Progress

Hello,

I think I've made progress this week. Firstly, I've finally stopped making changes to my next ePattern. This is good news for me because I have this habit of tweaking. Tweaks are expensive because they cost a lot of time to change. I thought I'll let you guys have a peek at what's been consuming my mind lately.

It's not a spectacular bag and it's not meant to be as it's for beginners. This is a sample bag and for the final version, I will use a less masculine fabric as 99% of my customers are female.

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Another "progress" for me.... In the past I would only sell bags I have already made. I was either too arrogant or simply too lazy to make upon request. For the past couple of months, I've started (secretly) accepting easy custom orders from customers whom I feel aren't "difficult". Really, I just go for people who get my aesthetics.

Not long ago, a reader asked for a skulls and roses lunchtime pouch. This is an easy order because I already know how to make it and I had just enough of the fabric to make another one.

This is all that's left of the Alexander Henry's Skulls and Roses fabric. This turned out to be such a hit fabric. I've been able to sell every single item I made with the fabric. And I managed to squeeze one last lunchtime pouch out of it. Yay!

When I made this pouch, I felt a little sad, like I was saying goodbye to an old friend. I did not save any fabric to make something for myself! Ah, but as hubs would say:

Jane, you have a lot of bags!

It's true.

For the lining, I chose this fabric which has little roses all over. It's a Yoko Okamoto fabric.

Well, this little lunchtime pouch is making its way all the way from Singapore to Canada. I believe the new owner, Alicia will love it.

And if I have the motivation and time, I'll use the rest of the scraps to make into something, something. We'll see?

My Sewing Tools

Hello,

Since my Sunday run, I've avoided exercising. Today my muscles finally stopped throbbing. I've been mostly finishing tasks on my To-Do list. I've nothing to show you yet so why don't I show you my sewing tools? These are my essentials which I need to make my bags. Well, apart from my sewing machine!

Although I was educated in metric system, I sew mostly in inches but for my ePatterns I cater to both inches and cm. Because of that I need my rulers to have both inches and cm.

♠ Cutting mat
This one is in cm because the ones in inches are very expensive. I use the grid to align my fabric when cutting. I achieve symmetry mostly via this grid.

♠ 18" ruler
This ruler is a few decades old. It still works.

♠ 6.5" quilting ruler
This ruler saves a lot of time especially when you want to mark with accuracy. I would love to get a larger quilting ruler but somehow could not justify the ransom being asked for.

♠ Flexible ruler
Really good for curves. My days of using plates and saucers to mark curves are over.

♠ 6" Sew and knit gauge
It's the weird looking one with black marking and a peach thingy. This is a necessity for me. I use it to mark seam allowance. I used to use one bought from Spotlight but the movable peach thingy was really loose. This current one is by Prym and it's solid! Click here to see a listing in Amazon.

I also own a 39" ruler. It's useful when I make long handles!

These are my marking tools.

♠ Hera marker
The white weird object is a hera marker. I use it to make creases when I don't want to use an iron. You can use it to mark your fabric as well. Click here to see a listing in Amazon.

♠ Coloured pencils
The 4 pencils are used to mark sewing lines on my fabric. I use the red/dark blue the most. For dark fabric I use the light blue or yellow.

♠ Pencil sharpener
This is a Lyra pencil sharpener. It is the best I've ever found. Most pencil sharpeners either break your lead or can't get it perfectly pointed. Mine does.

Are you like me? I am very protective over my fabric scissors. I don't allow anyone to use it. I've been known to scream my head off when I catch anyone using it.

I use 4 pairs of scissors.

The top pair is the one I use to cut fabric.

The small pair of scissors is used for cutting thread. I love the small pointed tip. It could snip thread such that you can't see anything left behind.

The third pair of scissors was originally my fabric cutting scissors. It was the first pair of dressmaking scissors I had bought many decades ago when I was learning to make clothes. I bought it from Mdm Gan, my sewing teacher and she said this brand was her favourite. I have hunted everywhere but am unable to find it at any shops. My family has used it to cut everything and anything. I wasn't as vigilant before. As a result, it has become blunt. Now I use it to cut paper or zippers. I'll surely be buried with it.

The last pair of scissors is really cheap. I have zero feelings for it. I bought it for my family to use especially on anything sticky like scotch tape or masking tape.

When I make handles, I prefer to sew a tube and turn it inside out.

These are my loop turners. Mine are from Clover and I use them a lot. It comes in 2 sizes. These are good for light to medium weight fabric. For stiffer fabric, unless the width is large enough, these loop turners are useless. A large safety pin does a better job. Click here to see a listing in Amazon.

The long chopstick I use to poke out corners for finishing. This chopstick is unusually long and I suspect is meant for cooking and not for eating.

The middle wooden thingy is also used to poke out corners especially for small crafts.

The brush is a must - how else to get rid of lint from the sewing machine parts?

Hope you enjoyed looking at my tools. If you use anything unusual, do share with me. Would love to check it out.

Eat and Run

Last night, yes, the night before my first mass 3km run, we attended a Chinese wedding dinner. I went dressed as Tina Fey.

Tina Fey

Do not adjust your monitor. This is the size of my head.

Hubs also went dressed as Tina Fey.

Here's the menu if you're interested. Only the first dish was good because we were starving.

This is real sharks fin. The politically incorrect oblivious waiter made a big show of putting in real sharks fin into the soup. He's lucky the anti-sharks fin activists weren't on the guests list. Hubs made a weak attempt to raise some anti-sharks fin sentiments.

This is Herbal Braised Duck with Sea Cucumber. Two things wrong with this dish. First - anything herbal is a punishment. This is a wedding dinner, no? Second - anyone else thinks this looks like a foetus from Alien 3?

I usually don't like to attend anything where I don't know anyone. But it was worth it especially for my kids because they got to see their grandma intoxicated.

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Last night hubs and I had to take paracetamols to ward off the MSG induced headaches. It worked because this morning we woke up fit and raring to go.

I went dressed as a dalmatian. Hung on my wrist is my jogging pouch for the little essentials - phone, transport card and $20 in case I need to take a taxi home. I wore my old New Balance running shoes because it rained before the flag off.

Hubs went dressed as a Belgian Shepherd. (He's pretending to run here)

I was disappointed none of the VIPs who did the flag-off ran or walked with us.

Hubs did the 6km run which was flagged off earlier.

When it was time for my flag-off, I made sure to stand right in front of the starting point. There were thousands of people and I didn't want to be squeezed. Mr Tharman, the Deputy Prime Minister came to shake the hands of those who were in front. Yes, he shook my hands too and mumbled something which I couldn't hear. I imagine he said: "Cool outfit."

Once the horns sounded, I took off running like a hound dog. I wanted to break away from the pack. I was with a bunch of maybe 10 people. But later I couldn't keep up my pace and soon the fitter ones overtook me. Halfway, I discovered my shoes had problems. It felt like it was breaking apart. Hubs had expressed some concern when I told him I was wearing an old pair of shoes.

I was lucky that despite my shoe breaking, I was able to complete the run. The last leg of the run was difficult because the slow runners from the previous races were fighting for room. Once I spotted the Finish Line 100 metres away, I ran like crazy even though there's no prize for my category. I think I finished 3km in 10 to 15min.

I look super scary after a run. (this is the least scary photo of myself I could find) My face was RED. I could feel my face on fire. You could cook an egg on it.

After taking a good 2 hour nap, my face finally looked human again. See you.