Granny Bags

I've made 2 granny bags.

This is the first one - a blue and white checked granny bag. I used heavy weight iron-on interface. It gives very good support but I don't like it so "stiff".

 I really prefer sew-on interface but it's hard to find the heavy weight kind.

This is the second one. It is for Kimmy. It is her second bag from me!  Kimmy's bag has a slightly different shape from the checked granny bag. It has medium weight interface which feels more like fabric. I really prefer this feel. I also included piping around the bottom gusset. My girl likes this bag. I'm getting to like piping on bags.

Other side of the bag.

Can you see the piping?

View from the top.

April MAAD countdown. 12 out of 15 bags constructed. 3 more bags to go. Can I do it? I'm really sleepy and tired. We'll see.

April MAAD 2010 This Weekend

If you are in Singapore this weekend, drop by red dot design museum. I'll be selling my new bags!

3rd to 4th April
11:10am to 7pm
28 maxwell rd
red dot design museum

My Melly

 This is my Melly. My girl gave it to me for my birthday last year but I didn't get around to making any outfits for her. See the tutu Melly's wearing?  Sadie from Nelliebugs made it and gave it to me. Thank you Sadie.

Sadie makes tutus for humans, animals and dolls. Go check out her shop if you're interested.

If you can't get enough of my Melly and her tutu, go here to see more.

Piped Bag

Remember my Evolution Of A Bag?  This is the next generation.

For this bag, I wanted to address the issue of bottoms. I wanted to make the bag bottoms firmer? I did this with the help of a band.

The band (the red curvy part) is sewn onto the front and back of the bag. The band makes the bottom heavier so I added piping to the side gusset. Yes, piping! I've used piping on bags before and it can be a lot of work.

I used Ikea fabric because the fabric is like a painting. This is one side.

This is the other side.

Side gusset with piping.

Other side gusset with piping.
April MAAD countdown. 10 out of 15 bags constructed! 5 left. Hope I can finish by Thursday or I'll be burning midnight oil once again on Friday.

Etsybloggers March 26th Blog Carnival

Once a month I write about something totally unrelated to my life as a contribution to Etsyblogger's Blog Carnival. This is it for March.

How it works is someone (usually not me) would volunteer to host the carnival and take care of the admin work. She would also have to think up 2 questions for the Etsybloggers to answer in their posts.

March 26th carnival is hosted Lazy T Crochet.

Here are her questions:
1) Cabin Fever - What do you do or what are you looking forward to doing to escape the doldrums?
2) Planning a garden this year? Tell us how you plan or prepare. Do you start your own seeds and how?

As you can see, the questions being asked are very tough. Harder than Additional Mathematics. Still I'm going to attempt a post on the topic.

I'm answering question 1. Here goes....

This year I'm not planning a garden because first of all I live in a flat and there's nothing but concrete. Sure, I could buy a few potted plants but have you met the mosquitoes policemen? If they know you have potted plants, they'll insist on entering your home to check for mosquito larvae. They'll spray smelly stuff all over your home. So I'm saying No to potted plants.

Also, many years ago when I first moved into my current home, I'd bought 2 potted cactus to "grow". I'd been told that it's impossible to kill cactus and I was very confident I would grow green thumbs. Anyway, the cactus died because I over watered them. Technically, they drowned.

So, to avoid killing anymore plants, I'll stick to my plan of Forever Never Growing A Garden.

This is my concrete garden. It is near my flat yet not so close I can kill it. In the photo, my girl tried to crush some bubbles with her feet.

Featured EtsyBlogger March 2010

 This month's featured Etsyblogger is DizzyDragonflies. Here's her blog Knitting Dragonflies. What a cool name. I guess you can tell from her blog title she knits. She's more than that. She hand spins and hand dyes her yarn. They are for sale. Go check her out at her shop. 

Below are some items from her shop which I like.

Orchid Hand Dyed Multi Color Worsted Weight Yarn

Tropical Waters

Heather Green Washable Wool Scarf

Fabric Passport Cover For Jennifer

Remember my OWOH giveaway? The winner was Jennifer and this is what I sent her. She liked purple and she's an angel. I used my usual running stitches to "decorate" the fabric. I don't think I'll ever get tired of running stitches!

 I sent her a piece of fabric too but I forgot to photograph it!

It started with scraps of fabric.

Front

Front - Inside

Back

Back - Inside

Ready for the world!

I made another bag! I'm just spitting them out now. This time I wanted to make a baby version of my pleated bags. I guess I didn't spend any thinking on whether a baby version would sell. I'm a little worried.

The band is linen-cotton. I applied iron-on-interface to the band even tho' I'm anti-iron-on-interface. Linen-cotton doesn't stand well on its own. It's so limpy. The dark green is twill. I bought a batch of twill from a fabric shop which supplies to tailors. So everything in the shop is man-man. I'm very attracted to manly fabric! I like this green a lot. It has some hint of yellow in it. Twill is a fabulous fabric to work with. It's so obedient and the right thickness for certain style of bags. I like shopping in this man-man shop because the couple running it is really nice and they give discount if I buy a little more. But what a show you have to put on to get a good discount. Back and forth and so on. The discount stays when you go back so you don't have to put on an oscar worthy act again.

This is the inside. The green is brownish green. I'm poor at describing colours. I like this other green too but can you just imagine describing this colour to a sales person? So I have a sample book where I tape the colours I like when I go fabric shopping. The fabric is duck. Duck is a stubborn fabric. It frays a lot too. It's easy enough to sew on but it crinkles easily. Duck is also heavy so you can't use too much of it on a bag. Check out the handles. Know what's in between the fabric? Twill tape. That's how I get the handles so sturdy. If I can get twill tape in different width other than the 1" here, I'll put it in all my handles.

April MAAD countdown. 9 out of 15 bags completed. 6 more bags to make in 6 days! You know the worse part? I'm "saving" the harder to construct bags for the last. This is a condition known as "putting it off".

Fearlessly sewing on,
Jane P out.

Milestone

I decided to take Dee's advice and started on my smocking. I ditched the book I'd been consulting because it was too advanced. I tried good ol' google and found Marie Grace Designs. I thought I'd make a pocket (another suggestion from Dee) instead of a bag seeing how I don't even know how to smock. You know, swim before you fly. I really like having Dee as a smocking mate because she really nags you. Thank you Dee. I smock you.

Hand pleating.

All pleated up.

The stitches. I dunno the name - I just chose the simplest.

After I'd released the threads holding the pleats, I found the smocked part not very smocked. So I went back to Marie Grace Designs and you know what? I'd forgotten to stitch a very crucial stitch called the cable stitch. It's to hold the pleats together!! For my next pocket, I'll do better.

Some happy news. Today is my 15th wedding anniversary. Yes, I've been married 15 years. Doesn't seem that long to me tho'. I still remember when I was single and thinking I'd never get married because I just didn't meet the right person. Also I was quite insecure about my deafness . Ok, relax. I'm not exactly 100% deaf. Just the one ear. (some gym accident) Fortunately my husband is exceptionally accepting of people deaf in one ear. So I got lucky. Also, I had a hot body.

He got lucky because I wanted a spouse with a head larger than mine. Have you seen the size of my head? I mean, can you just imagine this man who'd married me waking up in the morning looking lovingly over to his left and sees this huge head of mine? He'd be driven to drinking. So you can imagine my delight when I realise how much larger my husband's head is next to mine!

Today we had round 2 of our anniversary celebration. Last weekend, we ate at a dim sum restaurant with the kids. I think the kids liked the food but they didn't want to admit it. Today it was just the 2 of us. Yes, we had a date when the kids were in school. We had Thai food.

Thai phaad, I think.

Tom yum soup. No kick.

Free keropok.

My husband's present to me - Journey's Houston Escape concert DVD. (I gave him undies. hehe)

I managed to complete one new bag. It's one of those bags I'd made before. Soft and floppy and not exactly everyone's cup of tea. But it's a bag I would make for myself. One day I should make one of these babies for myself. Made in raw linen and linen-cotton by Lecien.

 As a tote.

As a cross body bag.

April MAAD countdown. 8 out of 15 bags completed. 7 more to go in 7 days. You know what that means? I have to make 1 bag each day. Impossible!

Burnout Bags

Arrrgh! One week has passed and I have very little to show. You could say I am suffering from burnout? Or what's the term for when you try to do a lot but accomplish very little?


Last week was school holidays but my son's school didn't understand what it meant. He had to go back to school for 3 days of volley ball practice. Which meant my plan to sleep in was shattered. Also I usually schedule medical appointments during school holidays and that's where most of my time went - sitting in waiting rooms and travelling on the train. I had to go see my gynae for a simple procedure. For most women or rather every woman except moi, such a procedure is a breeze. 5 mins max. For me, I went 2 times. The second time I was sedated! Which means I had to fast. It took 2 hours - most of it spent sleeping off the sedation. I need to explain that I have a very low threshold of pain. Not just actual pain. It includes imagined pain, pre-judged pain and pain from a previous life. (I don't actually believe in previous lives, I'm just saying)

I did manage to complete 2 bags. Quite a feat considering. I made pleated bags again. Yes, I'm basically making the same old bags but making small changes. It's been thunderstorming like crazy in Singapore so taking photos is a challenge.

In line with my No Fabric Left Behind policy, I used the brown canvas. I realise that some prints just shouldn't be pleated! The bottom is darted again.

This peachy pleated bag looks flirty, I think. I imagine this colour would be difficult to sell! For the "hanging" pocket, I used bias binding to seal the side seams. The outer fabric is a upholstery weight cotton by Lecien.

April MAAD countdown. 7 out of 15. 8 more bags to make with only 10 days left. TEN days left!

Finally, this blog had the misfortune of being spammed last week. Luckily for me, it was school holidays so I was up late and I was just horrified when I saw that a spam comment was being inserted into my posts. Previously, it was quite random and I would go in and delete the comment. This time it was more vicious. It was trying to comment in every single post in my blog. (I have over 100!) When I caught it, it had commented in more than 20 posts. I quickly changed my comments setting to comment moderation and that did the trick. It seemed this program which originated from Taipei, Taiwan was able to bypass word verification. Anyway, I have deleted the spam comments. Just so you know, the comments were in Chinese. Those of you who have commented in my blog recently would have noticed that now your comments will only be visible after approval. (i only reject spam) This is the best solution for me in order to ensure my blog is not spammed again. I hope everyone will understand. And by the way, thank you guys for the comments. I know it takes effort and I appreciate it.

Take care.

Evolution Of A Bag

It started with this bag.

Made from Ikea uphostery fabric. Simple flat bag. I gave it to myself, remember?

I added a pocket, boxed corners and a top zip. Plus, it got longer.

Now......

Jazzed up the pocket, used darts instead of boxy corners and played around with the lining.

I have used this retro flower power canvas print to make 2 bags before and after making this bag, I still have leftover fabric!!

April MAAD countdown. 5 out of 15. 10 more bags to make in 16 days! I can do it!!