Magnolia Skirt and Hemlock Top - Pattern Testing for Elegance & Elephants

I was honored to be selected as one of the testers for the talented Heidi from Elegance & Elephants . I have been a long time E&E patterns admirer and I have purchased many of her patterns such as the Bohemian Babydoll and Bubble Pocket Top and Shorts, major love!

E&E is coming up with her new fall lines this week, the first in the line is the Magnolia Skirt and Hemlock Top. The skirt is a cute 6 panel swing style skirt which can be made in both woven and knit fabrics.

The Hemlock Top is a knit top that comes with short and long sleeves options with a cute flutter details on the shoulder. I used a heavier knit fabric here that I purchased with making leggings for my girls in mind. I personally recommend a lighter weight knit fabric for the Hemlock Top so that the flutter detail would ruffle nicely.

I made size 7 for my active girl Hanan and the fit of the pattern is spot on. I absolutely love these patterns!

And that Joel Dewberry print I used for the skirt is just amazing! I cut a heart shape and machine appliqued to the shirt for added detail.

Don't forget to grab the fall lines by E&E releasing this week. For a preview of the patterns you can also look at the lookbook that Heidi have prepared here : http://www.eleganceandelephants.com/2014/08/e-e-patterns-fall-lookbook.html

I have another dress from her line that I tested. Will blog about it in my next post, till then, have a wonderful day! :)

Emerson Skirt for Emma

I made this maxi length skirt for Emma, my dearest Idamurni's niece. It's a size 7, but I cut a longer size 10 length because Ida wanted it to be a long flowy, maxi length skirt. I really hope Emma likes it :)

I have sewn many skirts before but I truly enjoyed the simplicity and sweet modesty of this long skirt. I made it using the Emerson skirt pattern by Marie Madeline Studio, pattern pics as below :

I absolutely love this pattern. Easy peasy and comes in 3 different styles - pleated, gathered and flared. I chose the flared style for Emma since I've always wanted to sew circular skirt before.

I learned from this pattern that circular style uses more of the regular 44/45 inches wide fabric. The flared shape of the pattern would extend beyond the folded edge. For this pattern, up to size 7 is fine but if you're sewing a larger size you might need double the amount of fabric. All the other styles would use less fabric as the patterns are mere rectangles. Either ways, I'm pretty satisfied with the results and already planning to sew another one for my older girl Aisha who loves to wear modest clothing :)

On the home front, I finished my back-to-back mid-term exams and the stress of it all is taking a toll on my body. I caught the flu bug and spent most of my free time lulled into flu-meds induced sleep. I hope this won't go on for long coz next week will be the start of another round of presentations-paper submissions-quizzes.

Hope you have a wonderful, productive day ladies, bye! :)

New Skirt & A Note from My Babies

Hello friends! :)

This is almost random - I have Business Research Method exam tomorrow morning. The fact that I am writing and posting this now is a clear indicator how stressed out I am. Classic in-denial, escapism mode for momma lol!

Oh well...this place makes me happy and the pictures sooth my messy brain, I'll take whatever form of pacifier I could get right now...

This is a skirt I sewed for my neighbor's lil birthday girl last week, a present for her Miss Rania, 2 years old. Am calling it the Hop Scotch Skirt. I love the ruffle and whole lots of possible combos for this skirt. I will be offering this for custom order in the shop by end of December :)

And that note I mentioned in the title? Well, I was rummaging through my half-yards drawer last night when I found a folded paper stashed away long ago. It was a sweet Mother's Day message from my babies...it is Aisha's drawing and writing...I thought I'd snap a photo of it and post it on this blog coz this mama is good at losing things lol!

Off to the library now and face reality - time to hit the books! Till later beautiful ones, have a great week!! *hugs*

Time To Take A Break

Hello lovelies! Phewww...it's been a while...I miss this space :)

I've been hanging around on Lovemelots Facebook page a lot lately. Lots of promo and getting orders for the upcoming Raya (Eid) together as well as sewing up a storm for the current orders. You know Malaysians are real hardcore Facebook users right? Read about it here http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/13/nation/7212273&sec=nation . I'm sure Mark Zuckerberg loves us so much :D

I thank all of you for your wonderful and kind support as well as total understanding of my capabilities and its limitations. Keeping it real here, you ladies are wonderful and I feel such an honor to be given the opportunity and trust to dress the little princesses in your life. Now that I am at a juncture of my life where we are making the hard decision of "might" not having another baby, it's a personal joy for me to be able to sew dresses for your little darlings...I stressed on the word "might" there coz I know myself very, very well...I could change my mind in the next 6 months if I happen to see a wiggly lil baby that strikes the right cord with her cutie coo lol....

So now time to take a few weeks break as another whirlwind round of exams, presentations and term papers coming my way. I am still taking orders for Raya slots and fabrics are selling as usual through the shop.

I will return very soon after my finals, looking forward to a wonderful 3 months long break!! Woot woot to that and lots of sewing!! Before I go, here's a wall of some of the current creations by yours truly. THANK YOU and stay gorgeous!!

Bubble Skirt and A Pause

Hello lovelies, how are you today? Beautiful as always I hope :)

I can't get any sewing done this week as I have an upcoming Marketing Management mid-term exam this Thursday. The worst thing is, earlier on Tuesday, I have to present our (virtual) company's business plan to potential investors for funding. Oh, did I mention that I have already setup a business to run in my experiential business training? It's a trading business, we're running it in a group. I was elected CEO and now having a tough time preparing all the financial forecasts! But I am learning, and I could feel myself absorbing everything like a hungry sponge. I am thriving on pure adrenaline here, bring it on!

Ok, back to sewing. I mentioned in previous post I made a skirt for Hanan, which was weeks ago. Well, it's a design I've wanted to try for quite sometime and when my girls begged for skirts I took time out to sew a quick one for the little miss. It's a bubble skirt! The fabric is an arty Bird on Limb from Bari J's Art Journal collection. Super beautiful print, and I have this thing for prints that looks like painting. The pattern is from Nat & Jenny on etsy. I have one caution if you are attempting anything bubbly soon, pay attention to the fabric print direction! You don't want to learn the hard way like I did, had to rip some major seams there when I realized the print went upside down lol...

This bubble skirt has a dropped yoke, so it falls a little below the knees and I think it's so cute on a toddler. Lil Hanan was of course very happy, been wearing this skirt every other day now. It's heartwarming to see my little girl asking for mommy made clothing to wear every time after her bath. I'm one happy momma (and a busy one too lol).

So, I will get back to serious studying business now.  Already scheduled to continue sewing after the exam as I am down to a few last custom orders for the year. Thank you for reading friends, have a crafty, happy weekend! *hugs*

Pleated Skirt for Aisha

In between sewing custom order dresses for my customers, I took a break, like, for 1-2 hours to sew up something simple for my girls. If I don't do that, they keep pestering me with their requests, I could go crazy! So some skirts would pacify them...for awhile lol

Just a simple pleated, cheerleader style skirt for my sweet Aisha. She wanted one to match the hat I made her. The result looks a bit stiffy coz I did not cut the contrasting print and sew rectangles like what Maya prescribed in her simple instruction for making this skirt. I just simply top stitch the polkadot print on top of a long rectangle of the main print. It works the same but naturally mine is bulkier.

Oh well...it doesn't really matter when the girls are this happy, right? 

Hanan took one look at her big sis's new skirt and immediately ask about her similar skirt I made before. I blogged about it here. Hers is in denim and so cute for this style of skirt. I made Hanan a new skirt too last week but that will be for the next blog post.

I also managed to finish these camera strap covers ordered by Azah months ago. Now that my good friend Maya is back sewing and listing some camera strap covers in the shop, I am temporarily closing orders for these. 

I am so happy Maya is back, we have this unsaid pact that if one of us is unable to sew (due to work demands etc etc) at least we can pass on customer queries to another one of us who is sewing. So, you see, even though we're operating a separate business, with our own separate labels, we are sewing similar stuff. But instead of competing with each other, and be all sour, we turned this into a cooperation thingy, which is healthy. I remember what Maya once said to me, there's no point hoarding the orders, we are so small (one woman operations), it's not like we are able to sew up all the orders on our own if we get say, hundreds of them! Let's share and help each other. So true Mai, I am so lucky to have a level headed, mature sewing friend like you *hugs*

Last but not least, I've drawn up some fun plans for this blog based on your response in the previous post. Thank you so much for the insight, at least I have an idea what my audience is looking for. And BIG hugs to you who are keeping me company on this blog. Will blog about what I have planned soon. Stay tuned!

Sew Along with Maya - Pleated Skirt

So sorry I didn't blog much lately, it's been a week since my last post. Real life has completely taken over. Sewing wise, I spent what little time I have to finish custom orders, and yet a few more to go.

I managed to sneak in some fun ME sewing this weekend though. A sewalong hosted by my good friend Maya at her blog.

It's a pleated skirt sewalong. So cute, I love that box pleats technique allows for many fun possibilities when choosing fabric combos. And Maya herself is churning out skirt after skirt, I can hardly keep up. Well, I don't wanna be left out in a sewalong this cute, I made one for Hanan :D

The material is Denim. Yup, my first time working with denim, what a pleasure! I paired it with a plaid print cotton from the Meadowsweet collection by Sandi Henderson. Somehow this type of skirts always remind me of plaids. And have you seen Meadowsweet prints up close?? You'll swoon, I swear!! So pretty and the colors are just so sweet!! Perfect for dresses.

(pssst...Malaysian friends can order thru my shop preorder :D)

There are 8 pleats in this skirt, phewwww! Maya has a simple tutorial in her blog if you're interested to make one. It's in Bahasa, but what's important is the measurement :)

Have you been sewing a lot?

I'm doing a lot of thinking lately, reassessing life and my priorities. And my parents had a pet talk with me too. Lots of reflections to do. I'm gonna take some time for myself this week, take things easy.

Btw, I'm still destashing like crazy in my shop. And I will be listing some vintage sewing patterns too, so good news for fellow Malaysian sewists (I have tonnes of those in my stash). And...ermm...before listing, I'll giveaway a few to my loyal readers including International, yeay!! Stay tuned! :)

Dance With Me Skirt and Malacca Day Trip

It is the school holiday and we owe Aisha a trip as we've planned so many times but unable to go due to work commitments. So hubby and me took 2 days off work to spend some quality time with the girls. Had to as hubby gotta work this weekend, it's now or never *sigh*

Yesterday we went to the historic Malacca. And I managed to whip up a skirt for Hanan an hour before the trip. I call it Dance With Me Skirt as the fabric, gorgeous Kayla by Jennifer Paganelli is from a collection of the same name! And talked about playing with new serger, how about this :

NICE...... :D

Presenting the little miss in her new skirt....I think it's fun and you cannot go wrong with pretty prints like that. I still have these fabrics for 1-2 more small size skirts, email me if you're interested ya?

And these photos are just for fun as I love how tourist-y they look hahaha...

We were at Taman Mini Malaysia & Mini ASEAN. So funny how in every house, hubby would use the props to act out a scene for the photos. Yes, that hunk is taken *blush* :D

They were so in awe with the props and Aisha actually made some notes for her history lessons :) It was scorching hot when we were in the park. But later as we moved into the city to see A'Famosa, it rained cats and dogs. We were only able to sit in the car watching from far as hubby told Aisha the history of the place.

I love Hanan's could-not-be-bothered-with-mommy-taking pictures-blah look....LOL

Day trip well spent, in happy mode! :)

Simple Hot Weather Sewing

I sewed these for little miss Hanan because in the current weather, she needs more light clothing. It's so hot nowadays, being an active toddler, she's like sweating ALL the time! I'm praying that she stays healthy, keep feeding her bottles of water to keep her cool.

I used a tutorial for the top from here. I LOVE it! So easy and it looks really cute with the ruffle sleeves. I used 1 inch elastic for the chest and 1/4" for the sleeves. I used Dana's 2T measurement for Hanan's top.

The fabric is Japanese cotton for the top and Anna Maria Horner's polka dot for the skirt.

The best thing is, the skirt, well I actually cut that to make a second top. But it was late at night and I was really too lazy to sew the ruffle sleeves. So after adding the elastic, I simply hemmed the piece and turned it into a skirt! It's the perfect size I didn't change anything.

It's so difficult to get good photos of this hyper girl. Here she is actually showing off her head band, which she ran to put on the minute she saw me with the camera lol....

Lazy Days Skirt 2

I made another pair of Lazy Days Skirts for the girls before going to the mall for some grocery shopping. This time I used printed fabric along the brown and pink theme.

Hanan gets the fun Wendy Slotboom. I only have 1 yard of the fabric so I cut it in half for the skirt and have half a yard left for other projects. But, I noticed after sewing that the skirt is a bit long on Hanan. There goes my measuring skill again (or obviously the lack of it lol!).

Aisha chose the fabric herself. She wanted the Matryoshka Russian Dolls print by Heather Ross. The thing is this print is so precious to me. It's cute and whimsical and I've had it in my stash for a long time, I just couldn't bear cutting it.

But for the love of my daughter, I let her have it. Figured, the whole purpose of me purchasing cute fabrics in the first place is to sew something out of it! I still have around a quarter yard left which is plenty. Aisha's so smitten with the dolls and she just love the skirt.

Wishing you a creative weekend, have a great one!

Stripes & Dots Are Best Friends!

The little girl in me loves stripes and dots. They are cute and fun and meant for each other.

I started with the Easy Peasy skirts for both my girls. Then decided that an easy top for Hanan is a must. The pattern is from newly arrived, latest pattern called NINA by Modkid designer, Patty Young. I love it!

Finished all sewing on time before going for a cook out session at my friend's house in Bandar Utama. The girls had fun and it was a breeze getting Hanan to wear her outfit as she saw her big sis Aisha gets a similar skirt. Aisha wanted the long sleeve top to wear with jeans, so that would be a project on another weekend.

Hanan's top turned out so cute! The pattern called for rolled hem on the flounce. Since I don't have a serger and really hate narrow hemming, I decided to add a pretty pink ruffled lace.

Below is a close up of the ruffled lace detail I added to the flounce. Please ignore the naughty, milk stained tongue sticking out there LOL.

More projects to come, till then, happy weekend lovely peeps!

Lazy Days Skirts for the Little Ladies

Another skirt project...Oh so simple, so easy!
Aptly named Lazy Days Skirt, free instructions here. I actually whipped up two of these in less than 40 minutes!
I love the simplicity and clever use of fabric selvedges and ribbons. Highly recommended for beginners and ermm...when you need a quick sewing fix.



I used plain slubby cottons in soft pistacchio green for Aisha and soft taupe for Hanan. This project is perfect as I've had those lovely ribbons for so long waiting to be put to good use.

And now, the Lazy Days skirts in action!




Some cake for breaking of fast today perhaps? ;)