verypurpleperson

womenswear
19 Comments

Blue

I have had this book, ‘The Art of Manipulating Fabric’ by Colette Wolff for some time, it is sort of wonderful textbook of any kind of fabric manipulation. Ruffles, gatherings, shirrings, pleats, darts, anything. I really like the book and read it several times already. But as much as I enjoyed reading it, I felt a little bit guilty for not using it for a real project. I finally used one of the technique, called single-shell ruffle for this blue dress. The blue fabric is double-gauze cotton by Nani IRO. I just love all fabrics from this Nani IRO collection, the […]

Read More
giveaway, life
279 Comments

Happy birthday to me and a giveaway! – CLOSED

I was given the name Novita because I was born in the month of November. Actually I was born on the last day of November, so tomorrow is my birthday and it’s a perfect reason to make another giveaway! \(^.^)/ The winner will get a package of these prizes: 1. a zippered pencil pouch in Echino by Etsuko Furuya fabric 2. a matching mini wallet in Echino by Etsuko Furuya fabric 3. a pair of these cute Matryoshkas. 4. a set of Matryoshka 2010 sticker calendar. 5. a surprise original watercolour drawing from my dear husband (^.^) Here’s what you […]

Read More
knitting and crochet
9 Comments

Circle scarf and bow brooch

It’s about time to warm up my knitting needles again. I started knitting this scarf about two days ago while waiting for Sidra in his swimming class. This scarf is knitted on double pointed needle size 15 JPN/6.5 mm and only utilized K1P1 ribbing stiches, no eyelets, fancy lace, etc, because it seemed that my knitting skill has gone back to zero. The yarn is Puppy Maurice wool yarn in sort of blue-green-beige colour. It’s finished today and then I knitted a little bow brooch from the leftover, again only using K1P1 ribbing stitches. The whole result is a little […]

Read More
life
4 Comments

Sidra got caught by street style hunter in Harajuku

My husband had to work for a half day last Saturday, his office is not far from Harajuku area, so Sidra and me went along and we had a little walk by ourselves in Omotesando Hills. Suddenly there was a guy came to us and told me that he wanted to photograph Sidra for a street style section in a kid’s fashion magazine. I asked Sidra about it and he agreed, so we went with him to meet the photographer. Standing beside the photographer was a familiar face, it was the editor of Sesame magazine that we met last year […]

Read More
womenswear
11 Comments

Cotton tunics

These are the cotton tunics that I made last week. I really love the natural colour of the fabric and how comfortable they feel to my skin. The shape of the tunic is very simple, sort of basic item that can be combined with lots of things. The tunic has round neckline and front opening with fabric loop and button. I use cotton linen binding strips for the loop and neckline. The linen fabric also used as side tab and details on sleeves. Love the result! And don’t they look good together? ^.^

Read More
life
17 Comments

Maikeru Jakuson

Sidra: Mama, when I grow up, I wanna be Maikeru Jakuson! Mama: Oh? That’s good. Why do you wanna be like Michael Jakson? Sidra: Because he’s a great dancer! Sidra: Ma, which one is greater, Maikeru Jakuson or Obama? Mama: Uh… well… they’re different. I don’t think we can compare them. Sidra: What can Obama do? Mama: Obama? Let’s see… what can he do? He’s smart, he’s the president of USA. Sidra: Is that it? Can he dance? Mama: Well, I don’t think he can dance. Sidra: Then Maikeru Jakuson is the greater one! Sidra: Ma, how many Maikeru Jakuson […]

Read More
womenswear
11 Comments

Making identical things

I love making identical things with slight differences between each other. But of course this opportunity doesn’t come very often if I only made things for myself. Next week I’m going to participate in a local craft market, so I’m kinda busy preparing some things for the day. This fabric with Matryoshka pattern was bought in Nippori, but I guess they’re pretty famous already and can be found in lots of places. I just sewed a piece of lace on each doll, put linen fabric on the back, slip some grosgrain ribbons, and sewed around the doll shape. Then I […]

Read More
bags and purses
10 Comments

Colorful small things

A few days ago I went to Cottonfield, a fabric store in Kichijoji, and found this pretty fabric. I’m sure that this Echino prints by Etsuko Furuya is quite famous already. The fabric featured retro-inspired airplane images, stripes and polka dot patterns in pretty colours combined together . I turned the fabric into into several mini wallets and a zippered pencil pouch for the shop. Actually there were two pouches, but I had to keep one of them for my colored pens. And this one is mine ^.^

Read More
bags and purses
13 Comments

Scrap bucket

This month is Scrap buster month in Sew, Mama, Sew! blog, and they have so many great projects for fabric scraps. After browsing on those wonderful projects, I got inspired by this bucket and made my own version. The bucket uses scraps of Ikea fabrics that seemed to have never stopped overflowing my sewing room. I sewed several strips together, the lines are not straight because the strips are in different widths. Then I ironed fusible interfacing on the back and cut them into 35×80 cm rectangle. I wanted a circle for the bottom of the bucket, so the diameter […]

Read More
life
6 Comments

Etsy front pages and other thing

I just found out that my madras dress and one of these reversible bags were featured in different Etsy front pages a few days ago. There they are, first one on second row and first one on third row! They are my first Etsy front pages, ans since I don’t update my shop too often, I’m pretty happy that some of my stuffs made it to the front page. The screen captures are from the flickr group: Etsy Front Pagers- Treasury Screenshots which have screen captures of most all Etsy front pages. On another note, Sidra said that he wanted […]

Read More