Christmas is a time for giving...

Hi there!

Hope you had and are still having a wonderful Christmas with family and friends..

One of the main reasons I love Christmas is the gift-giving....such a great opportunity to put a smile on someone's face and to show you care...

As promised, here's the 'reveal' of the Christmas gifts mentioned in my previous post:

Rings for dear gal-friends..
(To those of you who received one, apologies if by the time it comes round to you, the choice of colours is limited ; ) )

I modified a 'tea gift-box' to contain the rings...

And... that 'green furry thingy' is actually a little vest requested by my dear niece...who specified style, length etc...she sure has her own style even at the tender age of 5 years : )
[These lovely photos are courtesy of my dear sis-in-law....thanks!]

The pink flower is actually a hair-clip ...which doubles as a brooch..

What about all the others who 'don't wear rings'....? Well, here's the product of the 'frantic baking'...

Are you looking forward to more feasting? I am.... : )

Serena

Mini Notebooks

Still not too late to say a Blessed Christmas to all I hope! How did your celebrations go?
For me, it was a good time spent remembering God's gift and being with family and friends.

AND... of course, there was lots of this:

So much that we were STILL eating versions of it at tonight's dinner...hmmm.

Trying to get creative with 'leftovers' can be fun... the very spirit of scrapbooking don't you think?
As my pal Serena would say, one should be making use of 'scrap' rather than buying brand new things to scrap with.

I made these mini notebooks with what bits and pieces I found among my stash, 'scrapping' along as best as I could. Going to be little pressies for some dear ex-classmates at a belated Christmas gathering.

Hope you're enjoying what's left of 2011!

Sheon

Christmas Gifts

Hi there,

What would you like to receive for Christmas?
Gifts which are hand-made ALWAYS warm my heart...much more than store-bought run-of-the-mill stuff...coz you know that it is made WITH LOVE....and was made...FOR ME.....

Have been busy making small things for Christmas such as these....

Do you like them? Can't show you what they are for at the moment as it will spoil the surprise wouldn't it?

Here's another gift...for a special little girl...(and we've got an admirer.. :-) )

The next few days will be 'frantic-baking' days for me...

Check back after Christmas where these gifts will be 'revealed'...

Till then, blessed Christmas!

Serena

THE DMC Stranded Cotton

Hi there,

How many of you ladies remember doing cross-stitch in primary school for 'Art' lesson (especially if you were in an all-girls' school like me)? If you raised your hand and said "Me!", then you would surely remember these:

Now DMC was THE brand that all of us used and even my mother knows it. One can understand why...Look at it's beautiful colours!

In trying to compress it into one image, I've lost image quality. For a more accurate look at the colours, you can obtain a beautiful pdf colour chart at the DMC website.

The aunty at a local craft store gave me an incredulous look when I told her I was going to crochet with these. Firstly, she said "Too expensive". Secondly, it's 6-stranded... "very difficult". BUT of course I went ahead and loved the results!



Those of you who are more eagle-eyed would have realised that I used one of these on my daughter's backpack.

How would you like to use it? Would you like to choose your own colours? Let me know!
[For suggested options, please click the 'buy' tab above.]

Serena

The Travelling Crochet

Hi there!

I was on a short vacation with my family last week and it's great to be back.

We took a drive up north to Desaru and Kuala Lumpur. It was our first time at Desaru and we stayed at the Lotus Desaru Beach Resort. The kids loved its water park and spent a whole afternoon there. 

My 2 'pencil-toting' kids at the water park. 

As a mum whose kids who are old enough to roam the water park without parent-in-tow...I was left to do my own thing...so...yes...I brought along my crochet! That's the great thing about this hobby...you can bring it ANYWHERE.. : ).

That's the their new SPA in the background...which I didn't try as it didn't look too inviting...
The project in the photo is probably the largest item I've attempted so far....I can't wait for it's completion...I'm sure you can't too....

Till then, hope you are having a great holiday catching up on all the things you've wanted to do...

Serena

A New Beginning

Gather bits and pieces of pretty things in your favourite colours, move them around slowly and put them together in a way that is pleasing to your eye.
And you get... a new perspective, a fresh start.
A little like putting together the puzzle of life don't you think...?

This one's special delivery. How's your 2012 looking?

Sheon

Folded Fabric Flowers

Hi there!

I've recently been fiddling around with folded fabric pieces..yes...I've stumbled upon this amazing Japanese technique of making fabric flowers...

The flowers are commonly called 'Kanzashi' flowers although the word actual refers to the traditional Japanese hair ornaments...

There are many great videos such as here and here...have a look if you're keen to try it yourself!

Okay..I know some of you are thinking: I'm NOT into making the stuff...so what did you come up with?

Crocheted baby headband in 2 different yarn types.
Each flower measure 4.5 cm wide.

Yep...these flowers are one of the sooo.. many possibilities. Of course, there HAS to be some crochet in it...so I crocheted a center instead of the commonly-used button. The material is beautiful white duchess satin.
Ok...so it's pink(previous post on this)...obviously not for my young lady but a sweet darling baby girl.

In fact, I got so carried away that I made more....

Each flower measures 6.5 cm wide.

Each flower measure 4.5 cm wide.

These flowers will be put in the shop. Let me know what YOU would like to do with these flowers. Put them on a hair-clip, headband, hair-tie...as a brooch....

I also managed to make something for MYSELF. After all this while, I've been making stuff for other people and this is the FIRST thing I've been able to keep for myself.



Nope..it's not for sale. Anyway, there's no more of the same fabric. : )

Have a great weekend!
Serena

Engineering and Crochet....

Hi there!

I've finally finished that project for my daughter...and here it is..

When I asked her what type of crochet bag she would like me to make, of ALL.... the bag types, she had to ask for a backpack...(sigh...)
And so began the engineering or construction...of a bagpack from scratch...which involves:

• crochet the bag body, then the top flap, then the handles, then the front pocket, then the side pocket and finally the butterfly....
• sew all the crochet pieces together
• figure out the lining construction process and sew it all together
• hand-sew the lining to the crochet bag (unfortunately can't use machine...)
• not forgetting to put in the drawstring and magnetic closure etc at the appropriate juncture

Here are more pictures of the bagpack:

I put in a base so that it can 'stand' on its own...

the crocheted stretchy side pocket which
can hold a water bottle or a favourite friend...

The interior has a zip pocket, a slot pocket for cellphone and
the board-like base is encased in the same material as the slot pocket.
The drawstring and stopper are in a matching colour.
(oops..the drawstring is obscuring the magnetic closure)

close-up of the front pocket ;
made the base of a contrasting dark colour for stain-resistance

I am pleased with how it's turned out. Probably has taken me 2 weeks of labour spread across 6 months!
Would I attempt this crazy piece of 'engineering' again...? Probably not in a long long while....only for my girl...and she loves it!

Serena

Deck the Halls...

Yes...it's that time of the year again...school's out, familiar tunes in the air AND... sparkly trimmings & ornaments everywhere! So many pretty things, only ONE tree.
What's a girl to do?
Put them on cards of course :)

This 'Merry Christmas' Card was featured in Made With Love's Layout of the Week:  http://www.madewithlove.com.sg/blog/

No cloned packs of 10 for me when it comes to sending love to the special people in my life.
What about you :)?

Sheon

Work in Progress

Hi there,

I've been busy trying to finish up a project for my daughter -- one that was actually started in April! It is probably the most ambitious piece of crochet 'engineering' I've attempted... and one that got interrupted by lots of other stuff..

Now that there's a lull period amidst the hustle and bustle of work .....it's time to finish it up. Shan't tell you exactly what it is yet except that it's a bag-like thing....
but here's a picture with a crochet tip I've gathered from my crochet 'adventures':

I've found that when crocheting a bag in ONE piece, putting a row of slip stitches (on the exterior) between the last row of the base and the first row where the body begins helps to define the base. In the picture, the top section has the slip stitches whereas the bottom section has yet to have the slip stitches.
[Do pardon the 'pink thing' in the foreground...it's a paper clip which I've used as a stitch marker...useful thing I've learnt from Alice aka 'futuregirl'. She also has a great tutorial on a lovely bag : "The Starling Handbag" -- an excellent example of a bag where the base and body are made in ONE piece. Thanks Alice!]

Enjoy!

Serena 

A Tale of Two 'Elasticities'

Hi again!

It's so encouraging to realise that some of you who are reading this might be half-way across the world... :)

On one of my usual forays to Chinatown few weeks ago, I came across a pretty pink elastic that was so soft, yet had just the right stretch without being too tight...(perhaps some of you might be thinking: "Elastic??'...). Yep...elastic...but this is pretty elastic, not boring white and stiff ones that we usually use in our gathered pyjamas pants...

As you can see, even mama kangaroo agrees that the pink one is nicer..

I bought up all the stock that 'aunty' had left in her shop....

Now the first thing that came into my mind when I saw it was: "BABY".

Here's what I used that pretty soft, pink elastic for:

Each band has a length of 14" and stretches to 17". The elastic is double-stitched at the joint. The crocheted flower and beads/button are all sewn to the band and positioned such that there is a flat seam on the side which rests on baby's head.

It's such a pity my princess is too 'overgrown' to model these headbands....can't wait to see them on a cute little princess...

I enjoyed making them so much that I made 6!

An alternative headband would be a completely crocheted one. The ribbed stitching [crochet tip: achieve this by using just the back loops only] give good elasticity to the band without being overly tight -- important for baby! As usual, I like the idea of having options, so these have 'changeable flowers'.

Each band comes with 6 flowers in 2 sizes.

Hope you like them!

Serena

Crochet Cover for Snap Clips

Since my princess was a little girl, I have bought countless snap-clips for her. They are probably the easiest to use on a little girl, especially for one who did not have much hair as a toddler.

As she grew older, she also developed a preference for them as she found them much easier to use than crocodile clips. With the snap-clips, she could pick her own clips and 'dress herself'.

Snap-clips were the first type of hair-clips I attempted to put a 'crochet' spin on. Deciding the embellishments such as flowers, butterflies etc was EASY...but ...making a cover for it....Hmmm

Of course I could have easily glued/sewn to pieces of triangular felt pieces together..but NO...this stubborn crochet-crazy mule decided she should CROCHET a cover for it.

Since much time has been spent figuring out how to make a crochet cover for snap-clips, I thought I would share some general guidelines for making your own.

For the example shown in the photos, I used the DMC cotton embroidery floss (all 6 strands of it) with a 1.25 mm crochet hook. I find that it gives a nice 'thickness' to the cover and love all the colours that DMC have. Crochet thread size 20 is also nice.

Hope you find it useful!

Fabric Stash

Have a small piece (too small to make clothing, etc) of fabric you love?
How about that 'newish' blouse or skirt which you can no longer wear but whose fabric you love?

You can turn these fabric pieces into a flower brooch for jazzing up that plain shirt, cloth tote or even your curtains!

There are many GREAT tutorials/videos out there on how to do this... here's one of my favourites...

It was these flowers that came to mind when I looked at the lovely small pieces of fabric in my stash..and here's the result:

Each flower measures about 8-9 cm across.
The flowers have been given a crocheted center and some even have beaded embellishments. (All of which are sewn on, not GLUED...of which I have a strange adversion to...)
The flower has been secured with a velvet/corduroy backing to which a brooch pin has been sewn on:

Different fabrics give different looks:

striped organza

satin

rich velvet

(not sure what material this is...can anyone help? )