Fat Bottoms

It's been a very cold week in Singapore raining on and off. So cold that I wore a yukata over my regular Tees and shorts when I'm home. Last Saturday some areas in Singapore flooded and unfortunately for some it was their second time since June 16's spectacular flooding. I'm just happy that where I live, it doesn't flood. Just puddles.

Bad weather is weighing on my mind now as in August, from 20th to 22nd, I'll be going with the MAAD gang to the Singapore Art Museum(SAM) to sell our handmade creations. Well, actually the stalls will be outside SAM so now you understand why rain would ruin everything. I must cater for flooding! The SAM gig is part of Singapore HeritageFest 2010 – Heritage Sparkles in the City. There will be performances inside SAM as well as outside.

The 3-day SAM gig is just a month away and despite my extremely low stock, I'm still sewing slowly. Today, I was counting the number of bags I have and I started to panic. So next week, I resolve to put in 8 hours of sewing every day.

I should mention that I won't be selling at red dot design museum from 7th to 8th August. I have a party to attend.

This week my mind is still on drawstring bags. However, my focus is on the bottoms. My previous batch of drawstring pouches had flat bottoms.This week, I played around with FAT bottoms. What a difference a fat bottom does to a drawstring bag. Take a look.

Rectangular bottom

I was delighted to discover I have enough leftover of this fabric to make a medium size drawstring bag.

This bottom is deliberately small in order to create a poufy effect. If you don't know how to make a small circle match a larger circle, here's how. You sew long running stitches on the larger circle and pull creating gathers. The larger circle will also become smaller. Pull the thread tighter till both circles match. And that's how it's done.

Poufy Drawstring Bag

Piped Round Bottom

This drawstring bag is much larger. I wanted it to have a fat bottom but without the pouf. Also I added a little red and white gingham border at the mouth of the bag just for fun.

I completed the 2 zip pouches I was working on. The red one with elephant applique is listed for sale at my Etsy and my Zibbet. Available until 19th August. Take a look if you are interested.

Another 5 projects completed. 990 more projects to go!

A Chinese Wedding Banquet

Hello
I had a great weekend. On Sunday I attended my nephew's wedding and since 90% of my readers are not from Singapore, I thought I'll share some photos of the wedding dinner. So if you aren't Chinese and has never eaten Chinese food before, I hope you will enjoy the feast.

A typical Chinese wedding in Singapore will have some ceremonies at the bride and bridegroom's homes. It ends with a HUGE wedding dinner usually held at a hotel.

Before you attend a wedding dinner, you gotta prepare red packets containing gifts of money. The 2 gold ones are for the tea ceremony. Close relatives get to drink tea from tiny tea cups served by the bride and bridegroom. Two red packets are given to them. The red one is for the dinner. See how classy I am? I chose Mr Potato! How much money you put in the red packets is strictly up to the individual. Close relatives are usually very generous. For me, I just phone my mother and she tells me how much to put.

My nephew's wedding dinner was held at a hotel. In the pic above, you can see the lights which are on every floor of the hotel.

This is what I wore. In the past, black is a no-no. I wore a red pendant for a bit of red.

No, I'm not attending an art house movie. The photos next to me are of the bride and bridegroom. Oh, did I mention my nephew is a very tall and handsome young man? Congrats to the couple.

Let the feast begin.

Delux Combination Platter

Clockwise: Roast pork, spicy jellyfish, 5 beancurd rolls with crabmeat, prawn salad with mixed fruits, roast duck
This is just the appertizer and it's delicious.

 Braised Shark's Fin Soup with dried scallop and crabmeat

Our waiter dishes the soup into small bowls for each of us.

Sauteed Prawns with Cuttlefish and Kong Po sauce

Anything with Kong Po sauce is spicy. If you can take the spice, this dish will delight you.

Steamed Star Garoupa Hongkong Style

Ok, my family doesn't eat fish with bones. We are the fillet kind of people but my kids went mad over this fish. So did I. This item is what we gonna order the next time we go to a Chinese restaurant.

Crispy Garlic Chicken Served With Prawn Crackers

I liked the prawn crackers more than the chicken because I'm not a fan of garlic. Never eaten prawn crackers? It's grainy, crispy and tastes like heaven.

Braised Sliced Sea Whelk With Mushrooms and Broccoli

I tasted msg.

Braised Ee-fu Noodles With Yellow Chives

Strangely, the 2nd last dish is always a heavy carbo. The chef probably don't want you to go off feeling hungry so they stuff you with carbo! I really like this noodles. I shall attempt to cook it one day.

Chilled Strawberry Yam Pudding

I'm guessing the pudding is shaped like a fish because it's auspicious.

This is how it's served. It's the first time I've eaten anything like this and it tasted strangely good.

A total of 8 dishes. 8 is of course an auspicious number in Chinese culture. I had a really good time. I got to see all my siblings and my mom.

1,000 Projects Before I Die

In a previous blog post, I wrote that I once told my girl I wanted to make 1,000 bags before I die and Tammy from Tamdoll asked me how many more bags I have to go. Well, you know what? I haven't been counting. And I'm really too lazy to go thru' my old blog posts to do a count. What I've decided is I'll start counting from today and my goal is to make 1,000 projects. Um, yes. It's 1,000 projects, not bags. Why? Well, sometimes I make other stuff and I want to count them too. The deadline? Yep, before I die. Sorry if it sounds rather morbid. But it's a positive thing for me. I have a goal and I have a long deadline. Plus I'm pretty sure I'll achieve it. Oh, what happens when I complete 1,000 projects? Well, I'll find another achievable goal. What did you think?

To be perfectly honest, when I told my girl my 1,000 bags wish, I said it more to make her feel comfortable that I was going to be around for a long time. At that time, I was just feeling extreme exhaustion and muscle pain all the time and feeling down a lot and I guess it worried my girl. She asked me, What's the one thing you want to do before you die? She was really happy to hear my answer because I mean, 1,000 bags takes a long, long time to make. From time to time, she would inquire about the progress and I would give her a very small number and that would make her smile.

Anyway, all that is history as my muscle pain only pays short visits nowadays. Plus I don't have to rely on any meds. Now that I have energy and the motivation to make bags, I'm kinda yearning for immortality. I know, it's crazy.

This week I decided to travel back in time to the dinosaur period when I didn't know how to sew a simple drawstring pouch. So I went thru' my old blog posts and of course I felt terribly amused. I thought it would be really interesting to see how differently I would make drawstring pouches. So I made 5!

I'm afraid I went a little nuts. I forgot how fun drawstring pouches are!

I discovered I had a little skulls and bones fabric left and I made these 2 little pouches. The blue casing is larger and the purple casing is size cute.

This is the first time I used Sevenberry crepe fabric and it's addictive!

This indigo is a linen-cotton. The texture is of course the best bit about linen-cotton.

I'm pretty sure this linen-cotton print will make some of you drool.

I thought I'll show those of you who are sewers how these drawstring pouches are sewn. The above image shows how you lay the fabric.

Just sew around the perimeter and leave a gap on each side for the drawstrings. Of course you must leave a gap in the lining for turning the bag right side out. And that's how I do it.

I have listed these drawstring pouches in my Etsy and my Zibbet. Please take a look. I will unlist them on August 19th as I have a craft market sale from August 20th to 22nd.

Yes, it's terribly exciting. I have 995 more projects to go. It's now or never!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week.