Wrapping Fabric

Hi peeps,

From now on, if you buy any of my handmade goodies, they will come to you, wrapped in fabric.

I love wrapping up parcels of handmade goodies.  Using paper and knowing most of it would be put straight in the rubbish really got to me though.  So, now when I wrap using fabric, it can be used again and again. No more rubbish.

The fabric I use is from the Sham Shui Po fabric street market.  I feel like I am rescuing the fabric.  Many fabrics have been there for a very long time waiting for some one to use them.  Now, these fabrics I buy have been sent all over the world and are being reused again (and again and again I hope)

I tie up each parcel with ribbon, no sticky tape is required (again, less waste).  The ribbon can be reused again and again also.

 

The beautiful handmade fabric cards by Here We Loopy Lou are a perfect match with my wrapping fabric (below).  I love Melinda's cards and must confess I have quite a collection of them now.

 

All the edges of my wrapping fabric have been overlocked (serged).

Last Christmas I wrapped most presents in fabric.

It feels good that my wrapping fabrics can be used again and that less paper is going into the rubbish or recycling bin.

Have a great week.

Cat xox

The day Hong Kong blew my mind

Way back in November of last year, I bought some gorgeous fabric from Craftumi seller Sew Classic.  Kennis who runs this shop was really helpful and told me about this blog post listing where to buy fabric in Hong Kong.

Last week, Zoe and I set off to explore the Sham Shui Po area, where many of the fabric shops are.  OH MY GIDDY AUNT.  I could never have been prepared for what we found.  It was amazing and unbelievable.  A fabric lovers heaven.  A crafters heaven.  Shops and shops of fabric samples.  Button shops.  Ribbon shops.  Lace shops. Bead shops.  So much, all in one area.

A few shops are wholesale but the rest will sell fabric to the public with a minimum order (3 or 5 yards I found)  There is really so much fabric to choose from, all different types, some thing for everyone.

Most fabric is not stored at these shops, you have to pay for it and order it in which can take 1-5 days.  So todays trip to Sham Shui Po was to pick up last weeks fabric orders.  I was very restrained (last week) and only got 3 different fabrics, one was a blue solid I needed to help finish off some bunting I am making.

I also got these two gorgeous pink florals.  I want to make a skirt for me out of the first one and Abbey just informed me she likes it too.

How sweet are all the different colourways?

Today we found a huge shop of ribbons.  Ribbons only.  So many.  Drool.  It was difficult to choose any, I will have to go back when I have a project in mind to use them with.

This is Zoe in the ribbon shop, hiding behind a plastic container of celery.  As you do.

Look all all those ribbons.  There was one more aisle of ribbons, this photo only shows half of what this shop has.

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I must say a big thank you to Catherine for posting this Chocolate Slice recipe.  I remember making it as a child all the time.  It is so easy to make and very yummy.  Zoe and I were snacking on it today (plus the celery)

Next week Zoe and I will go back and pick up todays selections.  I can not wait!

Cat xox

Scrappy fun.

So, what do you do with your fabric scraps? Your ribbon scraps, pieces of pretty wrapping paper after a present has been unwrapped? I had been collecting all of these in a plastic box for Abbey. Once Zoe was born, this box was overflowing (all the ribbon and wrapping paper from gifts for newborn Zoe filled it up very quickly)

I don't like throwing out perfectly lovely fabric, ribbons or paper, so I needed to find some ways to give away my overflow. I gave some to friends, with a glue stick, for their children to have as an arts and crafts activity.

For the last 3 and a half years, every Friday during school term, I have taken Abbey to one of our local libraries for Story time (and now Zoe comes, too) Our librarian (and her helpers) are fantastic. There is usually a theme each week, and our librarian reads books, finds songs to sing and dance to, plays silly games and at the end there is always an arts and craft activity relating to the days theme. This part Abbey loves. It can be cut and paste, colouring in, making little people out of pipe cleaners to sit on paper surf boards or spiders in a web for Halloween.

It is always lots of fun and I am sure I enjoy it as much as Abbey. I have given our librarian two large snap lock bags, mainly of fabric off-cuts. I have started another large bag to give to Abbey's kinder.

These are some fabric covered people Abbey made recently. The two on the blue paper she did at the library, and the other ones she made at home.

We will definitely be taking this scrap box to Hong Kong when we move over permanently. Abbey so often uses it for crafting and creating, and I am sure Zoe will too, when she is a little older.

As I said in yesterdays frog head tea post, the girls and I are in Hong Kong at the moment for the school holidays. We are a family again. We hope to do some more exploring, find the local library and find some more playgrounds close to our apartment. The last two days have been wonderful, crossing the road from our apartment and going to the outdoor pools, of which we can see from our apartment windows. It feels like we are living in a resort. The warm sunny weather is so lovely and making up for the very cold January we spent in Hong Kong earlier in the year.

Cheerio for now, Cat.