Romantic Book Clutch

About two days before my friend's wedding, I was faced with a dilemma: to buy or to make a clutch bag for the wedding. The first choice will be expensive - about Php 500 at least if I buy from Landmark and I was covetously eying this glittery thing from Kate Spade. If I do DIY, I will be pressed for time and there was no guarantee it will turn out well.

Eventually I decided to go the DIY route, telling myself if it fails I can always buy a ready made one with time to spare. Now the question was - what design should I do?

There are a lot of DIY clutches peppering Pinterest, but one of the most popular is the book clutch. I love the idea because I'm a bookworm myself. Kate Spade also has her version but sadly it's not available here in the Philippines.

Most tutorials suggest using an old hardcover for the project, and I did see one months before at a used bookstore which had this beautiful green and gold cover. I regret now that I didn't buy it then. A part of me cringes at the thought of defacing books, though, so I got an idea of using this bag/diary that I saw in National Bookstore. It's for kids and costs only about a Php 100. It's pretty cute - I actually gave something like this to my goddaughter for her birthday. The bag part is perfect, since it was already a bag shape, with a hidden magnet for closure.

I cut the excess board to get the book shape. It occurred to me later how easier it was if I would have separated the "box" from the cover instead of trying to retain the shape in the first place.

For the cover, I scoured Pinterest and finally came upon this site - the University of Rochester. They have a collection of absolutely beautiful vintage book bindings. I picked one and did some trial and error to get the right size for my book clutch cover. I printed it out and mod-podged it. I do recommend printing a bit larger so you can sort of wrap it with a bit at the back.

For the sides, I found a picture of book textures and did some experimenting with the size on that too. I mod-podged it to the sides so it would look like a real book.

Before I put it all back together again, I put in a black ribbon on both sides for the tie closure. I put some black felt paper (which I already had) to serve as the lining on both the inside of the cover and the box before gluing all the parts back together.

And voila! I had my book clutch for the wedding. I got lots of compliments over it. I personally love it because it was DIY, cheap, unique and most of all - sort of romantic with the cupid on the title and, well, books are kind of a romantic notion now, aren't they? It's all about e-books nowadays.

I flirted with the idea of putting some dimensional glaze over it, but I was afraid it wouldn't dry on time. Still thinking if I should do it, though. Maybe on another clutch.

The artful dabbler,

 Meg

Holiday Handmade Gift #3: Clay Ring Plate

(Not their rings - just used random rings as example)

As I've mentioned before, a friend of mine got married a few days ago. So as a Christmas present, I decided to make her something that she could use for the ceremony as well as for after.

I saw this ring plate in Pinterest and thought it was easy to do so I went for it. I had to look for some air-dry clay because I had no experience with that medium so I didn't want to experiment with oven-bake clay for this one. Most of the stores I went to only had the oven-bake one and the air-dry were out of stock. It was just chance that I went by Hobbes and Landes in Rockwell and found some.

Next I bought the alphabet stamps from Invitation House. There are a lot of stamps on sale everywhere right now, but I wanted this specific style. I used a vintage plate I bought at a second hand store as the mold for the size and an Arizona bottle as a rolling pin. 

It was supposed to be a plain round plate but when I put the clay in a punch bowl to get the hollow curve, the edges slightly folded. I just went with it because it ended up looking like a seashell and since they were going to have their wedding by the beach, I thought it was serendipitous. The ribbon was just something I already had, which was fortunate because I think it went really well and gave a seaside feel.

I had some extra clay left so I made a couple of small plates. Still don't know what to do with them, though.

They used it during their wedding and can be seen on their wedding video, so I'm really glad that I did this project. I still have about half a bar of unused clay that I would love to get my hands on so I'm on the lookout for projects.

Meg

Holiday Homemade Gift #1: Glitter Jars

I've always wanted to give homemade gifts but, well, events happen and you end up buying something overpriced from a store a week (or days!) before. Well, this year... is sort of the same. Most of my gifts are still store-bought, but I did find some time for little projects.

One such project is for my friend who is really into makeup now. I saw this project in Pinterest and thought they were so glam and pretty and perfect for holding her makeup brushes. I had some jars, ribbon, and the mod podge already so all I needed was the glitter.

One note about the glitter... It is a headache to buy glitter during Christmastime. I swear. I don't know if the stores just secreted away the small containers of glitter and only put out the big, more expensive containers so they will sell or glitters are really just on high demand this time. So, note to self: buy glitter before December hits.

Back to the project... I think that I need to use more glitter and less mod podge because I ended up having lots of the mixture dripping down so the jars aren't as covered as I wanted them to.

I love this project not because it's handmade, but it reuses an empty mayo jar. And how many jars do we use up a year? Let's make them all pretty!

I'm still working on something right now so I'll post them once they're finished.

Meg

Jumper Joy

Well, since I'm in a naming mood...

I'm renaming the chambray jump-skirt into Jumper Joy. Hee.

And it totally fits with this little girl's mood. :)

 Meg

The Little Tuckling Dress

I mentioned it a while ago but I made a dress for a little girl back when I first started and it was the first garment that I ever made. I also mentioned that I don't have photo evidence of that, but maybe it was for the best since there were still a lot of flaws in the making of that dress.

However, being the perfectionist, stubborn person that I am, I decided to make another one of that dress - and remembered to take pictures this time.

Ta-da!

You know how sometimes clothing lines have names for specific dresses? Well, the book that I got the pattern from merely called this dress Front Tuck One-Piece (if my dwindling Japanese knowledge is correct). 

Kind of boring, right? I wanted to call it by the name of the little girl, but ultimately decided on: The Little Tuckling Dress.

*groan*

I don't know if I'll change my mind later, but right now - I'm pretty amused. LOL!

So there you have it, The Little Tuckling Dress made by yours truly...

Meg

Birthday Dress

I turned 30 today. 3-0. Yes. The idea has sort of sunk in, but really - there is no difference between who I am today and was yesterday.

I did want to do something special for this "landmark occasion" which was to make my own birthday dress. I had a design in mind and bought the fabric and supplies, but I haven't even started making it yet. I'm not going to reveal what it's going to look like now so you'll just have to wait when I finish it - hopefully before I turn 31.

Segueing for a moment... I'm finished with my beginner's sewing class! *applause, applause* I finished last Tuesday with the last project being a bias-cut dress. Not to be a perfectionist, which some Virgos like myself are reputed to be, but yes - there are still a lot of things I could have made better. It is wearable, as long as you don't notice the sort of uneven bottom and the bunched up zipper. That's why there are sweaters right? ;)

But I did make one dress from my class that I am a little proud of. It was Project 5 and was a lined dress. I fake-cried to my teacher when the seams matched as I sewed it. For the first time! It all lined up!

So since I wasn't able to make my ideal birthday dress, I decided to wear my Project 5 dress today.

My teacher's pattern was a size 6 and I'm (probably) a size 4 so the dress was a little big on me. I used a belt and covered it up with a denim jacket to complete the outfit.

Not too shabby, huh?

Sewing machine = 12,000

Sewing class = 11,000

Zipper = 12

Thread = 25

Fabric = 350

Telling people you made your own birthday dress = Priceless

*Prices are approximations only!

Meg

Chambray Jump-skirt

I had some leftover fabric from one of my sewing class projects and the size was just enough to make another kids dress. I looked through my growing collection of Japanese sewing magazines and decided on, what my limited Japanese knowledge told me, was a jump-skirt.

I've actually finished this a while back, but I only just got the picture of it being worn in Instagram. I wasn't there when it was worn so I couldn't instruct the father how to put it on. Thus...

One thing I was proud of in this project is the buttonhole which I successfully made using my sewing machine! I'm still not confident on making it again, but thankfully on this project I did it right. 

And, yes, I made the bias tape trim! High five! I'm still not sure I sewed it on properly but it's a big improvement from my earlier attempt when I didn't even know what bias meant. Whenever Yeshia (the little girl I gave my first dress to) wears the pink dress I automatically criticize it even though I made it. So many mistakes! I want to get it back from her and repair it but they said it was fine the way it was. So kind.

This project is relatively easy to do except for the top part which I am still not sure I got right. The instructions are in Japanese so I made the best out of understanding the illustrations. I also need to make the straps a little bit shorter and put pockets next time. At the time I gave up on the pockets because I thought it was too much work. But maybe it's okay too because without the pockets, the jump-skirt can be converted to a top when it becomes too small for the kid.

Still learning...

Meg

Skirting the issue

I finally did it! I made a dress!

Unfortunately, you'll just going to have to believe me because I forgot to take a picture of the finished project before I gave it away.

It was just a little girl's dress that I patterned from one of my Japanese sewing books. It was pretty simple and cute and I had a lot of fun doing it. The only thing not fun was the bias trim. I do not know how to attach those things so I just winged it. I'll have to learn that from my instructor when we get to the dress project because as of now, all we've finished are skirts.

I gave the dress to my employees' daughter. They said that the little girl liked it and wouldn't take it off even when she went to take her nap (thus the no picture thing). I haven't seen it on her so I couldn't check the fit. I'll update when I do.

To be fair, I also made another piece of clothing for my other employee's daughter. But since I didn't have enough fabric, I decided to just make a skirt.

The instructions for this skirt I got from Dana Made It. I loved it so much that I'm planning to make a grown up version for myself.

Meg

Little projects

I've been busy the past few weeks so all I had time to do were little projects - mostly scrunchies, headbands and hair ties. It's okay. I still learn a lot doing these things and I get better looking results with each attempt.

Here are some of the finished projects:

Tutorials that I referenced:

Scrunchies - Fabric Scrap Scrunchies from Duni's Studio
Headband - Double Sided Fabric Headband Pattern from Happy Together
Hair Ties - Rolled Rosettes from Happy Together

Meg

Owl print zip pouch

When I bought materials for my sewing classes, one of them was a zipper for the skirt. What I didn't know (and what the shop assistant failed to tell me) was that I was supposed to get the invisible one instead of the regular one. Oh well. At least I now know the difference between the two.

So now I had a regular zipper and nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with it? Nonsense, right?

I knew exactly what to do with it and it was relatively easy for little 'ol beginner me: a zip pouch.

After browsing through Pinterest, I found an easy tutorial from Sew Delicious. There was a beginner's zip pouch but I went for the lined one. Call me ambitious!

Predictably, a few things didn't go well. I think I might have burnt my fabric a little and the zipper and fabric suddenly didn't match up. Thank goodness that I just laugh at my mistakes. Go ahead, laugh with me too.

I will have to try this one again sometime. I plan to make lots of this to give as gifts maybe at Christmas. About six months before that so I have time to perfect it. :)

Meg

My first DIY tote bag

One of my favorite brands is Kate Spade. I love the mix of simplicity and quirkiness in their designs. I love all their stuff - the clothes, the jewelry, the watches, the shoes, and - of course - the bags.

For my first DIY tote bag, I was inspired by one the Kate Spade designs - the Grove Court Floral. I love that it's very summery and just adds that cheery pop of color to your outfit.

My tote bag wasn't orange, but I did have a similar (in theme) floral fabric around just waiting for the right project. I also bought some canvas to use for the base.

My rating for this project is full marks for design but poor execution. LOL.

There are many thing that I should have done - like using a thicker floral fabric and finishing all the edges and maybe put some lining inside. I made a lot of mistakes doing this one. A LOT.

Nevertheless, I had fun doing this project. I still have some canvas left so there may be more tote bags in the near future.

As it is, this bag will be put to good use as my sewing bag when I go to my sewing class because it's roomy enough to hold all fabrics and my sewing kit.

 

 Meg