Tracing made easy

Until recently, tracing for me meant finding a big enough tracing paper - with the thin tracing paper on top, trace the pattern once, turn it over and transfer it onto another piece.. talk about waste of time!! That is why I always procrastinate or in many cases pretended that I forgot to trace some cute new patterns I found especially in the library books (which eventually I have to return *sigh*) or from books or magazines where the patterns look like a maze (YIKES!!!)        


When I 'discovered' the use of serrated tracing wheel (bought a while back from my local 100yen shop) I was elated. Gone were the days of my procrastination (or so I thought.. But that is a whole different blog entry *roll eyes*   

Here's a simple how to

1. Gather all your materials: tracing wheel, cutting mat, pattern, paper

(I get a roll of good quality white paper from my local hardware store - it's thicker and sturdier and lasting) 

2. Place the white paper (or any color for that matter) onto the mat, place your pattern on top of it. 

3. Use the tracing wheel to trace around the pattern (straight lines, curves, waves whatever pattern really) - just a little bit of pressure is enough to transfer the pattern 

4. Remove the pattern and wallah you can see tiny little dots of puncture on the paper (Click the picture for a better view). You can now cut along the dotted lines and store the pattern away for another day (this is where another problem arise for me - I've so many cute new patterns stored away waiting to be tried out.. HELP!!!) 

*Sharp object - Keep away from the reach of young children and safely store away after use. 

Try the window tracing method

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Tapes

An essential item in my studio.. 

I have never run out of tapes and am always on the prowl for some cute prints.

The FAVOURITE with my customers are of course the Matryoshka print (notice the different sizes *HEART*)

I tie them together using a hemp string and hang them in my studio - always in view, easily accessible and variety of prints to choose from depending on my what I'm packing.

In a nutshell, I'm NUTS about my tapes *roll eyes*  

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What's new in the shoppe...

1. Books - Felt craft, patchwork, bag making, kids clothing, baby items, sewing for home

2. OLFA Rotary Cutter - 28mm, 45mm and 60mm

Note - I've been using a rotary cutter (as pictured above - code name: 03) for over a year and I'm very happy with it. I cut all my fabrics and interfacing - straight, curves and up to 2 layers with ease. It has definitely save my cutting time to half 

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An update.. finally

Wishing all muslims Eid Mubarak and Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Malaysians all around the world. 

Will be back very soon.. 

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Bento Wrap

An idea suggested by a customer from down under - a reusable sandwich wrap.

After few days of planning and visualising in my head, I came up with Bento Wrap

- Reusable, washable & environmental friendly
- Wrap your sandwiches, muffins, rolls, kuih, biscuits, nasi lemak, etc
- Leak free and opens up to become a place mat
- Laminated cotton with bias tape binding all around
- Size: 29cm x 29cm
- Price RM20 each

Wrapping steps:
Lay bento wrap down flat, place food in the middle. Fold left to right then bottom and top and fasten with velcro strapping

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*Balik Kampung* SALE

It is that time of the year, where I pack my bags and get ready to board a plane back to my homeland for a taste of mom's cooking and blissful days filled with lazying around... 

But as many of MyBotanG readers might be aware by now (SALE), I de-stash like there's no tomorrow especially when I plan to return to Malaysia. So I present to you:

MyBotanG BALIK KAMPUNG Sale

1.FQ - Designer cotton and Japanese cotton for RM6, RM8, RM10 a piece with FREE shipping from Japan to Malaysia

2. BOOKS - Felt, Bag making and Patchwork 

3. Japanese Cotton  - for baju kurung and such

4. MyBotanG original handmade - bags, pouches

Have a good week ahead..Pin It

Laminated cotton find

I am being pulled by laminated cotton. Every fabric store I visit, I find myself drawn towards the colourful rolls (laminated cotton usually comes in 50cm cut roll). 

I caved in..(as if it comes as a surprise to anyone.. *roll eyes*).  

I bought some yummy polka dot laminated cotton last weekend. 

They are so easy to sew (just like normal fabric, no additional tool required). The only drawback is they are quite pricey.. *sigh* 

They make lovely bags, wallet and pouches and recently I received a commission to make reusable food wrap out of these lovelies (will blog about it next)

Find out more about laminated cotton here, and I've listed them in the shoppe as well if anybody's interested. 

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From an adult shirt to a little girl's shirt - Refashion project

A rather straight forward project and something you can do between projects or on a lazy afternoon. 

Here's a simple how to:

* Get one of your shirt - in my case, I got this Benetton shirt awhile back but didn't wear it much and it has been sitting there in the recycle box for quite sometime now. 

* Identify areas you need to alter: 

- narrow the shoulder

- cover the neckline 

- shorten the length

To make the shirt fit snugly on a little girl, you need to narrow the shoulder width. Measure it against your little girl's perfect fitting shirt, mark the excess and cut (sorry no picture). I took out a good 2-3cm on each side. I cut out the sleeves as well and reattach them (making them shorter) using the normal stitch and then using the zig zag stitch that comes with every machine. 

To cover the neckline, I got a strip of knit (in a darker shade) from my stash and sewed 3 rows of lace (remember to measure how much you need to cover). Align and pin onto the neck area, sew and cut excess.   

From the picture above you can see Sofea added her own flower brooch (she made them herself), which I think goes nicely with the whole look. 

At this point of the process I was already getting restless and just wanted to finish the project *roll eyes*

So instead of cutting to shorten the length, I added ties (again something I saved from another shirt or skirt) on the sides. You'll need 4 equal length ties, 2 on each sides. Sew the ties - one outside and another inside - it could be tricky, either pin properly or hand sew like what I did *grin*

And wallah you are done, I'm glad I didn't cut to make it shorter. The ties give a nice gather on the sides and it definitely adds to the whole girly lacy shirt look.. and the most important of it all is getting the approval of your 9yo when she sees her new old shirt *priceless* 

Coincidentally this shirt goes well with the skirt I refashioned earlier, and now Sofea has a matching outfit. 

Hope you are having a good week..

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Sofea and felt

Sofea made a set of felt brooches during the weekend. Her first attempt was the strawberry and red mushroom on the top right. 

I noticed that she got confused at first on how to break down the pattern after tracing in onto a paper i.e strawberry body on one paper template and the leaf on another. But she quickly got the hang of it and managed to draw separate templates for the mushroom. 

Her favourite part was matching the different coloured felts (definitely my fav part too *grin*). 

After the success of the first two, she decided she needed 2 more mushrooms brooches, and this time she did almost everything by herself (even sewing the pin at the back of the brooch). 

She got a bit more creative with the colour mixing - baby blue mushroom, and experiemnting with shapes - heart for the red mushroom. 

We used the pattern from this book for her project. It is still available in the shoppe. 

Her first felt craft project.
Hope you had a wonderful weekend too..Pin It

Giveaway Winners

Thank you for participating in my little GA.

Sorry for the late announcement of the winners.

I enjoyed reading all the comments left about the fabric and decided the 2 I liked the most are:

1. Hueisei said: 

Thanks for the generous giveaway!

Well, I likes the Eiffel tower and also misc dolls showing the Paris's ladies daily activity and styles..

What I dislikes it's the color. Not that striking and not much caught attention. From the far, you wont notice how special this fabric is. You need to look it closer to catch the meaning behind of the whole picture. ^^v

2. Suzie said: 

Sue...love to join ur giveaway...

Ok....dari segi fesyen suka warnanya...suka karakter kartunnya ...suka juga gambaran designernya tentang Paris...

Kalau bab tak suka pula saya memang macam patriotik sikit ..orang Paris memang selalu bangga dengan Francenya..kan...sampaikan kain pun ada bangunan kemegahan Paris...hmmmm saya anak Malaysia ...hahhahaha

To the rest of the participant, thank you again for taking the time to leave a comment, better luck time yea.. 

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