Welcoming the Year of the Dragon!

Happy year of the dragon! My son was extremely excited about the coming of this new lunar year as the dragon is his favorite creature from the Chinese zodiac (blame toothless:P) and our family surname is 龍 (Dragon in Chinese). I finally have the opportunity to snap a photo of the siblings in echino outfits at a gathering with friends. There’s my princess striking what she’s named the ‘snow white pose’ after witnessing how princesses gestured in Disneyland.

Before starting on the food and wine, we had fun watching the daddies and kids at play by the pool. I wore my Braving it out dress, the gathers and S-shaped seams are showing extremely well here.

Here are the 3 shirts I finished sewing last week. There are all based on burdastyle’s Jakob pattern. The green and brown polka dots and purple ikat print shirts were for my hubby and the centerpiece was for dad who requested for a pocket.

Personally, I really like this shirt I made for dad using a border print fabric from Alexander Henry’s Lakspur collection. It was the most interesting to sew out of the three as I got busy with fabric placement.

The original fabric came with stripes at the border but I didn’t really like those at the bottom of the shirt so I cut the fabric above those stripes and used them for the collar instead. 

All seams on the inside of the three shirts were finished with french seams or hemmed so no seam was left exposed, making them more comfortable for the wearer.

The french seams where side and sleeve seams met.

Here’s hubby in his ikat print shirt with stand collar. He has a preference for them so I simply dropped the collar piece from the Jakob pattern and used the collar stand for this version only.

The buttons used were cute black and white ones.

Now that I’m done with my new year family sewing, its time to come up with my Spring and mother/daughter fashion sewing plan:) Are you still sewing for fall or already planning for spring? Or if you are from the Southern Hemisphere, already sewing for summer?

Whichever it might be, happy sewing! Wishing one and all prosperity, health and success in the new year!

Your favorite dress and my 2011 sewing targets

I was dying to know this. Out of all the garments I’ve sewed in 2011, which were the favorites amongst readers and your responses during my birthday fabric giveaway have given me some insights. The competition was fierce and here are the top 10, each winning by a single vote! The most mentioned dress was the Jason Wu Bow Dress. This didn’t surprise me, it was a fave fabric on a fave pattern on a dress I have been wearing a lot! It was also fun and simple to construct. Definitely my fave dress of 2011 too! While I have styled it with a belt for the photos, I normally wear it without belt as the bloused effect of the bodice and the fit made the dress pretty flattering on its own.

There was a tie for second place. The 40s Sweetheart Dress I made for Valentine’s Day and the Blue & White Parasol Dress.  I would consider these dresses the two I spent the most effort on. For the sweetheart dress, it was my first experience sewing with such a difficult silk blended fabric. Its placing as THE project with the most time consuming fabric cutting process is indisputable.  The parasol dress probably took up the most time for fabric placement and bodice fit but that experience was fun for me. I think I find a lot of satisfaction when stripes matched. It was also unnerving when I had to cut slits in the skirts to insert those pockets while trying to decipher the brief instructions. Two challenging projects which I am happy with despite the issues I faced making them. I will have to start wearing them more to make them worth my effort:)

Another tie for the fourth spot. The Much Needed Curves Kitty Dress and The Abandoned Hangar dress. I’ve totally enjoyed making these two and felt a confidence boost whenever I’m wearing them. The Kitty Dress, based on Colette Pattern’s macaron, is so flattering and creates the illusion of a tiny waist that even my friends thought I lost weight-  Scoring BIG points for any pattern!  The Abandoned Hangar dress was made using the 1939 Evening Gown sewing pattern from Eva dress (a reproduction of McCall’s 9906 ), one of my fave patterns. It is body hugging with a flare skirt and incredible gathers on the bodice.

It’s tie for the sixth position for two dresses made from the same pattern! Simplicity 2591. The Au Revoir Dress and the Giddy with Polka Dots Dress.  Both easy to make, wonderful everyday dresses I wear on a regular basis.

There is a three-way tie for the eighth spot. The FELA Tribal dress, the Gather & Go Dress and the Sewn on Borrowed time dress. The FELA dress being on this list shocked me. I’ve always assumed that more comments correlated with more likes. This was one dress with few comments and yet made it to the top 10 list. Personally, I do love the fabric combo and hope to wear it more. The Gather & Go Dress has become a go to dress for me. Knits are just easy choices for casual wear and I intend to sew up a few more versions of the dress.  I love love love the Sewn on Borrowed time dress but have yet to find an opportunity to wear it.  I am actually contemplating unpicking the lower skirt section and wearing the top with the W seam and beads as a pretty blouse. As you can see from the photos, I am so unimaginative when it comes to posing kekeke.

The other thing that has been on my mind is whether I have met my targets for the Sewing Through the Decades Challenge and the Craft Book Challenge, two other challenges I’ve taken up while doing the Sew Weekly Challenge. I’ve finally found some time to update the lists. I’ve definitely exceeded targets for the former but for the Craft Book Challenge, I am one project short. Oops!

I’ve just placed a link to my brand new Twitter account below the subscription bar so do follow me on twitter for updates on new projects, drool worthy patterns or fabrics, tutorials, giveaways, polls or just to get to know me a little more. I’ll love to hear from you:)

Have a good sewing week my sewing comrades! Let’s persevere!

The Peekaboo Post. New Year Resolutions and Wish list.

Peek One

I’ve just finished matching siblings echino outfits for the lunar new year and ever so excited to snap pictures of them. I’ll try to get some photos taken when my lil prince and princess wear these on 23 January. 

The dress is made from a 1930s mail order pattern 5201 which came in an envelope without the pattern company’s name so I have no idea of its origins. It is a size 2 pattern but my 3-year old is so petite that I have to take in the sides after fitting.  The pattern pieces were unprinted and instructions (only 4 to 5 paragraphs) were printed on the back of envelope. I chose to sew View 1 which is a simple dress with front yoke and pleats. A simple design brings out the flavor of echino fabrics best in my opinion.

The echino print with buses looks familiar? Indeed, it has the same print but different colorway as my Mod Oriental Dress . Remnant of the doubleknit fabric from my Braving it Out Dress was used for the font yoke. So, I guess we can go out in Mother-Daughter fashion when I wear either of these dresses:)

Last year I sewed my son a shirt for the new year but he only wore it once. The thing is he prefers the comfort of tees, doesn’t really enjoy wearing polo shirts and totally detests woven shirts. I made him pants without a zipper as he is so lazy, he has the tendency to pull off his jeans without unbuttoning/unzipping. So, an elastic waisted pants would be perfect for the boy. He dresses for comfort and ease period.

The tee is again made with remnants from the same dress. I embellished it with a pocket and sleeve band using fabric pieces cut out of an old pair of echino pants which the prince has outgrown. The bottom of the tee was cut on the selvedge with fringe and was left unfinished on purpose. The prince seemed to adore these “Flintstones fringe”. The bottom was made with a comfortable cotton drill fabric and embellished with echino’s scooter fabric from the new ni-co collection. My mum told him, “big pockets for all your red packets!” and he responded with giggles.

Peek Two

Laura Mae, the winner of my Christmas/ New Year Surprise Giveaway has received the ‘surprise’ pattern from the merchant! She sent me a sweet email and said:

I received my exquisite new (to me) pattern in yesterday’s mail!  I love it!  Now I just have to find the perfect fabric . . .

Thank you so very much!  It is just what I would have picked out for myself!

Thanks again,

Laura

Since Laura has seen her ‘surprise’ on 11 January, I thought I’d post a photo of the pattern here. Simplicity 3448 from the 1940s has been marked a favourite by me for sometime now. I love the little details on the short sleeves, the detachable bib, the gathers and what looks like shirring or smocking just below the waist and the potential variations of the pattern. Total 40s elegance. Can’t wait to see Laura’s take on it!

New Year Resolutions and Wish List

With the exception of a couple of morning jogs, I did absolutely nothing for fitness in 2011 unless I count stepping on the sewing machine pedal as a foot exercise. For 2012, I have devised a totally unambitious but ‘easy to maintain’ fitness plan. To brisk walk at least 4 km  two to three times a week. I just started walking at the beach by following these green footprints and totally enjoyed the views at the beach so much so that I forgot I was working out!

To motivate myself, I will be updating my fitness progress on twitter, just for my own documentation.

What about Sewing?

Short term goal: CLEAN UP. STASH BUST. SPRING PALETTE SEWING

Long term goal: MORE SEPARATES. MOTHER-DAUGHTER FASHION. PRETTY ON THE INSIDE GARMENTS.

I’m working on shirts next week for hubby and daddy for the new year. My spring sewing will commence after I’ve solved a major problem- the GREAT BIG GIGANTIC MESS in my sewing room. I also want to get my machine serviced, my poor overworked BROTHER. My other problem is space, I am truly running out of space with my burgeoning fabric and vintage pattern stash *Proud Grin*. So, I will have to stop buying these until I’ve used a portion of them up *Sigh*. There are some exceptions off course *Yay!*. I am allowed to buy fabrics while on vacation and have given myself the option of securing some of these modern-day beauties which have been on my wish list since last year if I so wish to *kekeke*

They are from Independent Pattern Companies and come in the pdf format. And pdfs are not gonna take up any physical space, right?

1) Victory Pattern’s Hazel and Anouk, both truly beautiful and unique.

Hazel (Victory Patterns)

Anouk (Victory Patterns)

2) Salme Pattern’s Loose Fitting Pleated T-shirt

Here’s the version my fellow TSW contributor Sarah sewed last year and I have been wanting to make one, no two of these since I saw it. One in chiffon and one in knit. Perfect for everyday wear!

And off course, I want to finish and test my self drafted pattern for the dress version of my ‘Half way there muslin tee’.

I will probably put the tee version up first after a few more tests. I have no idea how to grade a pattern though but given that these are in jersey, they will probably fit a bust 32-36 when finished. Now to save up for a good scanner or figure out how to use the one on my Canon printer.

I’m still a regular visitor at The Sew Weekly and community (You can find the themes here). While I won’t be following the January themes, I might join in for some of the themes after that, we’ll see:) What Mena has done with the site is just amazing and there are more than a hundred contributors sewing together this year with four projects being featured together with Mena’s creation every week. How fabulous is that!

Last but not least, there is something else I have to consider this new year. What to do with my blog? I’m running out of image space (7% left) and am still deciding between an upgrade (which means I have to pay $19+/ year) or to create a new blog. I’m more inclined to do the latter at the moment. So, my next post might very well be on a new blog address Keep you posted.

Have a blessed sewing year!

Christmas/ New Year Surprise Winner . Fabric Shopping in Hong Kong .

Hi everyone

Happy Twenty Twelve!  I’m back and have been busy catching up with friends. I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and New Year!

The winner for the Christmas/ New Year Surprise giveaway (I’m so thrilled you girls found it fun!) is #36 Laura Mae who blogs at Lilacs & Lace. Laura said

“My favorite era is always changing, but at the moment, I am loving the 1940s. The patterns use very little fabric and do not take up that much closet space (a welcome relief because of the many 1950s crinolined beauties already in residence there!).”

Congratulations Laura, I will be in touch soon to find out your size so I can start shopping for that 40s vintage pattern:)

Hong Kong was fun, especially for the kids!

I was really looking forward to fabric shopping in Hong Kong but was a little disappointed with the results.

Don’t get me wrong. There was an abundance of gorgeous prints, vivid solids and a huge variety of fabric types. I guess in Hong Kong, they tend to do things a little differently. I didn’t get to see many rolls of fabrics as they came mostly in the form of swatches displayed outside fabric wholesaler stores like these.

I touched the swatches and for the quality of fabric, prices were inexpensive. HOWEVER, most wholesalers will only sell a minimum of 5 metres per fabric. That was not the major issue. Most wholesalers in Hong Kong did not hold stocks in the stores and it could take one to three days for your cut fabric to arrive. I remember shopping at the Shanghai fabric market and while some stores did not hold stocks, they were able to deliver the fabrics in 15 minutes. So, that was a major bummer for me. I was able to see and touch many gorgeous fabrics (especially loved the chiffon prints!) but was not able to purchase them as I visited the fabric market towards the later part of my vacation in Hong Kong. So, if you are planning to visit the fabric wholesalers in Sham Shui Po (only a few MTR stops from Tsim Sha Tsui), Hong Kong, remember to go early in the trip and revisit for collection a few days after. And, yes you definitely need to bring cash.

I didn’t go home empty-handed though as I stumbled upon a stall selling denim in rolls and bought some black stretch denim and blue denim with a glittering effect. Both at US$3 per metre. In Singapore, I usually pay US$8 per metre of basic denim.

At other corners of the fabric market were many stores selling leather, beads, buttons and all sort of sewing accessories. I managed to buy some belt buckles from this store.

Sadly, that was all the sewing related shopping I did. But, the next stop at Disneyland certainly cheered me up. My fave Mickey  and fave waffles….:P

And I managed to get photos of my last Sew Weekly project taken at the Disneyland Hotel where we stayed for a couple of days. You can read more about the “Braving It Out” Dress here. The pattern used was a Vintage Vogue reprint 2787.

The Hong Kong vacation was a fruitful trip. There were people I’ve met and things I’ve seen on this trip that has inspired me to sew some upcoming projects. A couple of stories which I will share once these projects are completed. My priority now is to sew some garments for the family  in time for the Lunar New Year (23 January 2012). But, before that I’m gonna relax and enjoy the yummy lychee freeze (This one’s from Fosters Cafe at Holland Village, Singapore) on this hot hot day!

Have a blessed week everyone!

The Christmas/ New Year Surprise Giveaway!

Hi everyone! How’s your holiday season been so far? I’m probably in the midst of re-living my childhood down at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort where our family would be staying for a few days so this is the scheduled post while I’m away:)

And here’s the Christmas/ New Year giveaway I promised. So, where’s the surprise Adey?

Well, the surprise is in the item the winner will be receiving. Even I do not know at this moment what it will be. Huh?

Let’s put it this way. Besides sewing and fabric buying, I spend a LOT of time searching and looking at vintage sewing patterns. I’m excited by good deals I stumble upon but because I’m too lazy to grade patterns, I have the tendency to purchase either a 32 or 34. But, I’ve bookmarked/ favored lots of patterns I adored that might or might not be in my size  nor suitable for my weather. So, for this giveaway I’ll be sending you a pretty (if you trust my taste ) vintage pattern in YOUR size from YOUR favorite fashion era  (1940s to 1980s).

(image for reference only)

All you have to do is to tell me  which is your favorite fashion era and why in the comment section and I’ll do the shopping on your behalf if you win:) It will be my little gift to you for the start of the new year. Sounds good?

This giveaway is international and the winner (selected by random.org) will be announced when I’m back from vacation. Subscribers double the chance of winning.

Merry Christmas & Happy 2012!

My Birthday Dress, the ‘Half way there’ Muslin Tee and a Giveaway winner!

I’m now officially 39 and to celebrate my birthday, I made this “With or without bow” Birthday Dress for the Sew Weekly Challenge last week. The theme was the color purple, which happened to be one of my fave colors to wear. It’s strange that while my fave color is green- sage to be exact, it does not appear much in my wardrobe. So, I’m wondering. Do you wear your fave color often? Or is your fave ‘wear’ color different from your fave ‘usual’ color, just like me?

The dress is made from Simplicity 1291 from 1944 which I found on etsy and instantly loved! It can be wore with or without bow since the bow works very much like a brooch. 

And off course without bow, I would fasten the waist tie such that the black and white contrast faces outwards. It is my preferred way of wearing the dress.

The skirt is sewn with an orange lining which does a peekaboo when I am seated. More photos and info on my TSW post here.

This week was tough, tough, tough. It’s the week of “Going Patternless” on The Sew Weekly. I handed in the ‘Half way there’ Muslin Tee which I drafted from scratch through lots of trial and error, as I was too tired at the end of completing the muslin to sew another dress in the same week. The source of inspiration is the Sweet on Stripes Dress from Modcloth and eventually I hope to finish sewing a similar dress like it.  You can read more about the project on my TSW post here.

My WIP shot. My idea on paper. I’ll have to change all the stripes on the back of the dress if I want them to match at the seams. Ideal versus reality. And I realized the button at the back of the neck tie was not necessary. 

Giveaway winner

And off course I didn’t forget, the winner of my birthday giveaway is …………………….#78, Nicole Tobin! Congratulations Nicole, I’m be sending you an email shortly. I hope you enjoy sewing with this fabric! I want to thank all who participated and especially those who went through my entire list of outfits sewn for TSW this far and shared with me your thoughts! Thank you, I’m in the midst of tabulating the scores on each garment as I’m curious curious curious. On whether I will still be sewing weekly next year, I’m still undecided but I’ll definitely still be sewing regularly and as and when possible sewing along the themes for TSW and off course sewing up some mother/daughter fashion as I’ve mentioned previously.

I’ll be away on family vacation very soon till after Christmas but do look out for the Christmas giveaway I have scheduled!

A super blessed Christmas to you and your loved ones!

Giveaway Part 1: The Birthday Border Print Fabric Giveaway

Hello everyone, here’s the giveaway I’m promised earlier. I’m naming it the birthday giveaway as the winner will be selected on 10 December, my birthday:) I adore the Japanese border print fabric which I’ve used for last week’s Sew Weekly Challenge and thought of spreading some fabric joy with you. So for this fabric giveaway, one of you will get the chance of winning two and a half metres (2.5m) of this exact border print fabric. After revisiting the fabric stall, this is still my favorite colorway.

I took the above photos using my iphone camera but you will get a better idea of the fabric on what I’ve named “The Fabric has Spoken Dress” (More dress info and photos on my TSW post here).

To participate in this giveaway, all you have to do is to let me know which is your favorite item out of all the garments I’ve sewed this year. With my year long commitment with TSW coming to an end very soon (Unbelievable but with a blink of the eye, I’ve only got 2 and a half more outfits to work on!), I’m really curious to know what you think. I’ve consolidated all the garments here for your easy reference:) As usual you double your chances if you are subscribed to the blog. The winner will be chosen randomly by the higher power at random.org .

Have a blessed week!

P/S: Yes, this giveaway is international, I’ll ship the fabric to the winner anywhere around the world

Two mod dresses and a pin-up

The family will be off to Hong Kong mid December till 2012 so I’ve been sewing, sewing and sewing, trying my best to finish all my Sew Weekly projects for this year. In addition to that, my boy has taken up Taekwondo with 3 hours of lessons a week and lil princess, not to be outdone, has also started ballet lessons and is surprisingly attentive in class. These have kept me swamped as well but in a really good way:)

Hence, the lack of new bog posts.

Things might only get crazier here as my Indonesian helper will be going home for two weeks later this month. This would most likely mean I’m gonna be spending more time cooking than sewing and definitely not likely to be blogging.  This might be my last post here until she returns in early December. But, not to worry, with my birthday coming, I’ll be scheduling a giveaway between now and my return to this blog space.

Here are the projects I’ve done for the past 3 weeks. On top of these, I’ve sewed another knit dress (not for Sew Weekly) and two hobo bags (mum and daughter versions) as birthday presents for my old friend and her gal. I’ve yet to find time to photograph these but will post once I find time and if I still remember them. kekeke

Theme: The Color Orange

Project: The Orange Tab dress

Vintage 1960s sewing pattern front and my modified back as inspired by Prada. Orange isn’t my color but I’m happy to have it as a contrast color. More info on my TSW post here.

Theme: Pin up

Project: The “Much Needed Curves” Dress

Yes, it’s a macaron! My evil twin Curvy Kitty took over for this pin-up project and writeup. Find out more here.

Theme: The Burdastyle Sewing Handbook 

Project: The Mod Oriental Dress 

This amazing sewing book was mailed to us with compliments and there are so many projects I wanted to try. In the end, I sewed a mod oriental dress which I could wear for Lunar New Year in January. Here’s the original burdastyle dress pattern I used. More  on the project and the modifications I made to the pattern here. Off course, I was happy to sew another book based project to fulfill my Craft Book Challenge target;) I have not been doing book based projects as much as I wanted to for the past couple of months as I ran out of tracing paper and Spotlight stopped selling them. A  couple of weeks ago, I found a shop in Chinatown selling them in bulk and bought lots. Now, I’m back to the books.

Have a blessed week!

P/S: I’ve received quite a number of emails and tried to respond to as many as I could. If I missed yours, please resend them and I will followup. Thank you and happy sewing!

My first meet up and two halloween outfits

It’s so difficult to keep a secret! Especially one that I’ve been so excited about!

Fellow Sew Weekly contributor Veronica Darling and I met up two weeks ago during her stopover in Singapore! After a few exchanges via email, we decided to sew outfits for the Halloween theme and have photos taken for Veronica’s Sew Weekly post. We wanted to keep this top secret and a surprise for all so I decided sew another outfit for my own TSW post. I stumbled upon Spanish designer Agatha Ruiz De La Prada’s quirky 2009 runway creations while researching the Spanish Harlem theme and shared the inspiration with Veronica. Here are the quirky, ‘alice in wonderland-ish’ inspirations behind both my Halloween outfits.

We decided to sew tablecloth dresses. Veronica’s dress was made from a real vintage tablecloth and came in vivid green, blue and read. You can read more about it from her TSW post here. My dress was made from Simplicity 4288, a pattern which was not dated but I am guessing it was either 1940s or 50s. I chose this pattern as it was labelled simple to make and I had only a few hours to sew before Veronica’s stopover. I found the most tablecloth looking wavy blue and red gingham print from my stash and started sewing. Turned out it was a breeze to sew and what took the most time were the button holes at the back of the dress. I used some pink heart-shaped buttons from my stash to add Alice in wonderland cuteness to the dress.

The sunny side up splashed on my sleeve was made from an old onesie and some yellow felt at the last-minute. It was hand stitched onto the dress and  has since been removed as the egg or what my mum thought was a huge flower, was drawing too much attention. I have worn the dress twice since our meet up sans sunny side up off course

We managed to spend four hours together taking photos, enjoyed a local seafood lunch and visited my favorite notions and fabric stores in Chinatown. She is truly a darling girl, absolutely sweet and adorable and I totally enjoyed our time together. Hubby was skeptical at first since we were ‘strangers’ (the exact word he used!). But, having read each other’s blog posts for almost a year, I felt like we knew each other and couldn’t stop chatting  I certainly hope Veronica will visit Singapore again soon with her hubby!

The second Halloween dress I sewed was totally different, it’s meant to be more costume than dress. And it’s the one eye thick lip monster dress. The LBD is made from a modern-day knit pattern, McCall’s 6243 and the lips section was self drafted.

The good thing about this dress, I can also unpick the lips which was hand stitched onto the LBD to ‘reclaim’ the dress for normal wear You can read more about the dress on my TSW post this week.

Happy Deepavali and halloween to everyone celebrating!

Four new projects

Sorry I have been away from the blog for so long. I think a month to be exact. Besides feeling rather burnt out, I’ve also been terribly busy- mostly due to kids activities and domestic helper issues.

I’ve also been thinking about my plans for next year, after my sew weekly commitments come to an end. As some of you might know, I started sewing because of my lil princess, who will be turning 3 really soon. The sewing attention shifted from her to me because she was wearing school uniform but since transferring to the same pre-school as her older brother in August, she has been wearing her own clothes. So, come next year my focus will be very much on mother-daughter fashion and I am blessed enough to have located a few matching mother-daughter vintage patterns to start 2012 off with.  Some of you have asked me about how I go about sewing jersey/ knit and chiffon since I do not own a serger so I will also be sharing my own experiences with these fabrics. I also hope to add a few self drafted patterns which you can download from my blog. My problem is the lack of a working scanner at the moment so I might have to get that resolved.

Well, that’s my very basic plan for next year. Meanwhile, I still wanna document the projects I’ve done on Sew Weekly so here are the stuff I’ve created for the past 4 weeks and links to the posts.

Hope you enjoy reading them and happy sewing!

1) Theme: Think Pink

Project: “Oops! Did I wear it the wrong way ?” blouse 

2) Theme: Spanish Harlem

Project: The “Shall we Dance?” Outfit

3) Theme: Musicals

Project: The “Gone Tribal” FELA dress

4) Theme: Lounging around

Project: The “Rusty Bed jacket and slacks”