Month: September 2009

Stylish Dress Book 2: Dress F

When we went to Indonesia last summer, I came back with quite a heap of fabrics. Several of them are from my mother’s collection which are too beautiful that I’m still afraid to cut them, and several are store-bought. This cotton batik is bought from Danar Hadi, a batik store in the city of Solo, Central Java; the brown and indigo pattern is called ‘Parang rusak‘. I browsed through my Japanese pattern book and find dress F in ‘Stylish Dress Book 2’. The pattern is very simple, a loose dress with raglan sleeves, several rows of shirrings on neckline, and […]

An apron, another bag, and a pinch pouch

A few days ago, I joined a cooking class in the neighbourhood. And just a day before the class, my friend told me that I had to bring an apron. I guess it wasn’t too unusual since almost every housewife in Japan has an apron that they wear everyday. Well, I do some cooking at home and had thought about using an apron, but somehow always postponed making it. I immediately turned to my scrap bag and found that I still had some leftover from my IKEA bags. This one was just enough for a small apron without pockets. Maybe […]

Stylish Dress Book 2: Top A

This ‘Stylish Dress Book 2’ is one of the most popular pattern book among crafters, and I’ve been eyeing it for sometime. I’ve already had ‘Stylish Dress Book 1’ and made several dresses from it. The dresses in both books are relatively simple, yet so pretty. The pictures are also very simple, both books featuring the same model standing against white wall with serene look. I finally bought the book and decided to make the first pattern in the book: A. The top has flowy sleeves and several pleats on the front part. The fabric is thin cotton with stripes […]

Go no poo

 The last time I used shampoo for washing my hair was about 2,5 months ago, or to be exact, in June 18, 2009. My hair was not the best hair in the world. I’ve abused it in many ways, colouring it, spraying it with curling spray to keep the shape, and rubbing it with shine serum to make it shine. Actually they looked kinda alright, but then I noticed that without all those styling stuffs, my hair would look dull and lifeless. Then I read this article about ‘no poo’. Here’s a woman who has stopped shampooing at all and […]