Glass pendants at my Storenvy Store!

I'm so excited!!! After all the time spent researching how to make glass tile pendants, ordering and buying the materials needed, to actually making them, they are finally available at my Storenvy store!!

I've mentioned this many many times -- I love Japanese fabric!!!  From the cute cartoon ones to the kimono-like ones, I just can't resist buying more =p  So, here's a range of glass tile pendants made using Japanese fabric.  Here's one of my favourites:

Chair Cover

We've got lots of Ikea stuff at home, and this was another addition from Ikea - JULES Visitor's chair:

Ikea's JULES Visitor's Chair (before)

Functional? Yes.  Comfortable? No.... way too hard for me... I took this opportunity to whip out my fabric and sewing machine yet again in an attempt to make it more comfortable.  Similar to my previous project to make a chair cover, I just spent lots of time measuring and hoped for the best =p

Since I felt that this chair was too hard, I bought some batting and sort of quilted it to my chosen fabric.  After lots and lots of diagonal lines, I declared the quilting portion completed (initial plan was to do a crisscross kind of quilting.... but I got lazy).  Now, moving on to sewing the pieces together..... here it is:

Ikea's JULES Visitor's Chair (after)

Does the fabric look familiar??  Well, that's because it has been used here and here and here and here and here and here.

Another glass pendant gift

Here's another glass pendant that I gave away to Mummy dearest:

Japanese Fabric Glass Pendant

Glass Tile Pendant

I've seen lots of tutorials online on how to make glass tile pendants and they looked sooooo pretty!!  Most of the tutorials had fancy designs printed on paper, sealed, then attached to the glass tiles.  I have a thing for fabric..... seeing the thread grains, seeing the little bumps of the fabric.  I have a really soft spot for Japanese fabric too.  So.... after gathering my supplies from ebay and other local sources, I made some of my very own glass tile pendants.  Here's one I gave to a friend to try out - it's made with Japanese fabric with tints of gold highlights. Tell me what you think of it!

Glass tile pendant with Japanese fabric

Kid's Cute Pillow Cases

My little one brings along a pillow for nap time at preschool.  Having bought some cute fabric previously which was sitting pretty in my cupboard for ages, I finally dusted them off and made some new pillow cases for him.  The little one saw the whole process of measuring, cutting and sewing and was absolutely thrilled to see the final product, insisting that he had to show his teacher the next school day =)

Here's the blue one:

Cute blue ducky pillow case

and here's the yellow one:

Cute yellow ducky pillow case

With these cute pillow cases, I wonder why on earth I spent more than $10 per pillow case a few years back...... hmmmmm.....

New Cover for Old Chair

Look at this fake leather chair:

Old Fake Leather Chair

See that grey patch in the bottom left corner??  It started off with a tiny piece of the fake black leather peeling off..... then more and more of it came off..... eeeeks!!

An appointment was made with a friend to visit Chinatown for some fabric shopping, and hey, the fabric that I previously used for cushion covers was soooooo much cheaper (less than 1/2 the price which I bought it for last time!!).  Happily bought way more than necessary and carried my stash home =)

I've never done any chair upholstery nor chair covers before, so lots of it was through trial and error.  After lots of breaking down (in my mind) the different parts of the chair, plus lots and lost of measuring and cutting..... here's the final product:

Chair with new look

My first reaction - IT FITS!!!  The sides of the seat area was a little floppy, but nothing serious enough for me to throw the whole thing away.  The cover is secured to the chair by velcro at the bottom, so it stays where its supposed to stay while we move around on it.  When it gets dirty, I'll just need to remove it and give it a good wash.  What do you think of it?

Happy Day!!

Yesterday was a happy happy day!!  My fabric box pictorial tutorial was featured on 2 lovely sites:

1) And Sew We Craft
2) Totally Tutorials

Thanks!! This really made my day =)

First Giveaway - Results

My first giveaway to celebrate 5000 page views closed about 22 hours ago.  Thanks to Agy and Soraya for participating!!  Here are the results using a random number generator from Random.org:

1) Agy
2) Soraya

Congratulations to Agy!!  I'll be contacting you soon =)

Fabric Box Pictorial Tutorial

My wardrobe was a mess...... especially the sections which had smaller items.  Being small, stacking little towers of these often fell and became unfolded in the process.  Once again, I went back to the stash of old curtain fabric which I still had after all these projects:

1) Upcycled bag
2) Zippered pouch
3) Old sewing machine cover

It's now time for fabric boxes using the same curtain fabric again!!  Here's a detailed pictorial on how I made it:

Step 1: Measuring
First of all, decide what size you'd like your fabric box to be.  We basically need 3 measurements - the length, breadth and height of the fabric box that you'd like to make.  Then decide on the seam allowance that you'll be comfortable working with.

measuring & marking wrong side of outer fabric

I like to draw the lines on the fabric so that the final product is more precise in size, and I also need the intersection points marked out with red dots.  The size of the cut fabric would be:

longer side = length + (2 x height) + (2 x seam allowance)

shorter side = breadth = (2 x height) + (2 x seam allowance)

For each corner, fold the fabric along the red dotted lines (right sides facing each other) and pin them in place.

And here's the inner fabric with the same markings on it.  Do the same folding/pinning with the inner fabric

measuring & marking wrong side of inner fabric

Step 2: Folding/Pinning/Sewing 4 Corners
As stated in Step 1, fold all corners of outer and inner fabric with right sides facing each other and pin them.  Here's what 1 of the corners looks like:

Fold and pin all corners

Now sew along the black line:

Sew along the black line

And trim off the excess:

Trim off excess

After sewing all 4 corners, you should get a floppy looking "box" starting to form:

Floppy "box" from outer fabric

Do the same for the inner fabric.

Step 3: Assembling the Outer and Inner "Boxes"
By now, you should have 2 floppy "boxes".  Turn the outer fabric box wrong side outwards, and the inner fabric box right side outwards.  Put the inner fabric box inside the outer fabric box like this (right sides of outer and inner fabric should be facing each other):

Assemble the 2 floppy "boxes" like this

Got it? Now, pin them together near the top and sew all around the top of the box, remembering to leave a gap of about 1 to 2 inches.

Pin the outer and inner "boxes" together

Sew along the top

Step 4: Turning it inside out
If you remembered to leave a gap in the previous step, you can now proceed to the fun part of turning it inside out through that gap

Turning inside out through the gap

Step 5: Iron and Top-stitch
After all that turning, give the top of the box a good ironing:

Iron the top of the box

We're almost there..... To close the gap as well as to give it a neater finish, top-stitch along the top of the box and ta-daa:

Completed fabric box

Optional Step: Sewing the Edges
As I chose not to use any interfacing for this project, you might find the box a bit too floppy for you.  In order to give it more shape, you can either use interfacing, or sew along the height of each edge like this:

Sew edges to give more shape

Phew..... hope this tutorial is clear enough.  If not, just drop me a comment/email and I'll try my best to explain further.

Completing the baby cot set

Remember the story of the missing baby cot mattress cover?  Since I made the mattress cover, I continued to make a complete set - pillow case, bolster case and a casing for the beanie pillow too.  All from the same recycled fabric as the mattress cover.

pillow case, bolster case and cover for beanie pillow

First Giveaway! [Closed]

Today marks the day that the number of page views of this blog went past 5000!!! YEAAAHHH!!!  I know, I know, this number may seem really small to many people, but this is quite a landmark for any of my blogs over the years.

In order to celebrate this, I'll be having a GIVEAWAY!  I'll be giving away not 1, but 2 fabric bow hair clips.

Fabric bow hair clips

In order to qualify for this giveaway,
1) Leave a comment on this post telling me who these clips are meant for
2) Let me know your email address so that I can contact you (you can contact me at nueyerdua{at}gmail{dot}com)
3) Like Angel Hearts Crafts on Facebook  (not compulsory, but it'll really make my day =p)
4) Entries close on 30 Sep 2012 at midnight, Singapore time
5) This giveaway is open to everybody, worldwide! (as long as postal services deliver to that place)

Good luck, everyone!

Pom Pom Monsters

Yesterday (7 Sep 2012) was Teachers' Day in Singapore.  Having heard that there's a culture of preparing gifts for teachers in preschool, I got down to work real early so that I could involve the little one too.

Stuff needed:
1) Wool pom poms
2) Googly eyes
3) Furry noses
4) Hot glue gun

This project is really simple for little kids - just glue on eyes and noses onto the wool pom poms and there you have it - Pom Pom Monsters!!  This little fellow was made by my kid using regular white glue:

Pom Pom Monster

Pity the eyes and nose kept threatening to drop off any time...... So with the little one napping, I redid the whole batch using my hot glue gun instead.  Here's the whole brood of them before I sent them to the preschool:

Pom Pom Monsters in different colours

Amigurumi Rabbit for Sale at Storenvy

Cute Amigurumi Rabbit at Storeenvy

This little fellow is now available at my new Storenvy store.  There's only 1 piece available so grab it soon!!

Angel Hearts Crafts is now on Facebook!

I'm a procrastinator..... but finally...... I've set up a Facebook page for Angel Hearts Crafts!!  Visit my page  and Like it!!

Angel Hearts Crafts on Facebook

Baby Cot Mattress Cover

Digging out the baby cot, after lots of knocking, assembling, the old baby cot was fixed up again.  Just one problem...... there's only 1 set of mattress cover!  Don't remember where the other one went..... maybe we gave it away with the other cot a few years back.

Oh well, we need to have at least 2 mattress covers, right?  So it was time to start sewing again.  Ultra-budget project as there was a pile of old bed sheets sitting around waiting to be recycled.  Snip snip snip, sew sew sew..... viola! Here it is:

DIY baby cot mattress cover

The fit wasn't perfect, but I think it's good enough for a first attempt =)

DIY Pom Poms

Remember all the wool that I found from abandoned projects?  At last, I found another use for them using the ultra simple tutorial that I found previously.

DIY Wool Pom Poms

The pom pom on the left had a nice haircut while the scraggly one on the right has not been trimmed yet.  Guess what will happen to these pom poms?

Pinking Shears/Scissors

Ikea pinking scissors

I've been wanting to get one of these pinking shears or scissors for a long long time but was usually put off by the price of some of these at crafty shops.  I finally got one from Ikea.  Hmmmm...... what should I use this on first?

Low Cost DIY Bag

Last year, I made a reversible bag using a tutorial from verpurpleperson.  After using it for months, it was starting to get dirty and grubby, so it was time for another DIY bag!  The materials for this bag are:

1) Brown fabric ($1 from the As-is corner at Ikea)
2) Japanese kimono cloth (left over from older projects like this and this)
3) Flowery cloth for the lining
4) Detachable strap from another bag

I like my bags with lots of packets, so there are:

• 2 pockets attached to the gusset pieces on the inside
• 1 zipper compartment on the inside of the flap of the bag
• 1 zipper compartment strengthened with interfacing (to prevent my keys from poking a hole in it) for the back of the bag
• 2 more side slip pockets on the external gusset pieces

I spent a relaxed morning planning, measuring and cutting up the cloth, and the rest of the afternoon piecing everything together.  Here's the final product:

DIY bag with kimono cloth accents

Simple Envelope Cushion Cover Tutorial

I've done quite a number of cushion covers so far, mostly with zippers, whether they were the normal concealed ones, or invisible ones.  For many of those projects, I found lots of good tutorials online and they really helped me, a beginner with zippers, to learn how to sew those intimidating things.

I always considered myself a beginner sewer, so it never occurred to me to put up my own tutorials.  However, after a friend's comment that she didn't know how to sew cushion covers, I decided to put up a really simple one which only requires the fabric -- no zippers, no studs, no buttons.  So here it goes:

Note: White colour is the wrong side of the fabric, and blue is the correct side of the fabric.

Step 1: Measuring
Measure your cushion cover.  I have a square cushion cover of about 40cm by 40cm, so my length = 40cm (I've left diagrams labelled as "length" so that you can plug in any number you want). Leave about 1 inch of seam allowance all around.

Step 2: Hemming short edges
Now we need to hem in side A and side B (the short edges of the cloth).  Each fold is about 1/2inch.  Do the same for both sides.

Step 3: Folding and sewing with RIGHT sides facing out
After hemming side A and side B, lay the cloth out in the same orientation as in step 1 and fold as follows:

After sewing on the red lines (about 1/2 inch away from the raw edge), use a scissors and cut off some of the cloth at those edges about 1/2cm to 1cm away from the sewing line.  Once that's done, turn the almost done cushion cover inside out.  Make sure to poke out the corners nicely.  It would help to give it a good ironing at this stage.

Step 4: Last sewing step
Now, just 2 more lines of sewing and we'll be done:

turn it the right way out, stuff in your cushion, and we're done!!

Here's how mine looks like:

envelope side of cushion cover

front of cushion cover

DIY Pom Poms

I was half curled up all day today, nursing a bad stomach ache...... must be something I ate yesterday.  To pass time, I went online in search of DIY Pom Poms.  I used to make these as a kid using 2 cardboard donuts.... something like this:

Pom Pom tutorial from Adore

But it was quite troublesome cutting the cardboard donuts *lazy*.  So I was glad to find an alternative method that does not require cardboard donuts or any other contraption for that matter.  This tutorial from Creature Comforts was exactly what I was looking for.  There's even a video tutorial available!

Cute DIY Pom Poms from Creature Comforts

Reversible Hair Band

I've got slightly wavy hair and it can get unruly at times.  During school days, I used to sew my own scrungies but have never made any more for years and years.  Here's an attempt at a reversible hair band - 1 side has cute little bunnies, while the other is a plain black:


Cute bunnies on 1 side




plain boring black on the other side




Testing it out...



Card Holder - 2nd Attempt

After struggling with my first DIY card holder for months, I finally got down to making a new one.  The fabric for this project was a sweet, slightly dirty pink with dainty flowers (courtesy of M.  She passed me some scrap cloth when I was working on her cushion covers).  For this project, I decided to use one of my many lanyards that I've collected from meetings/conferences.  Here's a list of material that I used:

1) pink outer fabric
2) black inner fabric
3) black elastic
4) iron-on interfacing
5) lanyard with hook

With lots of estimation (did I mention that I'm not a precise kind of sewer?), here's the final product:
Note: the tab at the top right is where I attached the lanyard.


Inside of card holder (I use it to hold keys too!)




Closed card holder with black elastic band



One Year On.....

It has been 1 year since ..... slowly, slowly I'm starting to forget some of the pain but some of it still remains.  I have to be thankful for having a really really sweet little one who makes me forget all worries, pain and all things negative with his endless chatter, megawatt smiles, unrestrained laughter, hugs and his many many kisses.  I have to be thankful for having another chance before it's too late.  I have to be thankful for my other half for having gone through this terrible journey together...

First DIY Card Holder

This was a card holder that I made quite some time back.  The office had security doors whereby you had to tap your staff card to get in and it helped to have this hung around my neck.  I made 2 compartments inside: one for my staff card, the other for office keys.  However, there was a slight problem..... occassionally, I would have to remove the card and it was difficult to do so as the zipper opening was slightly too smal..... oh-oh.... After months and months of struggling with this, it was time to make a new card holder..... one that will allow me to remove my staff card more easily.  More on my new card holder some time soon.....

Cushion Covers for Mum

The last time that mum changed the cloth cover of the dining room chairs was years and years ago.  So off she went, looking for nice fabric to change them.  She managed to get some lovely dark and light brown fabric that was quite thick, yet had that satin finish on it.... nice =)

But before she had the time to tear out the old cloth covers from the dining room chairs, the dining table broke!!  When that happened, Chinese New Year was just around the corner, so started the frantic search for a new dining table.  They eventuallly found one, and it came as set with 6 dining room chairs.  These chairs had seperate cushions and the covers for these supposedly cost $50+ each??!!  No way we're paying that much for cushion covers!

So I grabbed the fabric that was previously bought, and turned them into a set of cushion covers with invisible zippers for the new chairs.  Take a look:

DIY Terrarium

I was going to get a newly renovated office space and thought that it would be good to have some greenery at my cubicle.  With dry air-conditioned air, and periods when I could be away from office for days, I wanted something that would not require much care and could still survive.  Thus, the idea of having a terrarium popped up.

Trusty Google brought up many pretty terrariums, some were even for sale locally.  I was really tempted to buy a cute little Angry Bird Terrarium, but decided against it because of the cost.  So I got down to sourcing for cheap materials for my DIY terrarium.  Here's the breakdown of the cost:

used glass bottles: free
small stones for drainage: S$2
small blue gravel for decoration: S$2
soil: S$2
activated charcoal: $2.5
plastic netting to separate soil from drainage stones: S$2
plant: S$4

After completing the 2 terrariums above, I still had half a pack of blue gravel, more than 2/3 pack of soil, 1 small pack of activated charcoal, 2 and a half pieces of plastic netting, 3/4 of the potted plant enjoying the sun outdoors.  Hmmmm..... I should start looking for a bigger, prettier glass container to make more terrariums ;)