The cat doll in the cat dress

I made Lucy for a little girl who has a cat dress from the wild thing children clothes shop and made a kitten for her to play with. I prefer embroidering my animal dolls's eyes to using safety plastic eyes.

Lola, the kitten has her own basket and she is always happy to be with Lucy.

The fruity pouch

I love this fabric, it comes with 2 sides printed and from Korea. It is Linen/cotton mixed fabric.
I wanted to make it so Zakka and I started with the size I like.
I decorated the pouch with the zipper puller which I designed the leather string, bow, and covered button. All of the bits parts using the same fabric. The covered buttons, I cut the fruit parts on the fabric.
I enjoyed sewing this pouch so much because the idea kept coming while I was working with it.

size  7 ''  x 5 '' x 1.25''

My recent handmade items

I have made a purse and a pouch so far, one is the black purse which I started sewing and added the designs along the way through. This black cotton fabric came from Thailand, my mum bought it for her dress and she gave me the leftover pieces.
I like the texture of the fabric, I sewn the tiny buttons to bright the colours up and used the linen bias to cover the zipper part.

I sewn the exterior purse first and then the same for the lining, I added a half inches width of the gusset to make the room for the purse.  At the top part, I finished off with the bias fabric tape and sewn the zipper on. I love to sew my purses this way,  I used a covered button to the end of zipper.

size is 5''  x  4 ''  x 0.50 ''

Teddy bears in the garden

It is so cute, I sewn a nintendo bag for my niece using this fabric and she loves it. I made this case big enough for stationery, cellphone, make up essential and add a bit on the zipper puller.

Fold over pouch

How long have I neglected my own blog? I have not sewn much since last post, I have a bit more times now so let get on with sewing agian.
My mum gave me this silk fabric since last June, she always wears silk clothes and they have to be made to order. She askes her dressmaker to keep the leftover pieces for me. I like the texture and the colour of this fabric and tried to think what should I sew. I did not want to add many things on the fabric, so I decide to sew a simple pouch for carrying make up, cell phone etc....

The simple pattern is just a rectangular and I used a medium weight interfacing, the interior fabric is a lovely cotton from Thailand. I secured the top with a leather magnetic button.

Wristlet pattern

I like elephant and always collect anything if there are images of this lovely animal on them. I saw this Fat Quarter size fabric from my favorite seller 6008rena (ebay) and bought it for a while.

I have got a purple zipper,a  leather wristlet, white and purple stripes fabric, after browsing on etsy and bought this pattern from link, I had a go.....

The flap is hiding credit card holders and a pouch on one side of the wristlet, it can carry mobile, car key, cosmetics, cash, receipts...... I like this kind of clutch/wristle that I just carry it to supermarket or post office.

I covered the button to brighten that flap up. The clutch is lined with iron on fusible fleece.

My elephant wristlet

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Gifts for children

I have been hand sewing little animal face zipper pouches, the first one is a puppy face. The way I sewn this pouch:

                                              

The front face:

I drew the face pattern on the exterior fabric, embroidered the nose, mouth and whiskers then stitched the tiny black beads for eyes. I sewn both ears and stuff with small amount of poly filling. then sewn ears to the face.The exterior fabric is quite thick so I did not need interfacing. 

I put the thin fleece on the wrong side of the interior fabric and drew the face pattern on the fleece.

With right sides of the exterior and interior fabrics together sewn along the pattern line, left 4 cm gap to turn the right side out, sewn to close the gap.

I did the same for the back part without embroidery and ears. 

I sewn the front and back together, left the top bit open, sewn zipper on the exterior and interior. 

                                        

I used the dog charm to attach to the zipper. This pouch is right size for keeping coins, folded bank notes, lipstick, small toys.

  

Shark for athi, and bear for my friend's daughter.

Floral lined Boxy pouch

I just finished a gift for my sister, she wants Cath Kidston 's pouch. She said CK products are hot in Bangkok. Instead of buying her CK 's pouch, I decided to make it myself. I bought this fabric in sale last year for only half  yard then I cut a small piece out and made a pincushion and did not use it again. It took me a while to draft the pattern of this pouch, I drew on the paper and taped the paper to see the shape of the pouch. I finally worked out how I would make different sizes of this kind of pouch. This one is 6" x 6" and deep 2.5". I sewn interfacing on both exterior and interior fabrics but it is still not hold the shape the way I expected.

I used the medium weight cotton fabric for interior and managed to lined the pouch without raw seam edge. Basically I made two pouches the same size and sewn the interior one to the floral one on the zipper. This way the pouch looks nicer.

A Pouch with gussets

It is snowing outside, we live in the country lane so my front way is full of thick snow. I have a day off and my husband and athi have gone swimming, I have a little plan to make something out of my Japanese fabrics I bought recently. I have only 3 hours to finish it off before 2 boys coming back, I want a drawstring pouch with a bit roomy than normal drawstring pouch so I add the gussets to it. I love Japanese Kimono printed fabric, this one is cotton, it is not too thick or too thin just perfect for this project. I am really relaxing while I hand sewing this pouch

I like to make this round drawstring end, I use ready made waxed cord but if I have more time I like to crochet the cord with cotton yarn.

Gigi's dotty cat/ tissue pouch

I had a cold for a week so I have not posted my blog. An email from my dearest friend, Gigi who lives thousands miles away cheers me up. Gigi is a talented, smart and genuine down to earth - super woman who loves and lives for her and somebody else cats. Whenever I miss Gigi, I hand sew cats, and with the cold and runny nose I managed to sew a tissue pouch cat.

I used the dotty linen fabric and lined with calico (cotton), I did a bit of appliqué, embroidered and stitched.

Athi said he loves it but mummy should have made a Nintendo DS case, my husband said why tissue pouch and I should have made an Ipod case, I have never won!!!!

I hope you like it Gigi and I miss you so much. xxx

My passion for zakka and hand sewing

I like to share my passion for hand sewing on my blog, it is the best relaxation for me. My son, athi is into sharks, after reading him bed time stories about this creature nights after nights, I have this design in my head so I transferred  to the fabric. The outer is linen and the blue stripe is cotton, I put a blue zipper to make a purse and stitched and embroidered.  I hand sewn seam with backstitch to make it strong, 
Athi names him Gilbert and he asked me to make him a cushion for his playroom, that is my next task!!

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Gilbert is 10 cm x 10 cm, he is friendly and always smiles. With the help of Gilbert, my coins are safe.

Look inside his mouth !!!