Another Year On...

Another year gone by, another year older... more and more things to learn.

Was rummaging through some of my old stuff a few days back and found lots and lots of partially-used wool, cloth, binding, etc etc etc. There was a whole big drawer full of these remanents from school days!  I was never much of a knitter nor crochet-er, why in the world did I buy so much wool??

Anyway,  since I found my crochet needle too, I decided to learn how to make amigurumi (crochet stuffed animals).  The ones I saw on the web were soooooo cute.  I started  by watching this tutorial and played and paused and played and paused until I figured out how to do it.  After several attempts (and several hours), I finally managed a decent looking ball shaped thingy with 2 beady eyes =)

Now I need to run to the craft store to buy needles to sew wool (what are these called?).  Hopefully, I'd get a decent looking amigurumi after patching everything together.

My New Reversible Bag

I finally got off my bum and started sewing my bag using the tutorial from verypurpleperson.  As for the choice of fabric, I settled on some cute red hippo cloth and a somewhat more "normal" rose fabric, both from Ikea.

Using the pdf pattern was really simple with markings to tell you exactly where to join up the pieces of A4 paper.  The original bag tutorial did not have any pockets, so I decided that this was a good time to learn how to sew zipper pockets and attach it to the basic bag pattern.

After a few hours of fiddling, here's my version of the reversible bag:

Reversible Bag Tutorial

Once upon a time, I was in an online shopping craze (that was before I got conned by an online shop based in Malaysia).  One of my online purchases was a brown handbag which I brought to work every day.  It was pretty sturdy, but...... my house keys poked a hole in the pocket it was in... arrrgghhhh!  Thus began my search for a new bag...

At a store, I saw some nice looking bags but they cost $40+!  "I should pamper myself once in a while" -- take bag down from shelf.  "But is this worth the price?" -- put bag back.  This went on for a good 15 mins before I finally walked away; empty handed.

One day, I found this here:

There was a very easy-to-understand tutorial, and the bag was reversible!  Hmmmm..... should I make one for myself?

Boring Mattress Covers

A plain, boring pillowcase brought me back to the world of sewing after years away from it.  At a time when my mind was running wild (not in the good sense), when I was having difficulty sleeping, something boring was just the thing to save me.  Though nothing complicated, the whole process of planning, measuring,  cutting and sewing, forced my mind to the task at hand, taking it away from other darker places.

Here's a grubby looking foldable mattress..... and no wonder it turned out that way..... it did not come with any cover and there was none to be bought.

Armed with cloth bought from Ang Mo Kio (a mature town in central Singapore), where a shop which only sells cloth still exists, I started sewing, sewing, sewing, sewing into the night.  Here are the end products:

Totally exhausted, I fell asleep..... without thinking about things I didn't want to think about.....

Tablet Pen Attachment

My hubby bought a HTC tablet and ordered a wallet for it online.  The wallet was nice and sleek, but there was no where to attach the pen.  Here was my attempt at making a holder for the pen that could be attached to the spine of the wallet.  Hubby didn't use it in the end..... complained that the pen wasn't secure and could drop out.

Hippo Cloth

It was a rainy afternoon and the family didn't know where to go. We had some constraints though.... the journey had to be long enough for my little one's power nap in the car.... so we ended up at Ikea.  Found this cute hippo cloth that's really bright and cheery =)  Now what should I do with it?

Another Dinosaur Craft

Here's a dinosaur craft that I made a few months back together with my little one.  In Ice Age 3, there is an Ankylosaurus (dinosaur with spikes on its body and a hammer-like tail).  Having watched this over and over and over and over again, the little one wanted me to make one for him. So...... armed with 1 toilet roll, a discarded toothpaste box, newspaper, and some starch (flour mixed with water), the dino was slowly put together.

This was the first time in my life that I've worked with paper mache, so I thought it was wise to work on this part alone...... gosh it was messy!!  Plastered on the newspaper to form the body, and made paper mache spikes to be glued on later.  I left it to dry overnight, then let the little one glue on the spikes to the body the next day. More waiting for the glue to dry..............

Luckily the little one was patient enough to wait for the painting stage.  He chose red for the spikes.... so here goes...

Now for the body.... green it shall be.  Draw on the eyes with a marker and the dinosaur is ready!

Yeah, I know it's missing a hammer-like tail..... but there were no complaints from the little one =)