Simple skirts

Do you like what you see? I'm so pleased with myself and my sewing machine. Not that I invented the steps to sew the skirts, but my dear sewing machine was so cooperative today and I finish both skirts at one go : )

Friday is the dress-down day of the whole week for me at the office.  I had on many occasions, open my wardrobe and found nothing that it exciting or interesting to wear on Fridays. It's always jean + T-shirt or knit blouse.  I don't really have a lot of informal skirts. Not sure why but I've tons of work wear and dresses. I love dresses and like my husband said, my favourite work colours are black, dark blue and grey. Well, it's easier to coordinate office wear with these 3 safe colours but not very exciting.  I had in mind to sew myself a nice skirt when I'm free and then I chance upon a simple skirt tutorial by Dana.

I know for simple skirt you don't really need a tutorial. But when I saw those pretty skirts that Dana made, I'm really inspired to try too. I've got this green polka dots with red flower fabric that I bought from Spotlight some time ago and had in mind to sew a dress. But I guess a skirt will also do since I don't really have a lot of time to measure myself and I thought I want to wear it tomorrow!

Ha. It's really easy. You should try it. In no time at all, you will be sewing tons of them : ) I know I did.  Sew a smaller version for my eldest girl.  The only difference between the 2 skirt is the width is 1.5 times of the waist as I don't want it to be too full while my girl's is 2 times.  I've also adjusted the fabric print so that the position of the row of flowers will look slightly different.

Hehehe...I can't stop grinning...I'm definitely going to try some more to give away.

I'm back!

Did you think I'm gone for good? Well, I almost did : P

Had to wash, fold and pack the clothes back into the respective wardrobes. Clean the house, map the floor did so many housework that I don't have energy to step into my sewing room to do some sewing. I know if I did. I'll never stop and then the work get piles up and I'll get more depressed by days. My husband is very sweet that he didn't complain about the dirty house and messy table which I've piled up high with the things I've bought from our trip to China. Still finding a way to sort them before I put them away. Also, gosh, those many many photos that we took (actually, it's my husband who took most of them). Got a total of 9G!

Anyway just to share some of our trip to China here while I get my act together and sew something I can share. We've travelled, in the span of 13 days, to Shanghai, Hangzhuo, Wuzhen, Suzhuo, Wuxi, Nanjing, Tao Hua Dao... Lots of bus trips and long rides and of course, shopping for Xihu LongJing tea leaves, Silk pillow and mattress protectors, etc etc.



At the airports with our luggages



Famous xiaolongpao shop at Chenghuang temple



see any resemblance? At Shanghai Mdm Tu's wax museum



pretty flowers at Suzhuo

 

special black maize. it's natural and not coloured

my girls went mad with the big tub!

Nanjing bridge with 2 levels

 

flowers again

and again. can't stop. they are so pretty!

baby with the rattle at a store

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bought her a bubble sword

pretty food

Tao Hua Dao

 I love to travel. We did a few Free and Easy trip to Japan, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Austria and Australia. I would love to do this the same way but not with the kids. China is too vast to cover alone without a guide. With kids, it's mission impossible. Maybe I should ahve another blog on travel and I can post more photos and even my detailed itinerary. My friends said I'm crazy when she saw my plan. It's detailed with train schedule! Sigh,, maybe next time when I've more time. Till the next time, my friends! Enjoy the photos

Camera strap with len pocket

I'm going on a long trip overseas next week, so I will most likely be absence from the blog.. Will you miss me ?  : P

In preparation for the trip, we had made a big purchase - a D60 Canon DSLR! My husband had one Minota DSLR but we decided to buy another newer one so that I can also share and use it sometime to take picture of my finished projects. Not sure if it'll help since my photography skills leave much to be desired. I"m always too eager to take picture once I have finished my sewing which is a bad decision since it's mostly at night and the lighting (or the lack of it) is apparent in the pictures. Must change this impatience nature of me..

Anyway, back to the topic on camera. I wanted to give my new camera a new image. So decided to sew a camera strap cover with len pocket. I saw alot of tutorials here, here and here. It was amazing.

Since I'm just a few days away from the trip and I need to finish up packing for the whole family and clean up the house, wash the clothes, dust the bed etc etc.. I decide to go for a quick and simple one.  Will make more strap to change when I have the time. Ideally, I would prefer to use different fabric scraps and sew them together but well, next time then. One thing for sure, it will have the len pocket as I feel that it's a necessity.

Use a medium weight fabric from Ikea and cut 2 pieces of strap measuring 25"X 3". This will differ depending on how long your original strap is. I've included seam allowance of 5/8".  For the pocket, it's 5"X 4.5". I intend for the finished strap to be 2"wide so the pocket piece will need to have box pleat for it to stay in shape with the strap.

You can read the tutorials from the blogland as I pretty much did the same steps. The difference is my pocket. I'll not post any tutorial or picture of the steps taken as I made a BIG mistake along the way and was in a rush to finish up the strap.  In my zombie state (I had a cough and had taken 10ml of cough mixture), I have accidentally sew the pocket upside down! Gurrh..can't even unpick since it was sewn to the 2 long side seams already! I had to discard the whole thing and start all over again.

So, here is the only 2 picture of the finished strap. I'm happy at the colour though. Can't wait to use them : )


see the nice len pocket with box pleat?



here's me with the strap on my neck and len cap in the pocket!