Haven't been doing a lot of crafty projects these days. I find that even though I live nearer and have a lot of free time with the shorter travel, but with the pressures and demands (most often mentally and emotionally than physically) of work, sometimes I find myself unwilling to do anything more except lie down and rest when I get home. Oh and lots of time to bond with my baby girl and hubby.
So this one, well, the cloth has been sitting around for several months before I actually had the energy to make the sofa covers. And it took me being on my 3wk leave from work (after the miscarriage) for me to inspiration to do this.
I didn't have a pattern for this.  I needed to be really close to the sofa to get the right fit, and with several fittings and lots of pins, but afterwards I am really proud with the creation.  The problem is how to replicate it on another cloth design. :-p

I was feeling creative yesterday and wanted to come up with a new sewing project so I looked out for a reversible bag tutorial, and got one here.  I didn't follow the pattern she put in and instead based it on one foldable bag I had here, and it turned out nicely. :-)

The clincher though was that Jessica wanted to have the bag and used it until I got it away from her when she wasn't looking. So hubby suggested I make one for her too.  And since I don't think kids effectively use shoulder bags, I made her a messenger bag instead but with the same fabric as mine.

I hope she likes it! She hasn't seen it yet because she's napping right now, but I find it so cute that we have matching stuff now! :-)

Gifts for Mom

We went to my parent's place last Tuesday and I decided to bring some little gifts for mom.  At least I saw something out of the cute fabrics I bought in divi last week.

I made my mom this cute Grocery Bag Holder out of strips of fabric. You're supposed to stuff it with grocery bags on top and then pull it out from under. Really cute and sassy. I made one with catcha fabric and its so simple, I might just make another one for me with this fabric combination. So cute!

Also made her this Hot and Cold Rice bag, only I put corn (the one they use for feeding chickens). Hmmm, its a little cheaper than rice, you can also do this with rice if you have a lot. I'm sure my mom would be able to use this, especially the cold compress because of the heat these days. I saw her using a wet towel over her neck when we came.

I've seriously run out of new projects to make even though I have the fabric now, I've yet to see new websites with simple projects to do. Hopefully I'll have something new to do by the weekend. 

My stash and latest projects

Been on and off being busy the past few days with new projects and have more items on my list. Unfortunately my list of things to do have also drastically lengthened! :-p

But to give a rundown of my new projects, here goes:

1. A box out of old corrugated boxes here. Then I wrapped it up in fabric so it looks really cute. I still don't know what to do with it, but I like the look just the same.

2.  Here is baby Alive's diaper. :-) I'm sure she would have loved to thank me, but its ok, I'd rather not hear her speak. ;-p

3. At last, my dream of making sofa covers for our matching L-shaped sofa. They're not together now, but they now have the same fabric. I'm kinda wishing it could just replace our old (i mean old) sofa set we got when we bought the house, but then its too bulky to take out so it stays there.  Its not perfect, but it does its job of hiding the dirty sofa. :-p

4. Kikay Kit!!! - I've always wanted to match up my kikay kit, and here are some samples. There's a tissue holder, a case for the powder + lipstick, and another for my brushes (I use mineral makeup btw). The brush kit is foldable and can be tied with a ribbon, like the pic below.

5. Fetish: Here's a case for my USB Card reader, such a delightful companion with the digicam since I always upload pics. ;-p Coming soon: Similar case for my internet dongle. This one is made from Catcha fabric, and some brown bias tape.

And just this morning I went to Divi for some fabric shopping-slash-much needed retail therapy.  I didn't get to buy the usual stuff I buy like clothes or house stuff, but I had a grand time building up my fabric stash. Now I don't envy the website I've been looking at anymore. :-) What I bought are just simple cotton fabrics in cute designs much like the ones I also like when I digiscrap.

pinks!

green

blue!

orange!

yellow/brown

stripes!

florals!

bought some threads too.

Love love love my collection!!! Can't wait to start with my new projects!

New Sewing Projects

I was also able to do several projects the past few days. I haven't finished the projects I intended to do from my current favorite blogsite, until then I'll be doing the stuff there. Luckily when I went to the market I was able to buy some zippers, ribbons and bias tape (which I later on found out was too small and hard to use under several fabric layers. yaiks.  Here are some of the newest projects on the house:

1. My sewing machine's new dress. Yup, surely I got it from the website of Ashley here.  It came out nicely with my revisions, such as the foam inside, and the ribbon went to one side only. I also made a small pincushion earlier on, which matched the fabric of the cover. They do look cute together, don't they? :-p

2. I was also able to make a hot & cold rice bag out of the tutorial here.  I've seen this around bazaars last year though I am not sure what material they put inside. Nonetheless I'm thinking of making it my christmas gifts of love this coming holidays, but will have to research on what best to put inside. Its supposed to be put on microwave for heat (2-3 mins I guess) and then a couple of hours on the freezer for the cold. I tried it on both and it worked, albeit I can still smell the rice grains. Perhaps some organic floral beads can be placed inside. I'll try that soon.

3. And here's another throwpillow case set from the scrap fabrics I had. So cute! Its made of soft stretch cotton so its smooth to use. love it!

My sewing projects

Yey!!! I had a really fun, productive day today. Well, not too fun as I was still constantly reminding myself that I needed to get a job already. But at least the hours thinking about it have been drastically reduced by my sewing projects which I enjoyed doing. And looking back and taking pics, I realize I was able to do a lot! Oh and by the way, I went to Taytay yesterday where they sell fabric leftovers - aka retaso - and I was able to find some. I won't say they are great ones but I then it can get me a long way with the projects I want to do for now. And the retaso is much much cheaper than having to buy per yard which is usually too much for some of the small projects I want to do. So for now, they will do. 

First though, I want to show off my sewing nook at home, actually I have in a room that only I use and it has with it a bigger table and the heat press for our soon to be tshirt biz.  But here is the special nook for my sewing machine. Its a bit hot in this room, but hey, its summer!

Ok, one of the sites I saw (sorry, have to look for that link again) had this cute pattern holder, but I prefer to call it a reminder nook instead. Its made of wood inside, which I lined first with duct take (don't ask me why, its just something I wanted to do to avoid splinters), and then with the black printed cloth which instead of gluing which I saw in the website, I stapled with a staple gun. I then placed the clothespins in cute designs (something I bought in Divi last Christmas) by glue gun. I placed it above the whiteboard because there's no other place for it the room, and it would be hard to put holes in the wood walls.

Here's a closer look with the clothespin designs:

Next I was able to make 2 throw pillow cases of the cloth I bought yesterday. They are matching black and white. I'm thinking of making other throw pillow casings the same way but I'll need to buy more cloth first. This will do for the meantime.:-)

Finally, I was able to make a new stroller cover for Baby Alive. I made some changes because of availability of materials and because I wanted a reinforced one, and i think it was really good.

Here's the original one.

And here's my finished product.

Nice eh? I still have a number of projects I want to do, and hopefully I'll get a good many things done before I get tired and stop. My biggest project and one I hope to actualize is the cover of the sofa, but that's a pretty big challenge so I won't post it till its done! 

Crafty Sewing

I'm determined to have a productive week ahead. And short of saying I don't have budget to do any more extravagant projects, well, I'm gonna do sewing projects this week. Its kinda sad that I don't have any nice fabrics to work with, but this site I found is simply so nice and helpful for someone like me who wants to start doing crafty things. The steps she gives are simple and easy to follow. I'm just bummed that she uses such great fabrics and I don't have any. I'm going to try to look for retaso sellers soon so I can make some good projects too.

Here's the website I'm referring to: http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com.  I know those moms and crafty people will like it too.

Here are my first two projects, the directions of which I got from the the site above:

1. Grocery Bag Holder. Here fabrics she used here are so much more beautiful, and I would love to have something similar to work with.  Since I don't, I used some simple katsa and green ribbon that I have here at home.

2. This one is from a similar project I got here which I simply tweaked so I can place as a tools holder in our storage room. Again I used the katsa at home and made a bigger version than the one she used, and made it good for hanging instead of a belt. I do intend to do one for Jessica, granting I can find good fabrics to work with. 

3. My third project is Jessica's doll's dress. Baby Alive has been naked most of the time what with her shirt always coming off, so this dress is really a cute change for the little girl. :-)