Mama I Love You - Satin Pillowcase for Mother's Day

Last night's annual Mother's Day dinner for the family was a blast!

14 of us, noisy as usual, kissing and hugging each other, chit chatting non stop with the children happily playing and running around while the moms tried hard to get a few spoonfuls of food into them. We were seated outside in the open space, all the better, as when we're there, there's always a big risk of spills and spats LOL

You see, growing up, I was difficult. I was bright, performed well in school and always looking for ways to get the attention and praises from my parents (errmmm...perhaps I'm still like this?? :P).

But I was quite a rebel, and as any teenage girl, full of angst, tantrums and quite mischievous sometimes. Now that I am a mother, oh boy, how I pity my mom for what she had to put up with. All the dramas of me, she really ought to receive a medal for the toughest, strongest, kindest most patient mom in the world!!

I admit I was more of a daddy's girl. But, my sister and me, both got really close to our mother once we become mothers. It makes our relationship even more special now. So I guess, growing up, when mom said "You'll know what I mean when you have your own children on day!!" it actually came true (despite me rolling my eyes every time she said that of course hehe).

As you can see I sewed a Satin Pillowcase as a Mother's Day gift for my mom. I saw the tutorial here at Sew4Home website and I knew I had to try it. I used a cream satin and the trim is a beautiful Antler Damask print by Joel Dewberry from his Deer Valley Collection. It's a bit too big for my pillow here I hope mom has one that that fits well.

Working with satin is quite a challenge! So slippery and it easily snag and pull at the slightest touch of a pin. The serger really helps with the fraying though. My other only regret is only half the damask print is visible because the trim was double fold. Other than that, I'm loving this project! I only have time to make 1 pillowcase, will sew 1 more if mom wants it :)

The Sew4Home website is fabulous too! You should go there if you're sewing for the home. They offer so many fantastic tutorials using gorgeous modern and fresh designer fabrics. Very inspiring!

oh I also sewed something else for my sister and me! Will blog about that later complete with a tutorial, how about that? Yeay!

Thank you for reading lovely mommas, and have a glorious day! :)

Birdie Shirred Dress

My camera's back so gotta quickly post this Little Birdie Dress I made for Hanan last week. It's clear here the little miss was not happy her picture taken. In fact she was cranky the whole day :P

This is a variation of the basic shirred sundress. I made it using Dana's Tutorial here. I already know how to sew a shirred sundress but I went for the variation as I really wanna be more confident with buttonholes. I chose the hardest (to me) design in her fabulous tute and made the dress using half yard of the birdie fabric and 4" x 44" of the tan colored Kona Cotton.

The buttonholes, well, my machine automatic buttonholer refused to budge on the shirred fabric besides, the button is too large to fit onto the gauge. So I improvised and manually created the buttonholes using tight zig zag stitches. Phewww....I had to practice a few times on scraps and thank God they came out perfect!

Oh I just wish she was as cooperative as she was below, on my dodgy mobile phone camera! She was smiling and posing but the picture came out blurry and I tried hard to edit it, I guess they are just beyond repair.

Lastly, I'm glad my camera is back. While it was away, I of course need to find a distraction and accidentally fell into the embrace of Twitter! Lol, like I don't have enough things to do already. I think many have seen the link on my sidebar. I somehow like the fact that I could just write one or two lines there when I'm not blogging. Let's see how long I'll stay on it :D

Before I end, I'd like to wish Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there. Enjoy the wonderful gift of motherhood, it truly is priceless...

Till later, have a great weekend peeps! :)

I Miss My Camera!

Yep, my trusty old camera is out with DH for a week....I feel like I lost my best friend, lol

My camera is a vintage Nikon D40, a hand-me-down from my parents, who obviously thought they could operate a DSLR but found out it's just not fun lugging such a huge camera around and having to peer through the lense when the compacts are simply easier to use. Simple, nothing fancy but only the basic features this D40 is, but I love it anyway.

And me, I have this fascination with photography, just not enough motivation to go and formally learn about the kinks of the art. Most of the time, I just go trigger-happy with snapping photos, praying that 1 or 2 shots are good enough for the blog. But I don't worry too much coz there's always the image editing software to help me with the less than perfect photos. I use mostly Photoscape nowadays coz Photoshop is simply taking too much of my time to learn and master. I wonder how did we live before digital photography?

Let's look at a few of my favorite photo-with-a-story images, as I can't show any of the sewing projects I finished during the weekend till my camera comes back....

If you're wondering, this is my finger, wrapped in Ariel after I accidentally pricked myself with a needle. Little Miss Hanan took one look at the blood and ran to rescue mommy like a little ER/trauma specialist. She took her bandage and insisted I wear it lol. I love how the camera captured even the tiniest lint stuck to the bandage.

Another one of my best friend, my lovely lappy! This photo was taken when I was experimenting with my camera, on manual setting. Believe it or not, I only ever use auto coz as I said I haven't learned all about the fabulous use-manual-and-control photography yet. This photo made me want to explore more because I got that beautiful blurred effect without the help of image editing software, yeay!

Same goes with this kitty. I like that it's sharp and focused on her bright eye and the background is nicely blurred. Hanan loves her, she's always around by the bed waiting to be picked up by a little girl.

Here's Aisha, showing her art. My girl here loves drawing and coloring. She's the type who'd prefer to sit in a corner and draw and color for hours instead of watching TV. Lately she's shown fascination with sewing too. I let her experiment with felt craft a little and hand sewing to get her started. This picture is one of those that need rescuing because it was taken at night, indoor with the flash on. Not the best method in digital photography :)


And last but not least, my little angel, Hanan Alia, at 33 months old, captured here on the bottle before her nap. There is some regret that I could not fully breastfeed her as long as I wanted (I managed with Aisha for almost 3 years!). But she's growing up healthy, so that's all that matters to me. Here the image was edited to give it a softer vintage effect as the original was not very sharp but I love the moment it was captured.

I vow to learn more about digital photography as I love the beauty and story it brings to my blog, where my children will come back to again and again as they grow up, and read what mommy has to tell them.

I found a good resource here in her Photography 101 series, perfect for a beginner like me.

I promise more sewing posts coming up, can't wait till my best friend returns!.Till later, lovely peeps, thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! :)