Banksia Play Dress by Fresh Stitch Patterns!

Hello my lovelies!

I wanna show you this new pattern I had the honor to test for, by a fabulous new Aussie designer, Kylie from Fresh Stitch Patterns!

The pattern is called Banksia Play Dress and today it is released with a massive discount!

I tested size 7 for my lil Hanan and sewed View A, dress option of the pattern. This pattern comes with so many variations, it is a true value for money as you can choose many options to create a dress or tunic that is uniquely yours!

Again we chose the Lake Club for our photography location, we had so much fun!

We love the carefree feel of this dress. And, bonus, it is great for layering too! Just add t-shirt underneath and leggings for tunic legth Banksia, and your girl is good to go :)

Just to show you the majestic buildings we have here in Putrajaya :D

Go get the Banksia now!

Ponderosa Dress - Pattern Testing for Elegance and Elephants

As mentioned in the previous post, I tested the 3rd pattern in the E&E Fall line called the Ponderosa Dress.

This dress is SO gorgeous and unique and surprisingly easy to make! I am so in love with the swingy outer bodice and the soft twirl of the skirt. It's oh so elegant and feminine and lil Hanan love it too!

This is also a knit dress pattern. There are two layers of bodice so I highly recommend a thinner knit at least for the bodice. 

The girl was soooo happy, she didn't want to take the dress off! Another score for mummy!

Don't forget to grab the patterns when E&E releases their fall patterns this week, I highly recommend her patterns, especially this Ponderosa Dress, you will not be disappointed! 

You can also view the lookbook here http://www.eleganceandelephants.com/2014/08/e-e-patterns-fall-lookbook.htmlhttp://www.eleganceandelephants.com/2014/08/e-e-patterns-fall-lookbook.html

The Perfect Party Dress Transformed As Perfect Maxi Dress! - A Tie Dye Diva Pattern Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to new hoppers! :)

I feel very honored when Kathy from Handmade Dress Heaven invited me to join this wonderful blog hop that she is hosting. We are to sew a dress using the Perfect Party Dress pattern by Tie Dye Diva (affiliate link) and we were asked to show variations or modification, big or small of the pattern. Today is the final round and I had so much fun reading other participants entries.

Now, I am a big fan of any pattern designed by Jen, the genius behind Tie Dye Diva (TDD), I have bought almost all of her patterns and have sewn many of them with much success! So I know that the Perfect Party Dress Pattern is indeed a great pattern used as is.

However, my intention during this blog hop is to show you how with a perfect bodice pattern block you can use it to transform the pattern into any dress you like. For instance, a maxi dress!

Yep, I did that plus empire waist and long sleeves! And my little princess is beaming, it was worth the effort :D

I managed to snap a few photos on how I modified the bodice pattern. I made a size 7/8 for my 7 yo girl. Here's how I do it :

Now you have altered front and back patterns. Note the changes I made on the fabrics to cut. I eliminated the lining and sash pieces to turn this into no-sash, empire cut dress :)

For the sleeves, you can actually use any sleeves pattern in your girl size from any of your existing pattern collection. I actually used TDD sleeve pattern from her Chelsea dress! I wanted a bit of a puff on the sleeves so I cut a bit wider on top and gathered as in photos below :

The sleeves were sewn to the lined bodice before the sides of the bodice are sewn. If you have sewn a dress before this is really not difficult at all! :)

To turn this into a maxi I just measured my girl from her chest down and add a 1 inch seam allowance. I did not put a sash. The dress has an invisible zipper closure. It is my favorite go to closure, so easy! There are many tutorials on the web for invisible zipper. I also added a dainty lace trim to pretty it up but still keeping everything else simple.

We went by the lake to take photos. My princess had her moments of tantrums (she hates mummy giving her "princess pose" orders lol)...but I kept telling her how pretty and poised a princess she is so I managed to snap some good ones I guess.

I love the background here...just like a real castle lol

Princess pose done right haha

Princess in her garden...

By the beautiful lake...

Of all the photos this is the one that I love most. My little princess in her perfect maxi dress!

I hope you can try and transform a dress from the Perfect Party Dress pattern too! You can be your own designer with this pattern. Try your design on a muslin first if you need to see if it works. I did! I tested the pattern on a muslin bodice and sleeves before I cut into my good fabric to test the fit. Trust me, you'd have so much fun! :)

Thank you for reading and don't forget to visit everyone's blogs in the blog hop!

The Sunki Dress for Aisha

I rarely get to sew anything for my sweet Aisha...now that she is 12, she is understandably picky about what she'd like to wear. Luckily when I showed her this pattern few months back she said yes, so I went to work :)

I used the Sunki Dress pattern by Figgy. This pattern only goes up to size 9 and that is how skinny my girl is. It fits her just nice and yes she wore it as tunic with her favourite leggings or skinny jeans.

The pattern itself is fabulous! It's definitely NOT for beginners but using this pattern makes me feel like a real fashion designer lol. It's so modern and hip and fit for the runway. Well maybe not in the print that I made but the design itself - with side pockets, pleated sleeves, overlapped shoulders & facings - indeed is different and fashion forward.

The construction was a challenge but the pattern does come with excellent instructions. I love this design so much I wish Figgy would come up with larger size range for tweens. I still want to sew for my big girl and finding a good pattern that she approves of gets more and more difficult.

All in all, a great pattern and definitely a gratifying sewing project! :)

The Avita Dress - Pattern Testing

I had such a blast sewing this dress!!!

When Alviana of Sewn By Alviana emailed me to accept my application to become one of her pattern tester, I was beyond delighted! I was so proud to be a part of our own Malaysian girl making it in the exciting world of pattern designs! Her pattern shop Popolok Design features some very innovative designs, a breath of fresh air among the many peasants & knots pdfs on Etsy.

The pattern itself is easy to sew, you'll have fun sewing it! I learn a lot from this pattern too & I just love the sweet design.

Some snapshots of my little princess in her Avita. You could see just how happy she is, just in love with this dress. She even asked me to make the next one in Purple because the dress looks like what Rapunzel wears. Ermm, ok dear...whatever you say m'am... :D

The Butterfly Dress

Hi there! How's life? I hope yours are not as miserable as mine....I am now going through a really crazy, topsy turvy adjustment phase of my life as a full time working mom. It's not easy, it's rough and very heavy on the heart as I mourn the fact that I'm leaving my kids for the most part of my days....story of my life, hoping that one day it will change for the better...

To brighten up, here's a Butterfly Dress I sewed for my lil Hanan few months back. The pattern is from Tie Dye Diva and it turned out so cute!

I usually limited my sewing to a combo of only 2 fabrics because I somehow feel that more than that would make the dress looks busy. But for this pattern, I went outside my comfort zone and used 3 fabrics. I actually really love it! I must do this more...The sewing part is mostly easy but I find the pattern surprisingly used up a lot of fabric. 

I am enjoying her happy face while it lasts...the saddest thing is my baby girl is turning 5 soon and she is now at that horrible stage where she just refused to wear dresses!!! I almost cried every time after her bath & I suggested a dress to wear & she would just say an outright NO! Oh gosh, I'm crushed...lol!

My lil angel is growing up way to fast...I'm missing the sight and sound of a baby in the house...we've been trying to get pregnant for more than a year now but I guess it's not written in the books for us...yet, I hope...

That's all for now my friends, thank you for dropping by and have a beautiful day! :)

Sweet Summer Baby Dress for My Niece

Last week I uploaded this dress picture on my Facebook page (on mannequin) and many fell in love with the black and white theme. My sister in law wanted her daughter to wear this theme for her birthday celebration and I made a Sweet Summer Baby Dress for my niece Widad.

The dress was born from many customer requests in baby size. This is the first time I play around with patterns (I usually sew using purchased sewing pattern and stick to it with minimal changes). I think I am now more confident on altering existing patterns to achieve a design I have in mind. But not grading the pattern to make bigger or smaller sizes. That, I have yet to find a good formula to do it and honestly I am so afraid of messing up the formula/sizing I simply stick to the sizes available in the sewing pattern.

My niece wore the dress on her birthday. We had a small family celebration at my parents in law's place before we returned to Putrajaya. It was a simple yet happy party with the neighborhood kids joining and enjoying the food....it was a real good family time, our way :)

I am happy to finally able to snap some photos of the dress modeled. Now that my youngest is almost 5, I find myself without a model for baby sizes...here's my niece on the phone with her paternal grandma, asking for a present! :)

The two cousins are so close, practically bff......I love this photo taken by hubby of them chewing on apples...those expressions! LOL!

Flower Girl Dresses - Round 2

It's time for another wedding in the family, thus another round of flower girl dresses sewing for me. My beloved sister in law, Cik Chik to the nieces, wedding reception was on the 10th of March 2012. Like before it was held at my parents in law's place in Sabak, Kelantan.

This time around, I used lace overlay on satin lining. I fell in love with this lace fabric during my recent trip to Bandung, Indonesia and because it was SO cheap overthere (like 3 times cheaper than in Malaysia), I went crazy and bought 7.5 meters of dusty pink lace for the wedding. I made 2 dresses for my lil Hanan and my niece Widad, while the rest I sent to a seamstress to make my Aisha a modern baju kurung....With my crazy workload, I could only sew the dresses a day before our trip back east, had to stay up till 4 am to finish both dresses....but despite the near-breakdown, I think they didn't turn out too bad... :)

The lace itself is not difficult to work with, the biggest challenge is mounting lace to the slippery satin lining....my solution to that, albeit an imperfect one, is to use interfacing...yep, I interfaced almost all seams on the bodice lining to stabilize the fabric. I made 4 covered buttons for the back closure, I love those the most :)

Here are the girls waiting for the groom with their aunt, Cik Yah who's now 7 months pregnant (yeay another baby in the family!!)....Aisha, going to be 12 in December, no longer wants to be a flower girl so she helped with handing out door gifts to the guests :)

Below I made a story board to show you how a simple wedding reception is in Malaysia, or at least in our family :) I love how colorful everything is....this is when the groom and his entourage arrived, received by my father in law...and later the bride (my sis in law) holding the flower girls' hands went to meet her groom halfway...after kissing her husband's hands, they'd walk together to the house to meet the family and friends....it was lovely..I just love weddings! :D

The flower girls on duty....my niece is just 2 years old, yet we are in awe of her poise and eagerness! She did not fuss or cry, carried out her duty wonderfully in the hot weather...so cute! My lil Hanan was of course ever ready to be a princess lol....We tried to get the girls to walk in sync, but in all that heat & so many people watching it's understandable that they get a little confused :)

I just love the family time we had together...the girls had so much fun at their grandparents home...a wonderful family get together...here's the four of us...with me and hubby in the picture...

Thank you for reading about our special moments friends, have a lovely day! :)

Smiles,
Zura

Pattern Giveaway Winners!

Hello lovelies! Forgive me for the delay in announcing the winners, been busy sewing! :D

Btw, I pick random winners through Random.org, the lucky ones are #2 - Joanandkevin & #8 - Mila!

Congratulations to the winners, Wong the pattern designer will contact you via email and deliver your pattern of choice. Thank you to all that have participated!

Before I go, here's a photo of my favorite dress of the moment. I made this for pretty girl Mya, a size 5. It's supposed to have ruffled sleeves but somehow I forgot to sew it before I finish the seams with bias tape. I still think it's cute though and simply love that fans/scales print :)

Pattern Review : Macy Dress and pdf Sewing Pattern Giveaway!

As promised in the previous post, I'm back with another pattern review from Petite Kids Boutique and this time I  sewed the Macy Dress!

When choosing the pattern I went straight to a pattern that includes a zipper option as I really, really want to learn the various ways of installing one. I tell you, after sewing hundreds of buttonholes for custom orders I am so sick of it I desperately need a different closure technique! Now, don't get me wrong, buttons are cute! But I personally find zipper easier to use when dressing the kiddos. If only the sewing of one is not as scary!

The construction of this dress is pretty straightforward, easy peasy. I sewed size 5T, a nice loose fitting, drop waist dress great for the active girl.

If you're scared of zipper, use the button option. I love it when pattern designers clearly show me step-by-step for both options. The zipper option for the Macy dress is using invisible (concealed) zipper and Wong (the designer) shows you how to do it when the dress is fully lined. I learned SO much from this pattern!! I feel like a "real" seamstress now that I know how to insert invisible zipper that is neatly sandwiched between the main and lining fabric, so cool!

Last weekend, the big family went to Port Dickson for a short getaway on the sandy beaches! It was a blast especially for the kids. I took the opportunity to take some photos of the lil model on the beach. 5 minutes was all I have before she screamed for her swimsuit lol!

All in all, as previously confirmed, Petite Kids sewing patterns are indeed easy to use and the designer herself is very friendly and helpful. I had fun sewing the Ceci Shorts and the Macy Dress, thank you so much Wong! :)

The discount code in my previous post is still valid until 15 February 2012. And now Wong has generously offered to giveaway TWO pdf sewing patterns from her shop especially for my readers, yeay!

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is to visit Petite Kids Boutique etsy shop here, come back and leave a comment below, stating which pattern is your favorite. Please also leave your email address in the comment so that the pattern could be sent to you. I will choose 2 winners randomly on Sunday, 12th February 2012. Good luck!!

KCWC - A Sweet Dress For The Lil Mam

Ok...I confess. I didn't formally signed up for the challenge simply because I know me! I know how I could end up with just another unfinished project for my girls and later feels really bad about it....

But I went through with this one and am so proud of myself haha....The main push factor?? Our neighbor is having their girl's 2nd birthday party - so this lil mam wanted a new dress and she actually picked the fabrics herself!! So I complied & stayed up late to finish it. And since KCWC is still on, I decided to enter it there too :)

I wanted to sew something different & browsed through my pattern stash for something modern yet sweet for a birthday party. I decided on this pretty pattern by Lily Bird Studio. I love all her designs, and it was wonderful to know that the designer, Cecilia, once lived here in Malaysia! She has been very helpful whenever I need help regarding the pattern. 

I made the dress one size bigger for Hanan (5T) so that it would have a longer wear-time. As mentioned in my previous post, I LOVE the pleating detail of this dress. Pleating adds to a sophisticated look to the dress. All in all, great design, very satisfied with the outcome!

The lil mam could not agree more, as you can see...lol!

Have a beautiful week ahead my friends! *hugs*

Too School For Cool

You know that one line in Pink's song - Raise Your Glass? I love it...so very anti-mainstream, very appealing to me. That's how I feel rite now. Now that school is back, I am so into it I found other endeavors not as interesting, including - oh no - sewing!

You see, this semester, I'm well towards the end of my MBA. I'm in the 4th Semester, one more to go for my project paper & I'm done. The courses I'm taking this time around are all SO challenging + advanced in its rigor - that I am practically living on my nerves - all the time. Worse still, it all begins way too early! Just the 4th week of the semester I already have 2 major presentations, 2 journal articles review + 1 strategic marketing plan to do.

Party dress - pattern credit to Olabelhe :)

Naturally, sewing is on the back burner. I found the current courses I'm taking SO interesting - I basically feel guilty whenever I'm sewing instead of reading! 

This is new to me. But credit has to go to the professors. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to learn from some of the finest academics in our country this semester. Especially in a course called Current Issues in International Business. I learned world history, economics, politics, current happenings & the impact on businesses as well as our future generation. Nothing that comes from a standard textbook. It inspires me to think hard, makes me aware of where our country is going while at the same time I fear for my children's future as the world gets deeper in turmoil. Other than that, I have new found interest in economics as I learn a lot from my International Trade class.

More pictures on my Facebook page :)

BUT, I did manage to finish a few overdue orders, mostly just in time before an event or wedding a customer need them for. I do still find sewing comforting & de-stress-ing (??)...but there is also that eagerness in me to read more about world history & economics & fall of empires & financial/debt crisis in the US & Eurozone & the struggle of the Palestinians - that I'm constantly on flight mode - wanting to get away from the sewing machine.

That's it for today. As Pink would say in that song - why so serious???.....Lol!