Winter Break

Fuyu yasumi (winter break) is finally here.

I'm taking a much needed break and heading to where there's NO snow.

I'm planning to soak in onsen (hot spring), eat good food, meet friends,

and just chill for about a week and of course do some..er..maybe LOTS of shopping *grin*

Hope to return rejuvenated and ready to take the challenge of the coming year..

2009 has been kind and good..Hope 2010 brings more joy to your heart.

Happy New Year from MyBotanG!!

Thanks for stopping by.

How are you spending your holidays?

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For the tiny person

Here are among the things that I've made for my girl.

My first - experimenting with sewing on papers

covered hair clips, hair bands with covered buttons and head band

school stuff - school bag covers, bento bags, and gym clothes bags

This has to be my favourite - a pocket tissue holder with a handmade strawberry charm found here

You are the trip I did not take

You are the pearls I cannot buy

You are my blue Italian lake

You are my piece of foreign sky

Anne Campbell - verse dedicated to a daughter

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Mini Pouch

Hi, my name is MyBotanG, and I am addicted to making chisai, small, petit, mini pouches...

I made my first strawberry print mini pouch to put my make-up items

They were so cute and easy to make that I just had to make more..

Do you have any confession to make..??

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Fabulous cotton giveaway

Good FREEZING Monday morning all..

Here's something that would warm you up. Head over to Sew Retro Chic! for a chance to add 5m of fabric to your stash.

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Cuteness comes in GREEN as well

How do you feel about GREEN as food, medicine, juice, clothes, shoes...etc..etc... Anything green has never really appealed to me. I will definitely NEVER purposely drink anything in that colour *yucks*

But.... I MELT when I saw this.

All the kawaiii animals and pretty sceneries were simply irresistable.

I made it into a baby quilt

I used some red fabric from my stash to create a border for the centre panel and used knit type fabric for the quilt border and finished the quilt with some homemade bias tape made from the same red fabric. The quilting was a breeze with my new Janome Super Secio PC

  As for the back fabric, I used light coloured gauze. I love the back almost as much because of the texture the quilting creates. *YUMMY*

How's your weekend so far?

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Baby Blanky

Isn't this print PREETY!!  It's by Micheal Miller. You have to love the genki and kawaii
animals.

I hardly had to do anything with the panel. I removed the checked borders on the sides and turned it into bias tape, which I used for the blanket.

I backed the blanket with soft gauze, which is suitable for the warm Malaysian weather where the blanket is going.

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Soft Toys

Have you tried making soft toys? I haven't till recently..and it's addictive..

I made this small tortoise for my nephew using a pattern I found in Amy Karol's Bend the Rule Sewing.  I used my girl's old fleece jacket and kind of embroidered the eyes (ehem..)

And just last weekend, I produced a couple more softies.. a returning tortoise and a wittle wabbit..

The tortoise is green this time and I padded and quilted the shell for a more realistic-shell effect (well, to me it looks like the real thing..hehe) buttons for eyes and blanket stitch all around for sturdier tug-of-war moments.

I got the wittle wabbit's pattern from Betz White. Of course hers was made from cashmere.. and instead of the ears sticking up like Betz's, my bunny's ears are down.. reminded me of my babbit--my pet rabbit growing up--rest in peace.

Any softies in your collection? Am thinking of creating a whole softies petting zoo next..

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Grocery Bag Sew-Off at Sew, Mama, Sew!

Sew, Mama, Sew! is having a Grocery Bag Sew-Off. You can read more about it here. There are prizes to be won!!

These are my Odekake bags - going out bags. I found the pattern in one of the many crafting books here in Japan.

 

 I've made a little adjustment to the inside pocket from the original pattern, where instead of just one deep pocket, I've made three pockets - so I can hide many small things into different compartments.

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Your first love

Remember this fabric? I have used it to make many things. One of the it being a quilted wall-hanging. I made it for a friend in the UK. It was my first quilt commision and I had hard time deciding everything from what colour thread to use, to border material and number of loops. After much consultation and reassurance from my friend, I came up with this. I hand quilted the circles (used different sized plates to draw the circles) and machine quilted the diagonal lines.

I love how it turned out. It is now hanging in my friend's home. I am happy and honoured that my artwork is part of someone's life.

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Monday Refashion on Tuesday

What do you do with outgrown-still good and can be used children's clothes? I have bags and bags of such items. My daughter is growing like a bean sprout. She has outgrown most of her T-shirts and most of her trousers hang just above the ankle - Is Micheal Jackson look - ankle length trousers with white socks showing still in fashion?

I was rummaging through her outgrown clothes pile when I found this jeans with embroiderry on the side. She can still fit into it nicely so I decided to shorten it and add ruffles.

I always forget to take a before pictures, but it was a boot leg jeans. I cut about 8cm off and used some pretty ruffles I removed from her old baby dress which coincidentally also has some pretty embroiderry on them.  

I sacrificed one plainner 4T light pink shirt and used the parts to lengthen another 4T shirt that my girl adored but she hardly wore them because it had rather tight small sleeves.

Now, she has a pair of NEW-ly refashioned clothes that might last her till next summer.. fingers crossed. Off to rummage through the piles again..*sigh*

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Itty Bitty Baby Stuff

When I get too stressed working on some big projects or commisions, I take a break and make baby stuff. Even when I go window shopping, I am drawn to the baby section, I guess looking at all those itty bitty mittens and socks and bibs relaxes me and makes me happy, like everything will be OK after all..

I am hopeless at making clothes from stratch, so I make bibs and booties. This was the first set I made. Bought the Doraemon fabric from a yard sale. I gave this to my cousin who gave birth to a baby boy. The sole of the booties was from my girl's old corduroy jeans that she outgrown.

I made this red bib and bootie set for a friend a while back. I used some pretty laces I had in my stash.

I recently made this pair for a baby boy. I backed it with gauze and used some ric rac to decorate. I've added a button at the corner of each bib, hopefully the baby doesn't put it in his mouth *gulp*

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Scrap Project

I have bags and bags of scraps. It comes in different shapes and sizes. I DETEST them. I can't throw them out, yet I have difficulty storing them, mainly because a) Japanese SUPER tiny apartments don't do well with clutter b) I am horrible at organising them - colour coded or size?? boxes or zip lock?? Again boxes just won't do (refer back to reason 'a').

So at the moment, I have my growing scraps in ziplocks 'organised' according to size.. ehem.. more or less so.. It would be heavenly if my stash were as organised as this and this and this *sigh*

Once in a while, I go through the pile trying to make some sense of it all and on a good day manage to come up with this

and this More teacups *grin* They are snack mats - smaller than placemats but bigger than coasters.. hahah I got the pattern from a Japanese Zakka book in my collection. They are very easy and superfast to whip up and a good way to get some of those scraps out.

What do you do with your scraps?

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KOKKA loveliness

As promised, here is a picture of yet another bento bag with cover made out of Trefle by Kokka fabric, the cover and handles were made from fabric I got from IKEA in the 'as it is' corner.

I also have in my stash another Trefle by Kokka print as pictured below. This print makes me want to drink TEA *smile* It is so kitchen-y and homey..

I've made 6 placemats with matching coasters (not pictured) and combined the Trefle print with some sweet peach coloured Japanese cotton. I'm planning to make some other kitchen-y sweetness with the remaining fabric.

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Yummy Fabric

I don't usually prefer orange, but this Trefle by Kokka print is simply yummy. I've had it for a while now (I only have 2m in my stash, wished I'd gotten more *sigh*), looking and admiring, and waiting to make something nice out of it, and I have recently. Will upload pic soon.

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Bento Bags Galore

Bento is packed lunch. Japanese are well known to prepare creative and beautiful bento packs for their family and friends either for everyday lunch or for special occasions like New Year.

Japanese Bento


Since coming to Japan, I have to prepare bento for my girl and hubby almost everyday. We are also used to preparing bento ahead of time for when we travel. It's economical and we get to sit in a park somewhere and enjoy family lunch together.

So, it would be obvious that I'd make bento bags to keep all these bento. My first bento bag was a copy of a bento bag I bought at 100yen shop. It was part of a set for my girl when she entered shogakko - primary school. It took me a lonnnnnnngggg time to figure out the size and pattern - even then I made it a tad small *roll eyes*

But I'm happy to report that since then my bento bags have evolved. I have a whole, well at least half range of bento bags collection.
1.Bento bag with cover and handles
2.Bento bag with drawstring



3. Quilted bento bag


4. Bento bag with zipper
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