Running Stitch Treasure Pouch

Last year I noticed there was an increase in sales of my Treasure Pouch pattern. When I say increase I don't mean by hundreds (I wish!). I actually mean instead of zero sales, there was a 2 digit sale.

When I first wrote the Treasure Pouch pattern, my intention was to teach my sister to make the pouch. I wanted something that wouldn't scare off beginners and at the same time, I included some embroidery for those who were comfortable with sewing. I wasn't expecting much in terms of sale. Still...

Anyway, I was encouraged by the "surge" in sales and I thought I'll show my appreciation by making a Treasure Pouch using simple running stitches. Kind of to inspire those who have bought the pattern. And even those who haven't bought the pattern because well, you already know how to make a drawstring pouch, I hope I inspire you too. Plus I do need a drawstring pouch for when I walk over to the coffeeshop to buy tea.

Just so you know, I used running stitches because I lurve running stitches and not because I'm lazy. There's something so innocent, sweet and naive about running stitches which attracts me. Also, they remind me of my mother's stitching. My mother is not a good sewer. She doesn't know how to use the sewing machine and her hand stitching is like a child's. And I don't understand it myself but I often find myself wanting to mimic my mother's innocent hand stitches. But believe me, once you know how to sew well, it's very hard to make your sewing look deliberately child-like.

I have this small amount of greyish fabric in my stash and I thought it would be perfect for my drawstring pouch. In the beginning, I thought of doing a ombre stitching effect but I looked in my embroidery floss stash and discovered I don't have much variety in greys.

So I opted for a go-with-the-feel kind of strategy. I used blue chalk to mark the lines. Do you ever notice white chalk or white pen don't work as well or dark fabric? I use blue chalk/pen for nearly everything.

I sewed horizontal running stitches on one half of the fabric and vertical running stitches on the other half. It's not a creative thing - I just got bored. When I sew running stitches, I prefer to use non-fusible interfacing.

I made the drawstring pouch based on the Treasure Pouch pattern but I modified it a bit on account of my wallet being rather long. So my pouch is slightly taller.

Here's a view from the horizontal lines side.

And this one's from the vertical lines side. I used to take photos of my bags hung from this hook but I rarely do that anymore because I use the other side of the wall as the lighting is better.

I can't believe I don't have any beads that matches the pouch. I usually tie a bead at each end of the drawstring. I guess I need to rectify the situation. A visit to Chinatown is clearly needed.

This is the inside. Polka dots in black and white.

I just love the rippled effect created by the running stitches. I can't wait to use this pouch the next time I go buy tea and the tea ladies will stare at it and wonder where I bought it. Yes, that's my fantasy - tea ladies envy.

9 Drawstring Pouches

My invincible sewing streak is over. I am now a mere mortal. I struggled to sew these past few days. On Saturday I was presented with a day alone. My kids had gone out for piano, followed by "work" at my SIL's, followed by movie. That's many hours of alone time. I could sew.

I didn't sew. I squandered the day on many, many TV shows. Well, mostly The Blacklist. This is such a fantastic show. I'm a bit surprised I like it so much as I didn't care very much for James Spader in The Practice and Boston Legal. In The Blacklist, James Spader plays a bad guy. A complicated bad guy. And James Spader gets to show how good an actor he is. I often find myself longing to be Special Agent Elizabeth Keen so he could be my daddy! I didn't burn the whole day though. I salvaged it by making 3 drawstring pouches.

Yesterday I was once again presented with a day alone. The kids had gone out for piano, followed by "work" at my SIL's, followed by dinner out somewhere of their choice. I immediately started to squander the day away watching sitcom after sitcom. Fortunately, they aren't as riveting as The Blacklist so I had plenty of time to atone. I managed to make 6 more drawstring pouches.

So I have 9 drawstring pouches. I'm done. I have 2 more weeks to sew before my VivoCity date. Honestly, I don't want to sew anymore. Today me and the kids were at Orchard and I took the opportunity to make a quick trip to a beads shop. The owner had messaged me that she was having a 30% discount. How to resist?  Big mistake. Now my head is full of beading fantasies when I should be thinking of more bags. Grrr.

Serious drawstring bags

Hi friends,

What a weird past few days for Singapore. First we had the haze. Then we had a hailstorm yesterday. It's pretty unusual for Singapore to get any hail from the sky. Today we had another thunderstorm. When it rains... Speaking of the haze, I still haven't managed to buy my N95 masks and the experts have predicted the haze will return.

I have another craft market at VivoCity coming up this weekend and I haven't really been sewing as much as I would have wanted. How could I, rite? What with the haze and all.

I made a few drawstring bags. Unlike the drawstring bags I made in the past, these are serious drawstring bags.

Um, how serious?

At my craft market, from time to time I have spotted women trying to stuff their umbrella into my pouches. No, they're not being funny. They just want to see if their umbrella fits. With that in mind, I made this batch of drawstring bags to fit umbrellas.

See, in Singapore, it rains very often. (except last week) Most women have an umbrella in their bags. I own many umbrellas. Umbrellas don't last very long as most are quite badly made. I have them in different sizes. I prefer the longer ones as the tiny ones barely cover my body. When it comes to buying umbrellas, I've come to realize the cheaper they are, the lousier the quality. Once hubs bought a $2 umbrella and it broke the first time he used it. Of course he had to learn the mistake himself.

This was the first drawstring bag I made. I made the "mistake" of thinking I needed the umbrella to stand in the bag. That is why this bag is a little taller. Of course gravity wins and I sheepishly realize it's a lot easier to make the umbrella lie horizontally. On account of that, this newspaper print drawstring bag fits my smallest umbrella.

This is the second drawstring bag I made. Isn't the print cheerful?

This drawstring bag with the hula hula girls was constrained by the amount of fabric I had. I was really pleased it could fit my largest umbrella.

Here it is hung.

Then I got ambitious. I wanted to get rid of more scraps and quilted up a storm.

This one's the largest. You could use it as a shoulder bag. (if you don't have mansize arms)

This is the other view of the patchwork drawstring bag.

That's all I have. Vivocity here I come!

Partay: Sew Many Ways

Friday Ketchup No. 4

So this week went by pretty quick. Hubs took me to see Oblivion.

It's a sci-fi movie and Tom Cruise is in 99% of the scenes. I'm not exactly a Tom Cruise fan even though he did produce a beautiful daughter. I'm also not a Tom Cruise hater. I can take it or leave it. Oh, spoiler alert: Tom Cruise rides a bike in the movie. A lot. It's not a bad movie. But I have so many questions about the movie afterwards. Like... Oh, go see the movie for yourself.

Finally went to the swimming pool for a swim. Yay, I can finally justify buying my expensive swimming costume! Hubs went with me. It turned out this lady who had invited me to go swimming with her kinda found someone else to swim with. (yep, i got dumped) So either I go on my own or I wait for hubs to be free to go. I discovered I remembered how to swim. (I only know breaststroke) But I didn't have any sunscreen. Good thing I didn't get burnt.

Yesterday I decided I had best get some sunscreen for my next swim. I have super sensitive skin and have tried dozens of brand and always end up with rashes. One brand made me look like I had small pox. This brand I'm trying out is Avene. I walked into the shop and told the lady at the counter I was looking for... and the lady completed my sentence for me. Sunscreen, she said happily. Yes, is my face that red? Anyhoo, I will try it out next time I go swimming.

Today I did something really unusual. I read in the newspaper about this brush that could untangle tangled hair easily and I went to the shop and bought it. It's called Tangle Teezer and I bought the one that I could use in the shower. There were so many colours available but I only wanted the hot pink. It's quite unlike me to be persuaded by a newspaper article especially when it is to promote a product. But I have awful tangled hair and so does hubs. Plus we had this voucher which was expiring and we could use it to pay for this expensive brush. Haha. It does brush very nicely and for a few hours afterwards we look like we have flat hair. Our dream come true. So I think the brush did its job. But it did take off a few of my hair. If I were to use an ordinary hair brush, I would lose chunks of my hair. So I'm pretty happy with it. While I was choosing the colour of my brush, an old lady was happily buying up a storm. Why does she need so many? Probably as gifts.

I made a few drawstring bags for my market. I used to make these maybe a few years ago but one day I stopped making them. Probably got bored to death. I use whatever width and height of fabric I have so each bag is of a different size.

This print is Raggedy Ann & Andy by Lecien.

I used the leftover Ikea orange bird fabric to make this larger drawstring bag.

For my next drawstring bag, I wanted to do something a little different and as sometimes happens when we try new stuff, I'm feeling it's not great.

I added ruffles. I know I'm not a ruffles kind of person but I have been thinking of making ruffles for a while and this seemed like a good time to start.

This is what the bag looks like drawn. I'm not loving the squishiness of it. This print is also by Lecien. (check out the hula hula girls) I haven't given up on ruffles yet. Will try it again sometime soon. And how was your week?





Disclosure: i am a amazon associate

I have lunchtime pouches coming out of my nostrils

Ladies,

Have I told you guys how hard my work is?

I have to do a lot of fabric shopping. It's not an easy job. So many choices, so many designers, so many colours, so many different textures to choose from. It's difficult work. Not many can do it.

On top of stroking the fabric to ensure the best quality is bought, I have to sometimes roll around in them, just to soften them up.

Every day I have to make tough decisions regarding sales. Yes, I'm talking about all the constant sales the fabric shops are having. Especially the year end ones. It's crazy. Recently Spoonflower had a worldwide shipping day. I mean, what the hell is that, right? I have enough problems finding time to attend all the sales in Singapore. One week I received a 30% discount. Right after that, the same shop sent a 40% discount card. And what's up with the pre-Christmas, Christmas and renovation sale? Yep, one tough decision after another.

Buying the fabric is the easy part compared to working with the fabric.

Take the patchwork lunchtime pouches I had to deal with recently. They were such a pain to work with. All the fabric I have insisted on auditioning for spots. I had to decide who's in and who's out. It got really tiring gazing at all the eager prints.

Like I said, it wasn't easy but it had to be done. I finally decided on the final 25 prints. Not all the prints got along. So once again, I had to be the matured one and paired the agreeable ones together.

Even so, sometimes the bickering got bad and I let them fight it out.

Next I had to decide on the lining. Riley Blake, Michael Miller and even Amy Butler came calling. The Japanese fabric passed. They preferred to be the main fabric! Sniff. I'm not sure I like their attitude.

After much careful thinking, I decided to eeny meeny miny moe.

Keeping the pouches entertained when it was work-in-progress took up most of my time.

Honestly, they're acted like princesses. Me! Me! Me! Always.

Finally they're completed. All 10 princesses. Each one is one of a freaking kind. (OOAFK) Can't wait to sell them so I never have to look at them again. And guess who decided to join the party? A much neglected Bear. I think he had a bit too much fun.

Thought I'll show the pouch bottoms. (It was Bear's idea)

Bear proved to be difficult when it came time to put away the pouches. He refused to do the carrying. This is his "Who me?" look.

Bear doing his SULK.

Did I mention how hard my work is?

Oh, I made a few non-patchwork lunchtime pouches as well. So I have a grand total of 20.

Go to www.projectsbyjane.com if you want a closer look at the pouches.

p.s. if you want to make your own lunchtime pouches, you can. my pattern available here (without the patchwork instructions - just sew a few pieces of fabric together duh):
Etsy via email
Craftsy via instant download.

73 out of 74 projects completed. (1 more to go baby)

I have drawstring pouches coming out of my eyeballs

I had a dream the other night. I dreamt that I had made 1,000 drawstring pouches. When I woke up and realised it was only a dream, I was soooo relieved. I mean, 1,000 drawstring pouches is a bit too much right?

The reason I dreamt about drawstring pouches is I had been making them, one after another. I had checked my stock and I counted there were 8. So I thought I would like to have a total of 20. It's not a superstitious thing, just that, 20 is a nice round number. So, 20 minus 8 is only 12. And 12 drawstring pouches should be easy peasy, right? Right?

I wanted to make these pouches, mass production style. First I cut up a whole bunch of fabric. Some of the fabric was fabric remnants I wanted to get rid of. (hee hee) Some of the fabric came from my new stock.

Work in progress - (keeping it real - see the mess behind?)

I don't want to make you guys crazy with envy by telling you the exact number of hours it took me to make 12 drawstring pouches. So I'm just going to be coy and say it took 2 days.

After 2 whole days of sewing and sewing and sewing the same thing over and over and over, 12 times, Yay! Finally I have 20 drawstring pouches.

And now I never ever want to:
- look at a drawstring pouch again
- make a drawstring pouch again
- think about a drawstring pouch again
- dream about a drawstring pouch again

Here are the glorious 20. Drool. Oh, if you want a closer look, you have to go to my Christmas catalog at www.projectsbyjane.com

And if you want to make your own and you seriously don't know how to make one, I have a pattern here at Etsy or Craftsy.

p.s. my home looks like crap now with fabric and sewing supplies everywhere. tonite i'm going to dream an elf came and clean it.

59 out of 74 projects completed (it's almost over)

Attending this partay: Sew many ways

I taught my sister to make a pouch

The last time I had a booth at VivoCity Craft market, my sister Elaine came by. She mentioned that she wanted to learn to make my drawstring pouch which I usually have for sale at craft markets. I don't remember what I said to her but I know I didn't promise to teach her.

Days went by and suddenly one day I woke up and decided I would teach my sister to sew my pouch. And you know how I teach people to sew. Yes, I created a pdf bag pattern. So I sent some fabric and supplies to my sister and told her she would be the tester for the pattern.

I don't know if she felt frightened by this enormous task. But she has never made a bag or a pouch in her life. So she was really perfect to be the tester. She did have some experience sewing some simple items. Since this is her first pouch, I think I've totally spoilt it for her. She'll never accept raw edges again.

Here she is proudly showing off her Treasure Pouch. She said the pouch is good for keeping her "rubbish". I've politely declined to call it the Rubbish Pouch.

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This pouch can be made in two ways. One way is to use a pretty print. Mine is a Lecien print. Aren't the retro flowers pretty? Lecien does retro flowers really well. And the other way, still in keeping with the floral theme, is to embroider simple flowers on a piece of linen or calico.

This pattern is a great project for someone who has never made a pouch or a bag and would like to start. Currently available on Etsy here. I will list this bag pattern in my other pattern shops soon.

Oh, I know it's a little early to mention Christmas. But if you're thinking of making something handmade as gifts, I have a little sale going on at my Etsy shop. ALL my bag patterns are currently marked down to $5 each. (Yes, every bag pattern.) It's a great deal! I'll keep this price until end October Singapore time.

See ya.

For more BAG PATTERNS.

Eat My Pouch

Remember the advice I gave before? Never sew when you're hungry? I ignored that advice. Not only that, I sewed, while hungry, using fabric that has food on it. Originally I had bought these delicious fabric to save for a future giveaway. Well, I kept them in the cupboard for a month. Yesterday, I made the mistake of opening the cupboard. Yum. So instead of a random person winning these baked goods theme fabric from me in a future giveaway, a few random strangers will have to pay me to buy these pouches I made.

I kinda like the black fabric more. Would you believe these fabric are from a collection called Queen's Candy? Can you spot macarons on the fabric? I heard of macarons maybe last year? I heard so much about them I had to eat them but could not find them anywhere near where I live. Finally one day I was given some. They were very, very sweet. I found more sold in town and ate some more. They were still very, very sweet. So I'm off macarons now. Because I don't like very sweet food. My teeth literally ache when I think of very sweet food. Ouch already. But what I love about macarons is they melt in your mouth! What exactly is that special ingredient that makes the biscuit crumble so meltingly? I hope one day some bakery here will bake not so sweet macarons.

These local traditional biscuits are what I usually eat. The round ones are called Marie biscuits and they're quite sweet but I can tolerate it. The square ones are soda crackers. I like them a lot because they're plain. Just wish they weren't so oily. I dunk them in hot lipton tea. The traditional biscuits shops sell biscuits by the tin - one big giant tin. I estimate at least 18" tall tin. These traditional biscuits shops are hard to find nowadays. My mother used to carry the tin home and she would get very upset if anyone forgets to close the tin tightly because then, the entire batch of biscuits would go soft. And without fail, someone always does.

Linked to : Sew Many Ways