My (Mia Dress) Creative Space and Christmas bunting

Hi peeps,

I have been very busy sewing lately.  Of course, I have been making lots of zippered pouches and hair bobbles (I always have a small, or large, pile of zippered pouches on the go).  I have had a few custom orders from lovely friends and family, I really appreciate the support they have given me and that they love my creations.

One of the custom orders was a dress commissioned by a friend for her daughter, Mia.  My friend chose the fabric used in the main part of the dress ("La Dee Da" by Erin McMorris for FreeSpirit by Westminister Fibres).   She left the rest up to me.  I found the contrasting coral fabric in my stash ("Hello Pilgrim" by Lizzy House for Andover Fabrics), and knew immediately it was a perfect match.  I was worried though that it was too pink, my friend did not want a pink dress.  I took a gamble and made the dress anyway. My gamble paid off,  I am so happy with how it has turned out.  These fabrics are such a beautiful combination together.  Luckily, my friend loves the dress too (phew!)

On a whim, this morning I added this dress, now called "The Mia Dress" to my Etsy shop.  I have just enough fabric to make two more of them. The dress also comes with matching hair bobbles (you choose which pair)

Today I also added some Christmas bunting to my shop.

 

Right.  I best get cracking on finishing some more hand made Christmas presents. I hope to gift mainly hand made presents this year, and not just my creations.  I have been buying hand made items online throughout the year and stashing them away.  There was even a hand made market a few weeks ago held in Hong Kong.  It was a lovely surprise to see that hand made is getting more exposure here in HK.  I bought lots of lovely hand made goodies.  I can't show you them until after Christmas, I want them to be a surprise to their recipients. 

Happy Creative Space day to you.

Cat xox

My (Pink and Sparkly) Creative Space

Hi peeps,

Sham Shui Po has offered up some really unusual fabric finds when Zoe and I have been out exploring Hong Kong.  There is so much different fabric here to choose from.  I love natural fibres and prefer to be sewing with 100% cottons and linens.  When I found these two fabrics though, I had to embrace the polyester.

I think they will be perfect Christmas presents for some special little girls in my life, who love pink and sparkly things.

This bunting has taken me over two months to complete. The pink fabric is quite awful to cut accurately, it frays easily and the little bits stick to everything.  I mean everything.  I have not really enjoyed working with this fabric.  I wanted the comfort zone of my usual 100% cotton fabric.

Along the way, I also found these two fabrics (more polyesters). I had intended to include them, but I think they don't fit with the pink and sparkly bunting.

They make gorgeous buntings on their own (and possibly together, now I see them side by side above) just not with the pink and sparkly bunting.  What do you think?

Have a lovely Creative Space day.

Cat

My (lego) Creative Space

Hello there my friend.

This week I have been finishing the lego bunting.

This fabric is so lovely to sew with. 100% cotton, Kokka, made in Japan.  Gorgeous.

I want to keep making more bunting with this fabric as it is just feels so good.  Some more Christmas presents finished - yay.

Peek-a-boo!

I love visiting all the other Creative Spaces every week, find them over here.

Happy Thursday to you.

Cat.

My (WIP) Creative Space

This week, I still have lots of sewing projects on the go.  The only things I finished this week were the zippered pouches.  I am still working on the rattle cubes and the pink and sparkly bunting.

This gorgeous collection of green and orange fabric is destined to be bunting for my besties daughter for Christmas. She is 6 years old and I love it that pink is not her favourite colour like most other girls her age - she loves orange.  It is a refreshing change to be sewing with some colours I would not normally have chosen for myself or my girls.   I am waiting for the just washed fabric to dry.  That won't be too long as it is still warmish here in Hong Kong, most days this week have been in the low 20's (celsius)  The stifling heat of the past few months, I hope, is behind us.

I want to finish off this lego bunting I begun way back at the start of July soon after moving to Hong Kong.  I only realised yesterday that I do not have the right shade of blue thread.  (Zoe and) I have been exploring the Sham Shui Po area one day a week since we first visited this amazing area of Hong Kong.  I now know where to buy more fabulous ribbons, zippers and beads beads and so many more beads.  Last week I found a shop that sells sewing machine needles for my Janome machines.  I have not found any threads, anywhere, yet.  Some more exploring is in order (yippee!)

All the other lovely Creative Spaces are over here.  Happy browsing to you.

Cat

My (messy) Creative Space

This week my sewing space looks like this.  Rather messy.  But good messy, in my opinion.  Lots in the making.  Nothing finished - yet.

I am in the middle of making some pink sparkly bunting, two rattle cubes and another assortment of zippered pouches.   Many of these will be Christmas presents.

Pop in and visit some other Creative Spaces over here.

Happy Thursday to you.

Cat.

My (sewing space) Creative Space

This week has been bliss.  Bliss because I have been sewing every single day.  This has not happened in the land of the Raspberry Rainbow for goodness knows how long.  It feels good.

The main reason is that last week I finally got my very own Hong Kong sewing space.   I don't mind that I am crammed in between a cupboard and a tower of packing boxes that still need to be emptied.  It is in the main room, full of lovely natural light during the day.  It is nice and easy for me to sit down for a few minutes of sewing in between every thing else I do (and no, it is no longer this neat and tidy)

I have made sure there have been things ready to sew, like this pile of zippered pouches.  Yes, more zippered pouches.  Can you ever have too many to use as gifts?  Um, no.

There has also been the birthday red delicious bunting to finish this week.  I decided to make Zoe two separate bunting strands to decorate her bedroom, so I kept on sewing.  I cut out so many bunting triangles, I will have maybe two more strands to use as gifts.  If I am feeling crazy energetic, I could open an etsy store? I have not decided if it would be too much of a commitment or not. Probably.

I was feeling inspired enough this week to take out my macro lens, brush off the cobwebs, and take some photos of this gorgeous pile of red delicious bunting triangles, before they were promplty sewn up.

Today is a crazy day, one little girl turns 2, one very excited big girl starts ballet lessons for the first time, and one bigger girl is getting very excited because her mum is coming to stay tomorrow.

If you want a peep at fabric shopping in Hong Kong, pop over and see my post from yesterday.

So many creative people are having fun over here.

Have a lovely Thursday peeps, Cat.

My (red delicious) Creative Space

Take one cheeky girl turning two next week.  She usually has a dirty face.  She now has two chipped front teeth. A silly smile we see so often. A home made gift from mamma is in order.  Made with love.

Add a pile of gorgeous fabric.  A red theme is happening here.

Slice and sew and arrange lovely fabric.

Voila! You get this red delicious bunting.

Early Happy Birthday to you, my darling Zoe. You are our sunshine.

More Creative Spaces over here.

Have a lovely day peeps. 

Cat

My (Bunting) Creative Space

This really should have been last weeks My Creative Space, but I ran out of time. Last week, my big girl turned 5. Five! Last Thursday I was still recovering from her birthday party.

I can show you in photos, how my bunting evolved. First, I cut out the "Happy Birthday" letters from black felt. I had read a very handy tip (can't remember where) that to stop the felt moving around too much when you cut it, sticky tape the felt to your template, don't pin it. It works a treat, I can tell you.

I was originally going to use 2 or 3 different fabric's for all the flags/triangles. Once I had raided my fabric stash, I was quite surprised how many different pink fabrics I really had to choose from. I had more than enough to use a different one for each letter.

This was my first fabric arrangement, but it did not sit right, I was not convinced.

I played around with the fabric selection and order some more and came up with this arrangement.

So lush, all that beautiful fabric. I am happy with my selection, as many of the fabrics used have previously been made into dresses for Abbey or presents for friends and family.

I even had Chris helping out at one point, tying off all the ends after I sewed the letters on. He did not mind, he had beer and the TV remote control (and Dotty doll to keep him company)

Almost done, one lovely pile of bunting triangles ready to be sewn all together. I top stitched around each bunting edge.

Pegs worked better than pins going through all those layers of fabric.

There is no easy way to photograph bunting hanging up, I have decided. Especially when it is hanging in the darkest room in your house.

Yay! Finished. Pop over to Kootoyoo for more Creative Spaces.

Cheers, Cat.