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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