verypurpleperson

bags and purses, tutorials
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Featured in Sew News!

I’m in a magazine cover! Well, at least my handmade organizers are ^_^ If you can get your hands on the newest (December 2010/January 2011) issue of Sew News magazine, you would see five organizer wallets featured in the cover. They were handmade by me! You can see the cover in the Sew News facebook page here. I was contacted by Ellen March, the editor of Sew News, and she  invited me to contribute a tutorial for the December issue. She was interested in my wallet tutorial, and asked me to develop the wallet idea into something new. I began to brainstorm some […]

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review
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DIY couture book

The first time I heard about London-based DIY couture by Rosie Martin was in this etsy’s Storque post where she shared her well-written tutorial on making a simple gathered skirt with clear illustrations and step-by-step photos. So I was very surprised when Rosie contacted me one day and offered me one of her books. I chose book number two: How to make a cloak, which I thought would be perfect for the upcoming cold weather. This is actually part of twelve books collection on how to make different types of garments. The other books offered are pleated skirt, gathered dress, wrap top, shrug, straight skirt, grecian dress, jump […]

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life, making other stuff
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2010 2010 = 40!

Today is my husband’s 40th birthday! Sidra and I had been thinking about a present for Papa, and he (sneakily) suggested that I should make a plush doll for Papa. Actually my husband likes plushies and other cute stuff, but he never bought one for himself because… , well, because he’s a grown man, I guess? So I think it’s time he has his own plush toy. I let Sidra choose a plushie pattern from Funky Friends Factory, but this time I went directly to the website to buy the PDF pattern. Sidra chose this Platypus pattern for Papa, it’s a […]

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kidswear
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Yellow corduroy vest and pants

I’ve seen so many wonderful projects made with vintage patterns on the net, and finally I had my first one to try! The pattern was bought via etsy, it’s a 1972 McCalls pattern for high-neck shirt, vest, and pants. I made the vest and pants for Sidra. The fabric is yellow corduroy and the lining is dark purple polyester fabric. It turned out that I didn’t really like the lining fabric, it moved a lot and doesn’t stay in shape. Next time I will be using cotton or silk for the lining. I didn’t make many changes to the pattern, […]

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kidswear
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More tees!

I’m not feeling well lately, headache, coughs, runny nose, etc. I guess the transitional period between summer to autumn is not doing good to my body. To make myself feel better, I sew several things for Sidra. I made these two shirts yesterday. The beige one is using leftover fabric from my own shirt. I bought it in a thrift shop sometime ago for colder weather, but then rarely wear it. I reuse the green button tab and cuffs from the original shirt. Today Sidra had a haircut! It was his first professional haircut done in Japan. Actually it was in […]

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making other stuff
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Chiko-kun, the baby dino

I woke up with terrible sore throat and headache today. I guess I caught the virus from Sidra, who has been having colds for a couple of days. Despite the cough and runny nose, he’s still very active and happy though, unlike me who who’d rather stay in bed and feel sorry for myself. >_< We both stayed at home and had some rest today. But then Sidra asked about his dino plush toy that I’ve promised him to finish, so I headed to my sewing room. I began to stuff the dino with some stuffing when I accidentally rip the […]

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kidswear
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Recycled check T-shirt

Still no dino plushies. It was raining the whole day yesterday so I stayed at home and made something else for Sidra. The T-shirt is recycled from my old T-shirt dress, bought in 2006 in Indonesia. My hair was pretty short at the time! The picture was taken in my office’s studio, hence the black background (the advantage of working in a fashion magazine). Actually the dress was still in decent condition, but I’ve never worn it anymore. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty when I don’t wear something that I didn’t make myself. Is that strange? The material is […]

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kidswear
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White and purple shirt

I was making a dinosaur plush toy yesterday and just one step away from finishing it, all I need was just some stuffing and a pair of black beads for the eyes. As I didn’t want to go too far to buy supplies, I headed to a thrift store nearby. I was planning to find some broken plush toys that I can cut open to use the stuffing and eyes. Apparently the plan just didn’t work out. It was not that there weren’t any ugly toys in the store, there were plenty of them. But as I looked at those […]

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kidswear
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Linen and foxes jacket

Sidra has been growing up so fast this year, all his pants are now too short, even the ones that I made four months ago! Knee-length pants are good (temporary) solution for this, but I should be making some full length pants for cooler weather soon. He also has two jackets that he’s been wearing a lot, and they’re both too short now. It’s time for a new jacket! The pattern is the same as his old jackets, but in one size larger with added lining and all topstitching details omitted. The pattern is from R&D.M.Co-boys & girls, this is one […]

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kidswear
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Striped T-shirt and tweed pants

A couple of days ago was a national holiday in Japan, but it was raining the whole day so we stayed at home and got kinda bored. I went to my sewing room, trying to find things to do, and found this piece of grey tweed fabric that I bought a long time ago. It was only 50 cm and I had forgotten why I bought it in the first place. I decided to turn it into a pair of pants for Sidra. It was a really simple pants, I use a pattern from R&D.M.Co-boys & girls that I have […]

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