Tuesday, June 19, 2012

UFO Resurrection

Hellooooo!

First of all, thanks for your birthday wishes. Yes, what an idiot I was to say "birthday week" and not expect any birthday wishes. I should have made it clear my birthday is this Sunday. I appreciate all your kind thoughts.

* * *

It's only Tuesday and my birthday week has been going great. Yesterday I went out shopping the whole day with my BFF whom I get to see once or twice a year. The Great Singapore Sale is still going on and I wanted to buy so many things. But I resisted. Anyway, my new stuff are safely hidden away. Don't want hubs to get a heart attack. On Sunday we went out for a meal for hub's birthday and Father's Day. The restaurants weren't as crowded as say Mother's Day. We went to Meatworks instead of Outback as Outback is outrageously overpriced. Plus Meatworks had a discount. The restaurant looks quite lovely.


I'm surprised by their choice of print material for the menu. Looked a little grubby too.


We opted to sit in the open area. Check out the ceiling. Er, the ceiling does not belong to the restaurant.


Hubs ate a meat sandwich.


I had norwegian salmon. The mashed potato was fantastic. I'm very picky about mashed potatoes. I won't make my own because mine taste like crap.

My kids had pasta. Surprise!

* * *

I bravely poked into my UFO chest. No, I didn't faint. But I did cringe and shudder.

Cow

hexagon flower

sashiko lines
I picked these 3 pieces mainly because they have been in the UFO chest for far too long. Years! Coincidentally, they are all running lines embroidery in Sashiko style. Based on the aesthetics, I believe they were embroidered between 2008 and 2009.

The cow embroidery was easy because the size of the blue fabric suggests I had planned on making it into a zip pouch.


You can see from the pencil this pouch is bigger than my usual zip pouch size. I no longer use this kind of blue fabric for embroidery mainly because it attracts lint and I don't love lint.

I stared and stared at the hexagon flower and still came up with nothing. So I've thrown it back into the UFO chest. So sad right? After so many years.

The black fabric with golden embroidery lines was a challenge. The size of the fabric is neither here nor there. In the end, I felt it looked best as a drawstring pouch.


Due to the size of the fabric I had available, this drawstring pouch is also slightly different in size from my current drawstring pouches. I'm quite delighted by how it turned out. If it doesn't sell at VivoCity, I would so love to have it. Oh, check out my new prop. It's a thingy I use to hang my clothing.


For the casing, I used a Anthology stripes. I opted for vertical stripes because it looked way better.

And for the lining, I really went out of my way to look for something good. I finally chose a Kinkame European Taupe. Taupe is one of those colours that you either love or don't. Some may find it too grandma-ish. It has its charm.


When I look closely at the embroidery of these pieces, I realise that the embroidery thread I used was perle cotton. I do recall a period when I favoured perle cotton which is unstranded. However, I soon grew out of perle cotton and now I use DMC stranded cotton. I don't remember why I switched but if I were to make a guess, it would be because perle cotton being unstranded is restrictive as I could only use needles with a big enough eye for the thread. Usually such needles would be quite thick.

During the early years of my bag-making, I often sewed embroidery on random pieces of fabric without thinking through what I want to make. I grew out of that habit because I'm much more disciplined nowadays. Although I'm happy to reduce my UFO, I'm also thinking one day I will finally empty that UFO chest and lose all the special quirky little things I used to do.

What am I saying? It's crazy to even think my UFO chest will ever be empty.

Ta ta for now.

p.s. my $5 PDF bag sewing patterns sale is still on until 25th June. HERE.

Linked to these partays:
Skip to my lou
Sew can do
Craft o maniac
Making the world cuter

7 comments:

anna said...

Really like the vertical stripes for the draw string bag. Amazing how you can turn these UFOs into useful and yet pretty items.

Little Blue Mouse said...

I love the drawstring pouch with it's colourful edging.

I hope you're keeping your maid away from that clothes pole!

tamdoll said...

Do I say "Happy Birthday"? I'm so confused.

Laurie-Jane said...

I like how you have a birthday week. I have 3 days of birthday celebrations self imposed, I call them Birthday Eve, Birthday (of course) and Birthday Boxing Day, only my sister rings me on all three days with the appropriate greeting however, I still continue this tradition. Enjoy your week Jane.

Linda said...

Great bags with your UFO's! How about a little hexagonal change purse with the hexagon? (Just thinking out loud.)
I hope you have a wonderful birthday on Sunday!

punkychewster said...

Phew! And i thought i was the only one with UFO chest, although i don't call it that. Too many projects that i've started but don't have the inspiration to finish! i should pull out that box and see what i can find!

Sketched Soul said...

They both look gorgeous!
And congratulations in getting to those UFO - I'll leave mine in the chest though :)

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