this side of the island

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 – Day 31

Day 31. My last photo... no.31.

I can't believe I managed to keep up with this challenge. It was fun and I would definitely join the next one. So this is me, a bit blurry but this is me the photographer of all 31 minus 1 photos for 31 Photos in 31 Days - August 2010!

31 Photos in 31 Days – August 2010 – Day 30

Day 30. The boys having fun on the bike.

My two little clowns love to have a good laugh at themselves and this time they both tried to squash themselves while riding this very smile bike. They fell over and rolled around with laughter and then it was back on the bike again!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Picking it up again.... a needle and thread

It's really been awhile since I picked up the needle and thread and thought about doing it somewhat full-time. I love to sew and when I can try to make something but these days I've been thinking alot about making handbags for myself and my daughter especially now that she's almost a teenager. There are just so many designs and come with but essentially in my case I need something that can serve the dual purpose of carrying "the kitchen sink" and hold all my other "junk"!.... no no no I meant to say all of the baby essentials like multiple change of clothes, sippy cups of juice, baby wipes, a handful of nappies and toys.... junk on the other hand are whatever is leftover space for my stuff; the lippy, phone, keys, pens, paper and purse.... but only if there is space to spare!

All my sewing studies and the books I collected.

My sewing collection gathering some dust!

Long Long Long Ago... I took up a sewing course and learnt the pattern making, alterations, fabrics and of course some sewing tricks. I learnt to sew and then taught myself to smock dresses for my daughter when she was little. Little dresses were expensive and sometimes not worth the money so I decided to make them for Ashley.

Some work I've been doing lately.

It was fun to create virtually something from nothing and come up with something that was one of a kind. I bought tons of material whenever something caught my eye and I'm still finding stashes of fabric in bags and boxes around the house. I pleated my own material on my pleater, serged my own edges and sewed all hours of the day. I even started sewing for friends and eventually it became a little business. I didn't really mean it to be that way but I ended up sewing more for others and eventually my daughter grew up and went through a pants only phase.

Eventually the sewing became less when I had my son and I did sew a few rompers, little shirts and pants for my son ..... I even sewed a business shirt for my hubby one Christmas! But nowadays I've found myself playing with the sewing machine and making handbags for myself and Ash but also making some to give away to friends. So now I've been thinking about sewing them to sell and I've been working on patterns and doing some fabric sourcing and basically just trying to get back the confidence to sew again.

But I must say that sewing handbags is actually a whole lot easier than making clothes...no alterations but I do miss the doing embroidery work. I guess that's something I could incorporate into some designs... appliqué here and there ... Sashiko embroidery is something get into but perhaps later... so stay tune ....