I need to control myself

My sister said that I am crazy and must learn how to control myself ! What did  she refer to ?  Oh ! she advised me to stop going to the fabric stores and  purchasing  more fabric.

It is always on Sunday  afternoon that I will hang around the fabric stores in my hometown. I used to go out for tea with my hubby on Sunday afternoon.We go to the traditional Chinese coffee shop for toasted bread and drinks. After that I will go to the fabric stores. There are more than ten  fabric stores in my hometown . It is really fun to enter those stores . I always enjoy looking and admiring great variety of beautiful fabric there . In the end, I can never resist myself from buying some.That is why I have a few big containers full of fabric in my sewing room and the number keep on increasing!

Whenever I am undecided whether or not to buy a certain fabric, my hubby will say : "  If you like it, just buy or you will regret if there is no more stock later ! " See , this man is too nice and  always encourage me to buy. May be I should blame him for that ! :)

I told my hubby  : " Please try to stop me from going to the fabric stores in future !"

OMG ! I could not stop laughing when he made a serious face and answered : " Oh ! I will never do that ! That is too CRUEL ! "  

Anyway, I am going to listen to my sister. I will stop buying more fabric. I decided to finish sewing  all the fabric that I had bought first.

Before I stop and go for tea, I would  like to show you what I had bought last weekend. Do you like them ?

I am not going to buy any more fabric today. I promised to control myself. :)

I cross my fingers that I will not buy any fabric today. :)

Thanks for reading . Bye ! Hope you have a happy Sunday.!

Dark green dress

Hurray ! Finally I finished making another two-piece dress this morning .

Yesterday was Friday. I love Friday ! Why ? It is because we start our lessons late (at 2.25 p.m. ) every Friday. I am teaching in the afternoon session, compared with school starts at the usual 1.05 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, I have extra one hour plus to stay at home doing things that I love to do.

Why we start school late on Friday ? More than 60 % of the citizens in my country are Muslims and Friday prayer is a congregational prayer that Muslims hold every Friday afternoon. Attendance for this prayer is strictly incumbent upon all adult males. Since more that 90% of the students and teachers in my school are Muslims, so we can only start our lessons after they finished their prayers in the Mosques.

With the extra spare time I have on Friday, I managed to start sewing this dress yesterday afternoon, then continued last night and this morning. Since I used the same pattern as this one, sewing this dress was easy and fast . I am just same as many of you, always enjoying making new garments with same pattern over and over. So this is not a new pattern , same but different in colour and embroidery stitches .

Green is one of my favourite colour. I love to look at green plants and trees . In fact I planted quite a number of green plants . I enjoy looking at them everyday .

My same pattern dark green dress may be boring , but looking at the beautiful green plants brings soothing effect as well as helping us to relax mentally and phisically.So let me show you a few of my green plants . I hope you do like them too !

Hope you have a relaxing weekend !

Gingham top

According to an old friend of mine, life is dull and boring when one does not have any hobby, or so bogged down with routine, or so overly busy with works that pursuing any activities outside works is a luxury.Well, I think I am  lucky because being busy with my work, I still managed to have some time to sew .  I finished sewing another top for myself last night.

I bought the gingham fabric from a local fabric store.It  was  imported from China.I made a pull over  top . It is  simple and fast sewing.The top is  comfy. I would like to wear it when I go out  for tea on Sunday afternoon with my hubby. :)

Flowers and broad shorts

I bought this cute blue cotton fabric two weeks ago. My 16 years old nephew saw it and told me that he likes the blue colour as well as the print. I promised him I will sew a shorts for him .

Yesterday  morning I woke up very early. I drafted a board shorts pattern and cut the fabric , decided to sew it when I came back from work in the evening. Then I went to clean up the fallen leaves in my garden . Some of the flowers in my garden are blooming .The sunny weather , beautiful flowers and passion fruits made me happy . Do you realized that small little things around us can also greatly impact our overall level of happiness and life satisfaction? I took some pictures to share with you here.

Last  night I  finished sewing the board shorts.  I asked my hubby to try it on. It fits him too . In the end I made another similar one for him.It is actually fun to sew these type of shorts with elasticated waist . Very simple and easy  project.   Do try it out ! If you do not want to draft the pattern, you can just simply trace the pattern from  your trousers and make some modification.You can also get a  free PDF pattern  from craftpassion.com . After sewing the first one , I am sure you you will keep on sewing one after another ,until every member of your family gets one ! : )

This one is for my nephew . He is left- handed. I sewed  a side pocket at  the left hand side of the shorts.

This one is for my hubby. I sewed a pocket on  the back of the right hand side.

I am in the progress of making another blouse. I hope I will be able to complete it in this coming weekend.

Hope you have a great week !

Purple floral blouse and dark purple skirt

Finished this floral cotton blouse and dark purple flared skirt two days ago .

Love  this cotton fabric . Small purple roses on white background , fresh and charming.

I bought this pure cotton fabric from a local fabric store last year. It is actually meant for making a new bedsheet. I  like it so much , in the the end I prefer to wear it instead of sleeping on it . :)

The strips  used for the square neckline and the cuffs  were cut out  from the same fabric. Adding this little detail  brings delightful look.

Dark purple skirt is same pattern as the previous one . When at work, I am always rushing from one block to another ,this type of flared skirt allows me to go at a good pace.

Some more fabric have been cut out and are in the progress of making. Just hope I can finish them before my holidays ends. I have some paper work to get done too, so cannot spend all my time on sewing.

How is your Wednesday ? Hope you are happy  and healthy  .

Black and white floral print blouse

Friday morning, my hubby looked at my new top and said  :  " This is nice, but.... you can't  wear it to work ! "

Yes, he is right,  sleeveless outfits are not allow in my working  dress code. 

" Why don't you sew another one with sleeves ? " he suggested.

" Oh , that is a good idea ! "

Yes, I wanted to  sew another similar pattern but with sleeves. One of the reason is I am not so used to  wearing sleeveless outfits.  I like to make but I may not wear.

So on that afternoon, I got into my car and drove to the fabric store, which is about 15 minutes drive from my home. Lucky me , I managed to get the same fabric and sewed the  blouse yesterday.

I know, it is nothing new, the same pattern except this one is with sleeves. But who cares, as long as I am happy and enjoyed sewing it. :)

For this blouse , I sewed two darts below the bust and another two on the back bodice. I sewed an invisible zipper below  the  left  armhole .

This time I did not use the invisible zipper foot to sew the invisible zipper. Instead I followed the tutorial Don't fear the (invisible ) zipper by Kay  Whitt in her blog Sew Serendipity. As suggested in her tutorial, I used regular zipper foot to sew it. Oh ! It really works and the end result is perfect ! Look at the picture below .

Thanks ! Kay Whitt.  Kay Whitt is a designer of sewing patterns for clothing and accessories. Do check out her blog !

I have one week holidays left. I hope I will be able to make the full use of it . I am going to sew some more new clothes. Check it out in my coming new posts ! :)

Black and white floral print summer top and more

I sewed a sleeveless summer top, a pair of white trousers and a black flared skirt in the past few days.

All the patterns are self drafted according to my body measurements. I bought all these three fabric from a local fabric store at my hometown.


The fabric used for the top is black and white floral print cotton. The top is simple pull over style accented with ruffled lace collar. The light weight cotton fabric used is comfy and perfect for the hot weather in my country.

The fabric used for the trousers is linen and cotton blend. Elastic waist band with side zipper closure.

The black flared skirt is of eight gores with back zipper closure. Elastic bands are attached to both sides of the waist band .The fabric used is georgette. I am delighted to see this skirt drapes well .
I think both the skirt and the trousers match perfectly well with this summer top . Don’t you think so ?

Black and white are timeless classic , basically these two colours can be coordinated with every other colours. Right ? Other than this summer top, I think I can always mix and match other tops , tunics and blouses with both the black skirt and the white trousers . :)

Hope you have a happy Thursday ! Enjoy sewing !

I learn how to crochet

This Japanese crochet book was printed in Japan in the year 1983. I think I must had bought it when I was still a student. At the bottom of the right hand side of the book cover , there are two Japanese words which are exactly same as Chinese words meaning " basic ". I can't read Japanese, but I knew that this is a crochet book for beginners . Beginners can learn basic crocheting methods using this book.

The book has been kept inside my cupboard for too long , so yesterday I started my first piece of crochet work. Since I am new and had never crochet before, so I only dare to try a small coaster. The book stated the diameter of this coaster is 14 cm, but my end result only measured 12 cm !

I am not satisfied with what I had made. The poor coaster does not look nice. Please do not laugh over it. Well , it is much tougher compared with sewing clothing. Anyway, I think I need a lot of practice to improve my skill. Practice makes perfect, right ?

I put a heavy crystal ball ( actually not really crystal , I think it is made from glass ) on the coaster. The ball was bought by my hubby when we were travelling in Beijing in the year 1996.The diameter of this ball is around 12 cm. Delicate and fine Chinese painting on a small marble stone is sealed inside the glass ball.It is really a fine piece of art .

Black and orange

Self drafted pattern. Simple black blouse paired with orange colour tight maxi skirt.

I like to use invisible zippers, so definitely there is one at the back of this blouse.The blouse is too plain, so I used the orange colour fabric to add bias binding at the neckline and sleeves .

The skirt has slits up to the knees on both sides. If not, I won't be able to walk at a good pace. :)

happy

Happy because I picked up 15 passion fruits from my garden this morning.
Happy because I bought some beautiful fabric yesterday.
Happy because I have time to clean up my messy house.
Happy because I see flowers blooming in my garden.
Happy because I can have an afternoon nap.
Happy because I have time to watch movies.
Happy because I have time to cook for my hubby.
Happy because I have time to make bread and cakes.
Happy because I have time to read my favourite books.
But most of all, happy because I have time to sew!!!
Happy because I have two weeks holidays !!!