September 16th, 2009 | womenswear 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 a drawstring on hip. A linen tape is used for the drawstring, actually they are two separate pieces connected together with a length of elastics. The elastics make it easier to pull the strings without having to arrange the gathers all the time. I can wear the drawstrings low on the hip or pull it tighter to create a blouson dress. I’m quite satisfied with the outcome. The fabric was a bit stiff at first, but it will gradually loose its stiffness with every wash as most batik does. I guess I should wear this dress as often as [...] September 11th, 2009 | bags and purses, womenswear 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 I have to search deeper for more scraps. Anyway, it was a quick project, I drew the pattern straight on the fabric, cut it, and sewed some black twill tape. While I’m at it, suddenly I wanted to make another bag. As if I haven’t made enough bags already! This is another Charlie bag, I made it a bit smaller and put some pockets and magnetic closure on the inside. The round patches are from a piece of furoshiki (Japanese wrapping cloth), a gift from buying a bottle of tea. I left the edges raw and only sewed [...] September 10th, 2009 | womenswear 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 pattern that I bought from a local shop. This top finished quickly as almost all patterns from ‘Stylish Dress Book’ are relatively easy. After it was finished, I realized that I almost had no pants nor skirts to wear with a top. All my clothes are dresses! Luckily I found this forgotten denim skirt in the back of my wardrobe. But I kinda like this top, the wide neckline and the loose shape will make it perfect for layering. I also think of making this top again and lengthen the bottom so I can have another, uh, dress. [...] August 27th, 2009 | womenswear These are the three dresses that I’ve finished almost a month ago (gasp!) . I’ve been very lazy after the vacation and keep postponing to take some pictures. They are actually in the same pattern as this madras dress that I’ve made a couple of months ago. Two of them are made of Sevenberry cotton in ochre bird print and turquoise elephant print, and one is made of another madras fabric. The summer vacation is over and Sidra has started going to school again. Now I had the chance to take some pictures and uploaded them here and to my shop. Finally! ^.^ August 24th, 2009 | kidswear Actually it’s been more than a week ago since I got back from summer vacation in Indonesia. In ten days, the three of us went from Tokyo to Jakarta, then to Bandung, and Jogjakarta. Yes, the families are scattered around several cities. In Jogjakarta, the big family from my mother’s side went to our family cemetery to visit my father’s grave and put some petals of roses on the tombs. There lies my father, grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents and so on. It was the first time for Sidra to visit the family cemetery (or any cemetery), so there were a lot of questions about dead people. Ten days to go to three cities, with several hours of international flight, few hours of car trips, and at least 3 hours of domestic flights prove to be too exhausting for me and my husband, However, Sidra really enjoyed the vacation and meeting so many cousins, all pampering him since he’s the youngest of them all. I think I’m still in vacation mode after we flew back home, hence no sewing projects are done during the whole time. I even couldn’t bring myself to take pictures of some dresses that [...]  | DisclaimerThis is my personal site, therefore all views expressed here represent my own and shouldn't be taken as expert opinions.
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