New Top Zippered Shoulder Bags

In the past, when you book an overseas tour with a travel agency in Singapore, they would give you a free bag. The bag is frequently the same shape much like the ones I just made. I no longer have any of those free travel bags. Is there a name for the bags I made?


I used my heart with wings motif. I made it very big.


This one's so cheerful, isn't it? The handles are standing up on its own. Gravity defying! See the alien doll charm?

As always, my bags are completely lined without any visible raw seams.
Now available on projectsbyjane Etsy.

fyi, some Singapore bloggers are still struggling with posting on blogger. It took me many tries before I managed to post.

How About That Sunrise

I did something unusual this morning. I had to take my son to school earlier than usual because he had to take a test. We left home at 6:30am. This is the first time I set foot outside my home before sunrise which is at 7am in at least a decade. Man, it was dark. I wanted to bring a torch but my son said No. So I brought a long umbrella for protection and swung it crazily just in case. Much to my surprise, there were lots of people (some even all showered with wet hair) on their way to somewhere. A group of old ladies were practising some form of tai qi. Over here in Singapore you can't walk a hundred metres without walking into some tai qi group in action. Try and get a pilates class....(grumble, grumble)

It was too dark to go jogging so I did not wear my usual smelly arm band jogging purse. I was almost panicking over what I could use as a substitute purse when I remembered I had a treasure trove of bags which I MAKE MYSELF.


This little knot bag which I made a while ago turned out to be a brilliant choice. It could hold my phone, keys and change. I would have loved a little zippered pocket on the inside because a knot bag is meant to be swung and it's easy for the loose change to fall out.

My phone is new. My husband and I went to a spanking new shop at ION, also a spanking new shopping centre at Orchard. ION is thoughtfully separated into shops I can't afford to shop in and shops I may be able to shop in. The sales girl being new took a long time to open the phone. I think we may be her first customer because she forgot to collect money from us and later we had to go back and pay her. We forgot too, honestly. I think watching her try to open the phone was rather traumatising.

So, I added a little alien-like doll to hang on my phone. It's a Japanese faceless doll, a good luck charm. We Chinese have our own version. It's made the same manner but the Chinese doll has a face, is usually clothed in silk and has a pigtail.


E.T. phone home


Boogie woogie


I want cookie


Hmm How do I get down?

Finally, IT support from Jane!
My blogger New Post was all wrong again today. The icons were missing like before. It was impossible to do any posting. I tried all my browsers and none work. Finally I cleared the cache in Firefox and all the icons came back. Boogie woogie.

Flower Pin Cushion

Today was crazy. Firstly, I find that I can't access my blog through IE. In my home, each family member is assigned one browser. My children share Fox and my husband gets G Chrome. I tried Fox and it turned out I could access but I could not get blogger to work. Finally only G Chrome works. I was so relieved I almost cried. I really don't know how I managed to stay a programmer in the past!

Well, am glad it's all good now. I am one of those people who are't neat. Especially when I sew. My sewing table is horrifying. I don't even have a proper pin cushion even though I sew a lot. I had been using make shift pin cushions like tying a rubber band over a gauze ball of stuffing only to find my needles disappear. Or I would stick my needles into scrap pieces of fabric. Which work only as long as I remember which scrap pieces I left the needles in.

Needle in a hay stack?

Yesterday, I knew I was in trouble when my girl showed me a needle she had found on the floor. I felt so guilty that I immediately decided to make myself a decent pin cushion. I figure the old pin cushions didn't work because they didn't look good.

Mt Everest?

Doesn't the flower pin cushion look good? It's completely hand sewn. Hand sewing works better for small items. If you would like to make something similar for yourself, check out Poppy A.

White Butterflies on Green Print Bag

It all started with my desire to make bags which when standing look like they defy gravity. I wanted the bags to look cute yet elegant. I wanted curvy bottoms and sharp corners. I think I did it!

Buddy bags which float.


This is the larger of the two. The yo yo is actually an applique.


Cool snap on.


View from the top.


This is the smaller one. The yo yo is sewn on.


View from the top.

Now, guess which bag I made first? :D

The larger bag is now available at Etsy.
The smaller one I'm selling during September MAAD at the Red Dot Design Museum.

Japanese Silk

Look what just arrived in the mailbox? Japanese silk my good friend, LL who's living in UK sent me. I am so thrilled. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. I feel like framing it up. No. Some lucky bag is going to get it. My mind is completely blank right now about what kind of bag I will make out of it. I feel so LOVED. I miss my friend LL who used to be my colleague back when I was a..wait for it...programmer. We became good friends and hanged out a lot. We were also shopping buddies. Ah, yes. The good old days.

Handmade raw Thai silk

Look what I got. Handmade raw silk from Bangkok. My good friend Jon gave them to me. Ain't he sweet? And he's still single! I'm thinking of all the possibilities of bag designs with this stash of silk. Can't wait to learn to sew on silk. Hope it's not hard.


This is a piece of embroidery I finished recently. I haven't decided on the bag design. It'll be simple for sure. I like simple structures.

Today I created a group pool at flickr. I like to see the creations of people who have used my tutes. I thought it would be really nice to see everyone's work all at once. If you would like to join just go to Projects By Jane Tutes Results.

Cheers.

Bags Sold at July MAAD

I couldn't believe I survived another MAAD at Red Dot Museum. I sold 8 bags and 3 little purses. Yay!


I had 2 visitors while at the booth. My good friend, Jon came on Saturday. He didn't buy anything. Darn!


My sis-in-law came on Sunday. She's half-Korean. Just kidding. She speaks Korean and a few zillion other languages. She didn't buy anything either. Darn! But she's family so that's okay.

Below are the bags and purses I sold. Once again, thanks to those who bought bags from me! Muah! Muah! I won't be at August MAAD but I'll definitely be back for September MAAD. The next couple of weeks, I'll spend my afternoons listing bags to sell on ETSY. So look out for my next posting.

July MAAD

This bag has a really roomy bottom.


The skull and bones is hand stitched in backstitch.

These are two of the new bags I made yesterday. I hope to sell them this weekend during July MAAD at Red Dot Design Museum, 28 Maxwell Rd from 4th to 5th July.