Haircessorise

You know what's the best thing about having a daughter? You can dress her up and play with her hair. (only while she's little) Ha ha. When my girl was younger, in kindergarten, I would make her hair accessories. I had no real idea how to make them but they usually turned out okay. My sewing skills were quite poor in those days. I practically handsewed everything. Now she's 10 and doesn't let me play with her hair anymore but continues to accept my gifts of hair accessories.

Recently I made a bunch of these scrunchies. Scrunchies munchies. (I just like saying it) I used some of the fabric my sister, Erica gave me not long ago.

These are made using Japanese polyester. They are slinky and rather thin. Surely they are hard to sew. Surprisingly it was smooth sailing. You could use any fabric to make scrunchies but I prefer slinky fabric as they scrunch better and the shine/glitter of the patterns make a great combination. For the elastic, I used Clover cord elastic. It glides better on the hair than the elastic strip.

These 2 are my personal favourite. The colours are so rich and vibrant.

Unfortunately, my girl is not a scrunchie person. I'm afraid I'm going to have to try and sell them instead at my coming craft sale.

Garang!

This is Sylvia Toh, more popularly known as author of Eh Goondu! Goondu (read as goon-doo) is Singlish for stupid person. And Singlish is murdered English by Singaporeans. If you are not from Singapore, you probably don't care about Singlish. It is a beautiful "language" if properly spoken. :D I try to speak it as often as I can. However, I am married to a writer. He keeps correcting my English.!

Anyhoo, why's Sylvia featured in my blog? Well, I discovered she's an ardent fan of mine. Okay, the ardent part I put in myself. She likes my bags. Yay! She liked the alien-egg-Sigourney-Weaver bag I made. Unfortunately it was "snapped up" by a keen-eyed buyer. So I made another one for Sylvia.
Look at her pose with the bag in the photo. Garang! (read as Gar-rung) For my American readers, the best translation is Fierce!

Houston, we have a problem here

So, there I was at Earth's First Ever Arts and Crafts Market over the weekend. I knew I was in trouble when Nel, one of the organisers asked me if I had done any publicity for the craft market. What?!

So it didn't come as a total surprise to me when I only sold 3 items. I made just enough money to pay for rental. It's amazing I even sold anything. Only a handful of people showed up. They were mostly friends of the organisers. And lets just say they aren't exactly fans of fabric bags.

So I had nothing else to do but enjoy myself. My girl who went along thoroughly enjoyed herself and wants to go back! The food was good and my girl had happy hour - hour after hour. She gets fizzy drinks only once a week but last weekend, she kept going to the kitchen to load up. I mean this girl can drink. Most of the sellers are regulars at the red dot design museum. So it was like a mini-MAAD.

There were a pair of twins sketching for free. Above, my girl waiting to be sketched.

My girl likes it.

These two are me. My girl persuaded me to do it. I was really shy.

There was a mini-concert. A few people sang but I only liked this girl She has gorgeous voice. That's her above.

There was a long haired guy selling tie-dyed T-shirts.

And there was a bald guy selling printed Tees. In Singapore we call bald people botak.

No, this is not the botanical gardens. One lady sold her clothes in the garden. On the first day, she was outside the kitchen But it got too hot.

Speaking of heat. Okay, new rule for future crafts market. It must be air-conditioned. One hour into the sale, sweat was pouring down my body. Thank goodness I had the good sense to wear t-shirt and shorts. I did not have the worst table. This lady selling cards had to open her unbrella. The weather was scorching. She had direct sunlight for hours and hours. Around 4pm, the sun hit my spot. I am completely tanned now. My left side more than my right side.

Jane P out.

Earth's First Ever Arts n Crafts Market

This weekend 17th and 18th October, I will be selling my bags at Earth's first ever Arts and Crafts market. The venue is 36 Vanda Road. It's open from 11am to 6pm. Okay, the venue is really the organiser's front porch. And the organisers are really 2 kids who are students and they are holding this event as a form of self-expression. I'm very excited mainly because one of the organiser's mom is cooking for the sellers! I'm hungry already. Also I hope to sell a few bags.

For the past few weeks, my interest constantly shifted and I was not able to focus on making bags for sale. I'm quite disappointed in my lack of self-discipline. Still I manage to make a few...

My first polka dots bags

Same design 3 sizes

This guitar applique bag brought me some grief. After I had completed sewing the guitar applique to the background fabric, I showed it to my husband who went berserk. Yes, berserk! He had issue with my putting black on black which is a no-no in his books. Unfortunately, in my books, I just do whatever I like. Still, his berserkness caused me to feel so bitter that I could not turn it into a bag. I put it in my KIV bin. It took 1 month for all the bitterness to dissipate. No, I'm kidding. It took 1 week. But it was a month before I sewed it into a bag. This time I made sure my husband wasn't around when I did it.

For the handle, I used a plastic thing for adjustable strap. It's my first adjustable strap bag. Whenever I made a crossbody bag in the past, I would use my body to measure the length of the strap. However, I have the torso of a taller woman. (sorry for that mental picture) So the usual complaint has been that my straps are too long. To overcome that problem? Adjustable strap. The downside is I need to buy extra fabric to make a continuous strap. But, customer comfort is important.

This is another bag I made with the same fabric. This time my husband said it was nice. It's another crossbody bag with adjustable strap.

This is a canvas shoulder bag. I don't have a good picture of it. It's really hard to make.

Yes, I still have a thing for heart with wings. This one has piping!

Happy weekend!

Projects By Jane Tutorial Page

Hi Everyone
In view of my growing number of tutorials, this page will contain links to all my tutorials. I will update this page whenever there is a new tutorial.

This page contains links to my ePatterns which are available on Etsy and several free tutes which are found below. Keep scrolling.

Friendly warning:
Take note that for all my bags, I make them lined hiding all exposed raw seams. If you love your bags to look as good on the inside as they are on the outside, then my bag tutes are perfect for you. Hiding raw seams take a bit more effort. So if you don't really care, you may run for the hills.

If you are staying, Happy Sewing!

Edit 24th June 2011: I have a ePattern for a reversible fat bottomed drawstring pouch for sale (US$6). Please click on the image below to view.

Edit 13th Sep 2011: I have a ePattern for a iPhone zip pouch for sale (US$6.90). Please click on the image below to view.

Edit 5th Nov 2011: I have a ePattern for a sexy zippy pouch for sale (US$6.90). Please click on the image below to view.

Edit 23rd Nov 2011: I have a ePattern for a Get Up & Go Go Sling bag for sale (US$6.90). Please click on the image below to view. 

The rest of my tutorials are FREE.

Piggy Felt Pin

Sarubobo Family

Lined Zippered Boxy Pouch

Lined Boxy Pouch Using Pleats

Lined Front Zippered Pouch

Recessed Zipper Shoulder Bag

How to draw a bag bottom pattern

For sewing related tips, please go to Sewing Tips.

Free Sarubobo Family Tutorial

Finally my long overdue Sarubobo's tute is up. Blogger had been giving me lots of problem and on top of that, I stupidly decided to make this a "photo tutorial" using Picasa.

What was I thinking? I already regret the decision. Firstly, Picasa allows you to upload 4 photos at a time to your blog. Secondly, the text I input to the photos are barely visible in some photos unless you click on the photo to zoom. So I have no choice but to go back and enlarge the text font. What an idiot right? So do click on the pics to get a clearer view of the text if it's not visible.

Enough griping. Just one last thing. My previous post was my 100th post and I forgot all about it. I had wanted to mark it the traditional "blogger way" by doing a contest or giveaway. I'll just have to mark another day chosen at random.

What are sarubobos?
First of all, I did not invent these babies. Go wiki to read up more. Second of all, I learnt to make these babies from a book I borrowed from the library. It's called Quiltagami by Mary Jo Hiney. She sews sarubobos a little differently from the method I'm using here but the end result is the same. The templates and instructions I'm providing here are mine.

Before I start, those of you who have aversion to handsewing, now's your chance to run for the hills.

1. The templates.
Please draw the following on hard paper.

Mama Sarubobo
Body: A rectangle 4" by 4 1/2"
Head: A circle with diameter = 2 3/4"

Toddler Sarubobo
Body : A rectangle 3" by 3 1/2"
Head : A circle with diameter = 2 1/2"

Infant Sarubobo
Body : A rectangle 2 1/2" by 3"
Head : A circle with diameter = 2"

Trace the templates on nice print fabric and cut.
Please note the templates is inclusive of seam allowance.

1.What you need:
bent-nose tweezer, fiberfill, cut fabric, scissors, drinking straw, needle and matching thread.


2. Folding the body. Work on the wrong side of fabric.




To go to the next step, make X meet Y

3. Handsew using 1/8" or 1/4" seam allowance. Whatever you choose, make it consistent. Take note you only sew thru' 2 pieces of fabric. Anything more you need to unpick.

To go to next step just move the position of fabric I have indicated in photo.






See the gap in photo above? That should be left unsewn.

4. Turn right side out using the straw trick. If you find this too difficult just use a tweezer to pluck the inner fabric out.

5. Fill body with fiberfill

6. Sew gap in body using whip stitch.

If you use matching thread, your stitches won't stand out as much as mine.

7. Sew the head.

8. Sew head to body.

9. You may want to do this so you can hook the sarubobo to another object.

Sew 2 rounds of thread to head and knot off. Use a thicker thread.

or use a safety pin.

10. Pillar hat

If you want to add a sling to your hat, just sew 2 rounds of thick thread to the top of the hat and knot off.

11. Dress up

I'm sure you can think up other ways to dress up the sarubobos.

As always, put your photos of your completed sarubobos in my flickr group.

Edit 24th June 2011: I have a ePattern for a reversible fat bottomed drawstring pouch for sale (US$6). Click on image below to view.

Edit 13th Sep 2011: I have a ePattern for a iPhone zip pouch for sale (US$6.90). Click on image below to view.

Edit 4th Nov 2011: I have a ePattern for a sexy zippy pouch for sale (US$6.90). Please click on the image below to view.

Edit 23rd Nov 2011: I have a ePattern for a Get Up & Go Go Sling bag for sale (US$6.90). Please click on the image below to view.