making other stuff
21 Comments

Necklaces love

I love necklaces. And I love them colourful and loud. Dainty, small, and delicate are not my things. Here is some of my most favourite necklaces. These are my birds. The newest one is the yellow macrame owl, it was bought from macraMe at Etsy and just came in the mailbox today. It’s sooo cute! But my favourite is the silver hummingbird, I wore it when I met my husband for the first time ♥♥♥ The red enamel with big gold chain is vintage Monet and it used to belong to my mother. It was often used as photo shoot property […]

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life
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Herakuresu

You know, we actually have pet in the house, although I rarely talked about it. But we’ve almost never seen it around because it is living in a plastic box buried under a heap of soil. In fact, it hardly can be called a pet at all, because we can’t, you know, pet it or play with it. The only thing we can do is watching it while it’s growing. Anyway, meet our pet: a Colombian Hercules beetle larva! Sidra calls it ‘Herakuresu’, which is simply how the word ‘Hercules’ said in Japanese. He’s crazy about all these kabuto (rhino […]

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making other stuff
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Hats and brooches

A friend of mine just got an operation done on her head. She had to have all all her long hair shaved and stayed a long time in the hospital. I decided to make her a hat, hopefully it will cheer her up. Initially I wanted to knit a cap, but apparently my knitting and crochet skill has gone back to zero, so I made her a fabric hat instead. Sometime ago I’ve made these denim hats from the book ‘Idea Hat Recipe’, so I looked for other patterns in it. The concept of the book is hats that inspired by […]

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life
12 Comments

Fashion treasure

Do you have a fashion treasure? This coat is one of mine. It used to belong to my mother, she bought it in a small shop in France more than thirty years ago when she and my father went for a trip around Europe. The coat is unlined blue and white purl knit, the white pattern is consisted of white chains inserted between. It also has a a pair of big pockets, perfect for the cold hands, and thick mother-of-pearl buttons. Once my mother was back from the trip, the coat had no use in the tropical climate of Indonesia […]

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making other stuff
14 Comments

Room shoes

A pair of room shoes that I made yesterday. The pattern is Woman room shoes (size 5-10) pdf pattern bought from ithinksew for $5. Besides the multi sizes, the pattern also comes with 9 pages of clear step-by-step photo tutorials and I got to download 5 more free patterns with every purchase. Yay! The outer fabric is cotton and the lining is Indonesian batik, both are scraps from my previous projects. I sewed a pair of thick felt soles so it would feel more like shoes instead of socks. The size 6 that I chose turned out a bit too […]

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womenswear
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Bib dress

This very pretty embroidered cotton was found in a local fabric store, but unfortunately it was only in a small piece. So I planned to make a bib dress with it, combining it with this denim-like blue cotton/linen fabric. I was ready to draft a pattern myself when I found this Wenlan blouse pattern in Burdastyle, the pattern is actually for a blouse and the recommended fabric is flowy materials like chiffon and silk. My blue fabric is a bit stiff, but I think I can use this pattern for my dress, so I went ahead and bought the pattern […]

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bags and purses, Free patterns, tutorials
29 Comments

Tissue case tutorial

I’ve used my new sewing machine to make these very simple tissue cases from scrap of linen fabrics. They are basically a lined fabric rectangle folded to meet at the center. I make the outer fabric longer than the lining fabric so it automatically folded inside, because I don’t like the lining fabric showing at the edge. It also eliminates the need of topstitching. The tutorial is only two pages, but please tell me if something is not clear in it. Disclaimer: You may use the finished products for both personal and commercial use (craft shops or markets only – no […]

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life
16 Comments

New sewing machine!

The bad news is, my Janome Agneau d’Or Y101 is now officially dead. We took it to a Janome dealer last week, a little shop in a nice small street. A nice woman greeted us and she gasped when we showed her a piece of fabric with loopy stitches on it.  She then tried to move the wheel but it was stuck. It wasn’t stuck before! We told her about my sewing ‘habit’, she seemed impressed and asked permission to take some pictures of things that I made and worn that day, my dress and pencil pouch, Sidra’s jacket and […]

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life
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Sidra in Sesame magazine – Spring issue 10

These pictures are from Sesame magazine, spring issue 2010, that was published this month. Sidra participated in  a picture article featuring children from several countries. That’s one page of him in the traditional Javanese clothes and a little interview on the side. The pictures were taken last month at Sesame studio. I really love this magazine, not (just) because Sidra were in the magazine several times, but because the clothes are always unbearably cute! Sometimes I had ideas for my own outfit from this kid’s fashion magazine. Anyway, here’s a loose translation of Sidra’s interview: Sidra – Indonesia Shidora-kun Q What do you […]

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kidswear
24 Comments

Red pants

S: Mama, I want a gold pants. M: A gold pants? Why?? S: Because Maikeru Jakuson wears one. M: But where will you wear the gold pants to? S: I’ll wear it anywhere, to supermarket, to school…. Since I couldn’t bear the thought of him walking to school in gold pants, I tried to offer several alternatives. How about a pair of black pants? No? But Michael Jackson had one too. A blue pants? No? A grey one? No? And so on. At last we saw Michael Jackson in the ‘This is It’ DVD wearing a pair of red pants. I […]

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