something awesome every single time I stop by a thrift store..That's how we get addicted, isn't it? But it's time for me to calm myself down. Too much money is gone because of this hobby..but I am very happy about today's finds...Aren't these nice? ----------------------------------- "Vicarious"... When I first learned this adjective, I thought it was such a cool word. There is no way could it be translated in just one word in Japanese. It would take a whole sentence to describe what it means, but we all experience this particular emotion: putting yourself in somebody's situation and feeling like you're the one experiencing it! Anyway, I've had some vicarious experiences at some people's postings where they wrote about the quilt market they went to that took place in Oregon this month. Have you read the report on the quilt market on yummygoods or maybe on Pink Chalk Studio? Have you seen pictures updated by Starlit Nest? Oh my....Reading their posts and looking at their pictures really made me feel like "I was at the quilt market!! and I had so much fun!" A girl can dream, can't she? ----------------------------------------- Some cool Japanese links to share... Downloadable Sewing Patterns : baby-related items Just click on the green button under the picture to download! Printable Letters/Envelops Look for a tiny button for download. Another Letters/Envelops Left button for letters and right button for envelops. And one more... Letters/Envelops From the top, the first one is for an envelop and the second one is for a letter! Thanks for reading!!

Pink Bag

So this is how it turned out...UGGGG... I didn't do a good job on sewing this handbag. While making it though, I was so excited about listing this bag in my shop. I love the feeling when I receive an e-mail from Etsy notifying me that my item has been sold. Then I enjoy the short walk to the local post office, carrying the sold item and feeling like I am some sort of a woman entrepreneur. So I was hoping that this bag will bring the satisfactory feeling back for me...but this outcome is discouraging me to list in my shop. My very original pattern for the bag part was fun, but the way I attached the top part was .... a little disaster. Working with linen..gathering.. all the difficult things at all once. Well, you probably can't tell how bad I actually did from these photos, because I made a point of not taking a picture of inside where the top part and the bag part are attached. LOL. But if you personally don't care about the bad looking stitch I did inside, this bag shouldn't be graded that low. Handles turned pretty nice and it should be big enough to carry all the necessities. If you are so kind to feel like buying this item, feel free to contact me (via e-mail). I promise it will be cheap! --------------------------------------- Have you noticed the big change on the side bar on my blog? I spent hours last night and this morning, working on photoshop, trying to spice up and organize the side bar. It looks a little kid-ish, but I like it a lot;) I feel it's now nicer to my eyes, and finally my blog's title "pink penguin" makes some sense now that pink penguins do exist on my blog. LOL. Thanks for reading!!

A little thrift

Just two items from a second hand store today: a citrus squeezer and a tiny knitted top;) I found this cutie when rummaging through the kitchen stuff section. Way too cute to resist, isn't it?! I've wanted a citrus squeezer but never expected this much cute one to exist!! I know there are pretty nice ones out there like... But to me the birdie is the big winner! Feeling so lucky that I found this!! This knit top was pretty nice too. I won't wear it but I'll make something out of it. I adore this color and pattern, and I know it has a big potential to be something really amazing and useful, IF I can find the creative way though! Maybe a little handbag? ------------------------------------ I got done with my finals and starting tomorrow I am gonna have a short break until the beginning of June. I should be fully blissful at this point..but I am not that much excited... For some reasons, everything went perfect for me during this Spring semester. I liked all the classes and all the professors. I made many good friends who are always helpful and fun to hang out with. I also did somewhat terrific in all the classes. For someone like me who usually stresses a ton throughout a semester, it was like a miracle: I barely had any stress whatsoever during the last semester. In fact, I was even feeling sad when the semester was going toward the end. I just know that I'll probably never have as good a semester as the last one in my entire school-life, just because I know that it will get 100 times tougher once I transfer to a 4 year this fall. Well, I'm sure I feel the semester was that awesome because it ended. I believe that everything we fully relish is something that has the end. That makes the entire story so pretty and adorable...so I should appreciate the fact that the semester ended and now I am going to try out something new!

My sewing space...

You know how some great seamstresses are not only talented in creating things but also in decorating their sewing spaces/studios absolutely beautifully like these. These spaces make me sigh. I'm sure being in a sewing studio like these would make me feel constantly inspired and stimulate my right hemisphere where my creativity comes from. Ok, I'm going to embarrass myself now. Are you by any chance curious how my sewing space looks like? Are you sure you really wanna see it? Well.. OK there you go................ ..........Ouch!!!!!! Do I even need a verbal explanation? I let the picture itself explain. Yes, Yes, I know that. I do have to renovate this space!!! This is a legitimate statement! I'm gonna be done with this semester tomorrow, so one of my "To-do-List for this summer" includes "Spicing up my sewing space." Hopefully, I can impress you guys with a big change later! Any suggestions? Thanks for reading!

Amy Butler

**Amy Butler's one of the newest sewing patterns: Birdie Sling** I do have to admit that the most influential designer for me has been Amy Butler. I still remember the moment where I encountered her fabric for the first time. It was at a local fabric store in Seattle. I was absolutely stunned at her designs and had to grab some even though I didn't even have a sewing machine back then. I use many different kinds of fabrics for my sewing projects, but pretty much 90% of projects that I am very satisfied with are the ones that involves her fabrics. For instance.... And I even made a headband using Amy Butler's fabric! I love, love, and love her designs!!!!! Thanks for reading!!

Kawaii Things

*Cookie Stamps* *Bird/Chicken Cutting Board* *Craftlovers' necessaries: buttons and ribbons* I found all these kawaii (cute) things at this Japanese online shop. Every once a while I discover alluring things in Japanese shops and feel a strong urge to show them on my blog so that maybe those Japanese kawaii zakka lovers would share the joy with me here. Speaking of Japan, I am going back to Japan this summer for just a couple of weeks and am planning to bring back some souvenirs to giveaway here. I don't know what it will be, but I'll pick up something that is rare and almost unattainable besides in Japan. If you're interested in the little event, please check back;) ------------------------------- Wow! I found another creative fabric basket!! Fabric Basket by Jen and Family I seriously relish discovering the crafts that other crafters made based on my tutorials;) I feel like my idea has helped others get creative and it's such a thrill. It invigorates me on a daily basis!! Thanks, guys!

New bag in progress

My Etsy shop is empty!! There was only one item in my shop for a while that had been sitting there forever, but the listing finally expired and it's gone!! Extremely boring to see my own shop carrying nothing, so I started making this bag in the hope to list in my shop soon. I am a bad planner. I am never good at being ahead of myself. I just do what I think I want to do at every second and procrastinate everything. That's one of the reasons I started this project even though my three finals are really coming up. It's so strange that I can come up with constant and endless crafting ideas when I am the busiest and barely have any time to do any crafting. When I actually have plenty of time , I am the least productive. No ideas come to my head. Such a weird human nature.. Does this occur to you too? So, for this new project, again I never planned well and followed my instinct at every single process. I never knew how big it would be nor how many handles it would have. I'm a little stuck now.. But if this turns out pretty nice, I will list it in my shop;) ------------------------------------------ Yeah! Two more new fabric baskets!!!! Fabric Basket by Lindsey Fabric Basket by Pumpkinknit Aren't they so cute?! Thanks a lot for using my tutorial!! Thanks for reading!

Finally!!!! Joel Dewberry's Ginseng

It was a loooooooong wait. The first time I encountered this new line of Joel Dewberry's fabric collection, Ginseng, was last March in a quilt magazine. When I saw these, I instantly fell in love and started counting days left until these come out in the market. It said "May" so I assumed it would come out in April or at least at the beginning of May, so for the last couple of months I was crazy looking for this line at every single online fabric store and asking a local fabric store when it will come in store. But I had no clue. It took too long. At some point after all the efforts in searching, I got tired of being too excited about these beautiful Home Decor fabric that I didn't even know if it was real or not anymore, and told myself that I should just let go. But... Oh boy! I received a newsletter from QuiltHome today about this new line FINALLY coming out. The fabric store is now offering 10% pre-order discount on these fabrics! The discount is not available once the line is delivered to the store in early June. I've wanted to shop at their store since 1) their customer service seems excellent, 2) their collection of fabric is great, and 3) the shipping cost is low;) This great news makes me drool.......... ----------------------------------------- Here is another pretty fabric basket I found;) Fabric Basket by casserole Very nice! Thank you so much for using my tutorial;) Thanks for reading!

Thrifting Thursday

Thursday has been my thrifting day. I get off school around noon, run to the bus stop, take a bus to a thrift store I have never been to, following the direction/map I prepare on Wednesday night, and spend hours at the store trying to find every little thing that catches my eye. Today was crazy though. Here in San Jose, California, it went up to 99 degrees! I got sunburned so bad that my skin is still burning though I got home 2 hours ago...but I snatched good stuff to show off here, so that makes up for it;) The glass cups with pretty rose print were only 30 cents each! I love, love, and love them. These birdie salt&pepper shakers were $1.00. Would be cool if they were vintage, but they came with a package that had a label with Target mark. haha. It's ok. Cute things are cute no matter what. I got these cups too. Unfortunately the thrift store I went to didn't have a section for kitchen towels and fabrics which I am usually the most interested in, so today my main target was retro/vintage cups. These were 69 cents each! I picked up this letter set too. I like writing thank you cards for people. I think it's such an adorable thing to do to give someone important a Thank You card to show your appreciation, so I do it often and never have enough of them. Vintage Thank You cards.. how sweet!! ---------------------------- By the way, an earthquake happened to this blog today. It's like a sudden, unexpected earthquake in a tiny quiet village that nobody knew about. Hmmm.. earthquake isn't a good metaphor because it was a super positive, happy, delighting thing!! Well, today Photojojo featured my camera case tutorial on their site here and led many many many people here, resulting in tripling total visits all of a sudden, and so many new comments welcomed me this morning. I didn't know about Photojojo before(...sorry), but this website rocks!!!! They show great tips and hints on photo DIY projects, and if you sign up for the subscription, you'll receive the most recent tips they featured via e-mail. I signed up for it and am very much looking forward to learning more from them. But anyway, I was overly excited this morning to find out about my tutorial on there and had to wake my boyfriend up to tell him about it. I'm totally glad that this happened but at the same time some worry came to my head.. Are my tutorials clear? Is my blog entertaining?.... But overall I am really content and feel motivated to make this blog nice. I feel extremely lucky as well. I keep thinking about what tutorial to show next. It probably will be a handbag. It really makes me smile when people enjoy my tutorials so I know I'll continue making tutorials on this blog. Thanks for all the support!!!!!!

Little Surprise

We had no knowledge whatsoever about growing herbs but planted some kitchen herbs since our friend gave us everything we needed to start it. I have never been good at taking care of plants, but it sounded fun to grow herbs indoors. I was really happy today to find out that several seedlings of parsley came out today!! Hooray! So excited for them to grow bigger!! Is taking care of parsley easy? ---------------------------- Here is another fantastic basket! Linen Fabric Basket by Lucy's Tales Thanks so much for those of you who used my tutorials;) Thanks for reading!

Faves on Etsy

My Finals are coming up, but I can't resist posting something to give my day a little lift. I am still really excited about this new blog. I even feel like my life has been better since I started this.. Overreaction? well, I just can't resist. Let me procrastinate for a quick moment. These cute things are my recent favorite items on Etsy that have been enticing me. Aren't they so pretty?! Many owls, birds, retro... YES! I love these themes. ----------------------------------- Again, my sewing tutorial is up on Craftzine! That made my day a big time;) I'm trying to come up with some original, creative, but simple and practical sewing projects that I can show the tutorials of here. Hmmmm...what is it... Oops, I better stop escaping from the textbook. Thanks for visiting and reading!!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Living apart from both my mom and American mom, the only thing I could do was to send them gifts to show my appreciation for all the supports and sweetness they have given to me, but I hope they are having a great Mother's Day. The pics above are something I found in a Japanese online shop. I don't remember where I found these, but I thought they are exceptionally adorable;) ---------------------------------- I've finished this project: my 9th plastic bag dispenser! This is a plastic bag holder for the kitchen. This was made for a custom order. My customer asked me to make this using green and blue fabrics, and this is how it turned out. When I thought about the colors, this vintage fabric (house print) was the first design that came to my head, so starting with that I decided other fabrics to go with that could make the vintage fabric stand out. These are other plastic bag dispensers I've made in the past for custom-orders. Making these are fun for I love trying patchwork in many different ways. ---------------------------------- I am so delighted that some crafters used my tutorials! Look at these beautiful works! Wetbag by frenchtoastcake Patchwork Basket by Mymsie Fabric Basket by Small Treasures Thanks for making and sharing with me;) Did you make one too? Don't be shy! I would love to see yours! Thanks for reading!

Gorgeous Vintage Fabrics

Thanks for such a great photo pool on Flickr called Vintage Fabric where absolutely gorgeous vintage fabric's photos are shared. I picked up my favorite ones from the pool and made this collection. I love it! I've been looking for vintage fabrics just like these. Finding vintage fabrics at thrift stores isn't a difficult task, but if you are quite selective like me, then yes it gets challenging. I have some beautiful vintage fabrics that I didn't see in the pool, so I'll take pics of them sometime and upload them. I'll show them on my blog too, of course! -------------------------------------- Thanks for Alicia for asking me to show this wallet on my blog;) I made this last year and have been using it since then. It looks like this inside....Well, it's not as clean by now though:( This big pocket for coins is so useful, because I always need some change to ride a bus or buy snacks at school. Cards fit perfectly in the pockets;) I was totally inspired by the beautiful wallets made by dogwoodlane and got some ideas to create this wallet. Considering the fact that the pattern was my original and that my sewing skill wasn't that good back then, I think I did pretty good job making this. -------------------------------------- Some links I thought were awesome... Fabrickaz Gallery Oh My... This is such a fantastic craft collection. Don't you think? Decorate office supplies with fabrics by How about Orange Too cute and too easy not to try. I'm heading off to snatch the required glue. Thanks for reading;)

Retro Inspiration

Here is my recent faves on flickr. As you can see, things that catch my eyes these days are somewhat vintage/retro. I find these things very pretty and am really inspired by them. I was super excited about going on a trip to a thrift store today. I had been daydreaming about what I might find at the thrift store for the last entire week. Vintage fabric? Retro dishes? Rare kitchen towels?...just imagining what I might get was so much fun, and I anxiously waited for today when I can finally make it to the store. Sneak peak in my shoulder bag that I brought today. The bag, the wallet, and the camera case are all my handmade items. I like carrying handmade stuff with me. Do you ever wonder how far you can expand handmade things around yourself? On the way to the thrift store I was thinking about my dependence on handcrafted items... I use my handmade soap and facial lotion and cream everyday. I carry some sort of bags or pouches I sewed myself everyday....Hey! How about making that and that and that so that I can have more handmade things around me!...daydreaming... So, let me show off the items I actually found at the store today. Three hoops, old rickrack, and binding tapes. Not bad, Not bad! Retro dish (bowl?). I've wanted one of these, so I'm glad I found this. I don't think this can be very practical at a dinner table, but it's sure nice to look at. I'll think of ways to use this dish. This is nice too. Maybe we can use it for salad dressing or something. Some kitchen towels. These are great finds, I thought, especially the last one. I found pretty good stuff today, but I am not satisfied yet..I am still craving for vintage/retro items.. Can't wait for the next trip to a thrift store! Thanks for reading!

Miniature Food

I used to love making teeny tiny miniature food. When I was living in Tokyo, I spent a lot of time making it. Cakes were main things to create, but I made Japanese food too.(Here is some pictures, if you care). I've made many many things in the past: miniature food, soap, skincare cosmetics, all sorts of food, but sewing is by far the most interesting hobbies I've ever discovered;) ------------------------------- Some little happy things.. Have you noticed that I made a list of my tutorials on the right side? According to my plan at this moment, the list will get very long as I'll think of more tutorials to update here. Well, I can't promise I'll do it for sure, but that's what's in my head so far. Fun Plan;) Today my feedback rating on Etsy became '9,100%'. Just 9?! some may think. But this means a LOT to me;) I love receiving great feedbacks. I have many seller accounts everywhere on Internet like Amazon and ebay, but I don't care about the rating on those sites that much. Etsy's rating is what I care the most, because that's where I sell my handcrafted items made with much love, not like used textbooks I didn't even read. I want my customers on my etsy shop to be very happy shopping with me and I want to make other crafters happy there too. I love Etsy. I made three fabric baskets total. They are all on their own ways to be given on Mother's Day. Making the basket is so easy and kind of addictive. I want to make some for myself... A lot of sales on Fabric stores. Fabric.com is offering great deals($10 coupon back for an order of more than $30, etc.) until 5/12. Also, Eddie's Quilting Bee (a local fabric store in Sunnyvale, CA) is having a sale: 30% off for all the fabrics this weekend. There is no reason for me not to take advantage of these opportunities! Thanks for reading!!

Tutorial: Fabric Basket

Thanks for those of you who asked for a tutorial on the fabric basket project I updated yesterday! This is gonna be my second tutorial on my this blog. If anything isn't clear, feel free to leave me a comment and ask me for help. Remember that all seam allowances are 1/4" throughout the process. First of all, cut out 2" squares from 3 different kinds of fabrics: 8 squares from each. Sew together two squares, making sure those two are different fabrics. I made equal amounts for each set like in the picture: 4 for each set. Press seams in one direction in the way that it isn't on top of each other. Now Sew together pieces to create 2 6x2 patchwork layer. When 2 layers are completed, press seam open like this. It should look like this when you flip them over.When the same fabrics are not next to each other like this, it might look a little interesting. Sew the patchwork layers to a 6"x9 1/2" piece of linen fabric. Place a fleece batting underneath it. Fleece batting is stable and great for this purpose. Make it a little bigger than the top layer. Pin the layers and sew along the line that separates the patchwork part and the linen part. Repeat this for the other side too. Machine baste the both edge. Cut off the excess batting. Fold it in half right sides together and sew the two edges like this. Box corners (this link is helpful). Sew the line: along the seam from the pointy end to the needle it is 1 3/4". Repeat this for the other corner too. Trim excess. Let us move on to making handles. Cut out 2 - 2"x10 1/2" pieces of fabrics. Sew them right sides together and press seam open. Fold each side to the middle just like when you make a bias tape. Fold in half and sew the edges like this. Cut in half. Now you have two handles. Sew the handles to the main basket. Now let's make a basket lining. Fold in half a 12"x9 1/4" piece of fabric right sides together and sew the two edges, leaving a lining opening(about 2"). Do the same as you did for the main basket. Sew outer basket and lining together. Turn the basket right side out through lining opening and pin like this. Sew the top part of the basket. Hand-stitch opening closed. Now your fabric basket is complete! Yeah!! I would love to hear what you think of this tutorial and if you make it, let me know! Thanks for your time to stop by this blog and reading my posting!;) Note: all my tutorials are for personal use only. Thanks for understanding! Share|

Thrifted fabrics

Great finds at a thrift store! My expectation for the store was quite low, since most of my friends who grew up here in San Jose didn't even know about this particular thrift store. The thrift store I went to for the first time after moving to this city really disappointed me. Things were overpriced and nothing interesting was there. I tried more stores but none of them were as good as the ones I used to go to all the time in Seattle. I kinda lost hope in thrift stores here, but I had some sort of urge in myself to look for vintage stuff because of the inspiration from all the great thrifting stars like Apron Thrift Girl and artsy-crafty babe. So, I decided to stop by a thrift store I had never been to before. It was a fantastic decision! Look at these retro fabrics! When I found these, I could even hear my heart beating. My favorite is this skyblue one. It has beautiful pink rose print. It reminded me of Amy Butler's and Heather Bailey's designs. They sure get designing ideas from vintage fabrics, and I love that! I think I am back to a thrifting girl. I remember the lessons I learned from my experiences in Seattle that thrifting requires patience. I am super excited about exploring more thrift stores around here. ----------------------- I was busy yesterday working on Mother's Day gift. It takes about a week for an airmail to arrive in Japan from America, so I knew the latest I can send a gift for mom would be this coming Monday. I couldn't think of anything she might enjoy besides flowers, but I'm tired of getting her flowers every year, so I made this little fabric basket. This thing is cool. Can be used for storing some food... Or maybe a little penguin can rest in it. I might write a tutorial on how to make this fabric basket! Thanks for reading!