Sack dress

Actually these dress is only another (longer) version of the previous blouse. The fabric I've got on sale in Chinatown for $4/yard. I loved the fabric, it's pure cotton, soft and the color is also pretty. The kids wore it to a friend's farewell party this afternoon and they looked comfortable playing and running around in it :-)

old t-shirt, new look!

Here's daughter's request to get her old t-shirt a makeover.

I only need to add some leftover fabrics from my previous projects and add lace to finish the new look :-)

Boho blouse

I got the pattern from my friend in 3 sizes: small, medium (for kids) and LARGE (for my self) heheh .. I like these kind of blouses, roomy and comfy both for kids and adults and I'm thinking to make the blouse for the three of us.

First project from the book

I tried the first project in the book "Making Children Clothes" by Emma Hardy and thought that this project was not too difficult to follow with the clear step by step instruction and illustration. This blouse is size 2/3 years, fit perfectly for my little one .. when it's finished her big sis wanted me to make one for her too .. gosh, that's what happen if you have two little girls at home .. :-)

I started the project around 5 PM and finished the blouse just in time to go out for a Friday night family diner. Now it's past midnight and I need to have some rest .. have a wonderful weekend, all!

----

The second blouse I made on Monday afternoon, just after the kids back from school and the internet went down, so I worked on the other workstation just in front of my laptop .. yep, the sewing machine!! .. and finished the bigger version for my bigger daughter :-)

Tshirt dress

I saw my friend made a t-shirt dress for her daughter and wanted to try to make one for my daughter. The t-shirt only cost me S$ 1 (or we can also use an old t-shirt) and the fabric I had since 2 years ago. The design is simple, but need to be careful when putting together the 2 pieces and then got to be extra careful when sewing the ribbon around the waist for a neat result.

I've made this dress during lunch time, while waiting for a meal that I bake in the oven. My daughter likes it and she said she'll wear the dress to her friend's birthday party on Saturday afternoon.

Batik skirts

Next month we'll attend my cousin's wedding in Jogjakarta, so I'm thinking to make Batik skirts for my girls. The Batik fabric has a classic motif, Parang Rusak, I got it 2m length and 1.20m width for around S$ 10, meaning S$ 5 a meter.

I made these skirts almost the same as I've made before, only now I use waist band with white fabric and chose light brown lace. I'm thinking to make the matching Kebaya as well, I think I still got the time to do it, but if not, maybe I could use any white shirt and put some matching flowers like in the picture and finish the look with a bow around their waist with a matching chiffon or organza. I'll let you know what I'll do later ... ;-D

They're arrived!

These are the books that I've ordered from Amazon.uk last time see older post, I'm happy that they come faster than estimated delivery which is still a week more. Now I can get busy!! .. I'm so excited to try all the cute projects inside! ..

I think I might stay indoor more these days ;-D

Simple dress, tricky details.

This dress is very simple, but it took me quite long time to figure out how to use facings/linings and how to put a zipper .. you may laugh, but for someone who's never sewed anything her whole life and just found out sewing terms such as: topstitch, baste, lining, facing, etc, this was not too bad ..

Or is it bad? well, okay .. if you see the details closer, I admit it wasn't neat .. still need a lot of practice and still making many mistakes if you refer to the right sewing techniques .. I'll make it up better next time, hopefully :-)

A very simple skirt

I bought the fabric at Arab Street near Bugis Junction for SGD 7 a meter, then I cut it two, sewed, put an elastic band around the waist and put the red lace around the bottom of the skirts.

Tiered skirt for girls

This was my first skirt project, it wasn't so neat but it became one of my little girl's favorite skirt ..

Smocked dress

The first project I've made just after I bought the sewing machine was a smocked dress. I bought the smocked fabrics (it's a bit pricey though, but I wanted to give my daughters something nice by using the new machine, and wanted the easiest and fastest project to finish) ..

So I've made these sundresses for them and they loved it :-)

Sewing Club :-)

Actually, we're not making any club at all, it opens to everyone who happen to have the same passion as we are : sewing. Then, what could be a better way to spend your free time than gathering with a bunch of friends and do something interesting and useful at the same time together?.

Sewing is just one of the many activities we're busy moms do everyday, and that's why, this blog tittle called: project run-A-way because we do the projects while running after our kids, doing errands, doing household chores and many more .. some of us are a part-time teacher, a grad school student, etc.

These were photos when some of the member of this "sewing club" gathered at my place last month. One of the moms here brought along her baby and her own sewing machine! so that day we had 3 sewing machine on the top of my dining table! .. a record so far :-)

Polkadots top

I bought this red-white polka dots fabric in a textile center in Chinatown for S$5 a yard, I bought 2 yards and make 2 projects out of it, one the A-line dress for the little one, and another one is a blouse for her big sis. She loves the small detail in this blouse (the white-red flower button) that I bought from Spotlight. She said she's going to wear it for her friend's birthday party next week :-)

Ruffle top

I created a group in Facebook called BM2600 (from the type of sewing machine me and most of my sewing friends are using), and one of the member gave a link to this site: http://sewmamasew.com/ then I saw one of the sewing project: Spring Ruffle Top and wanted to try to make it. It came out okay, not great but still wearable .. it took me the whole morning try to put together all the bits and pieces into this top and still have some flaws ..

Now I know it wasn't so easy to create one piece of blouse/dress/top/skirt and I praised those who could make it to "haute couture" .. they must have a helluva talent and skills! ...

Girly tank top

I asked my friend to draw a pattern for this tank top, she did it free-hand. When it's finished, I try it on my daughter and it's still too big, I need to adjust the straps and hem the arms more neatly, but I love the final touch to the project: the cute bow I found in Daiso for SGD 2 only :-)

A-line dress

I bought a simple pattern two years ago, but never had the courage to start making the dress. It was a multiple patterns for kids' sundress. So this was my first try. I'm using pattern size 3 and 5. I still found it difficult to hem the neck and arm holes, I should use a bias tape or making a bias tape from the same fabric, or .. using the facing included in the pattern or another tips is using lining. I still need to practice for this part.

Skirts with elastic band

I bought 2 meter long fabrics and wanted to make skirts with elastic band like the one that I saw in stores, I thought it shouldn't be too complicated, just need to be careful when sewing the skirt into the elastic band .. first I made one for myself, then another two for my daughters ..

Ordering sewing books

I love the book that I borrowed from the library so much that I searched in my favorite bookstores but they haven't got any copy of it and their supplier doesn't have it in stock either .. So I turned to the internet and go to amazon.uk where they got the book in stock and I ordered the book online. They sent me an email confirmation that the book has been dispatched yesterday, June 4 and estimated to deliver between June 16-22.

Believe it or not, it's my first time ordering a book online as I still prefer to order a book from a bookstore .. but when I saw the price, it's much cheaper than to get an imported book from the bookstores and I don't need to go everywhere to get it. I'm so excited and can't wait to get the two books I ordered arrived :-)

Puffball Skirt Memory ..

This skirt makes me remember my sis. She made one for me when I was a teenager in junior school. I was invited for a class party at the end of school year and had nothing trendy to wear .. out of the blue she came out with this idea of chopping off my old dress and turned it into a puffball skirt like this ... amazing! she'd never learned how to sew and she hand stitched my skirt! ... it was the loveliest skirt I've ever had ..

I proudly wore it to the class party and felt that everyone's heads were turning at me when I walked into the room .. I've never felt so confident walked into a party alone before, but that night I remembered the party was held at my girlfriend's home and the host's handsome brother asked me to dance .. it was one of the wonderful party I've ever had in my teen years and thanks to the skirt that my sis made for me, I felt so special that night ...

Sis, thank you for your generosity and creativity .. even if you said you prefer hiking on the mountain, flying and paragliding .. and your favorite clothes item is t-shirt .. you still had the time and efforts to make a skirt for your little sis :-)

Making children clothes

I saw this book on the system list at the library while searching for a book about children clothes, but someone else has got it first, so I placed a reservation and the library sent me a notice when the book is ready to pick up. I got this book within a week. I like all the projects in this book but unfortunately we can't copy the pull-out patterns attached to the book because it's sealed with a sellotape .. so all I could do is just trying to copy and make the patterns by myself ..

The book is published in 2009 written by Emma Hardy. The instructions are not too difficult for a beginner and the pictures and illustrations are pretty and clear. I hope I can make one or two projects from here ..

To sew or not to sew ..

It's been a month since I bought a sewing machine. I'm still learning and try to improve my sewing skill. I've been making skirts, sundresses, blouses and bags, all girl's stuff so far. I've been reading sewing books that I've found interesting from a nearby library. I also bought some "easy" sewing books I've found in bookstores and am thinking of joining the weekend dressmaking class in a community center in our neighborhood. So, yes, I think I fell in love with this activity, I'd never thought that it can be so much fun and relaxing ..

In one fine day, I can sew all day as soon as everyone's gone to school and office. I have stocks of lovely fabrics now, all below S$10 (mostly around S$ 3 to S$ 5 a meter/yard) that I've sourced in various textile centers here in Singapore. From Arab Street to Chinatown, from downtown mall to nearby market. While still in a beginner level, I opted mostly cotton fabrics for kids and I've chosen a simple pattern or an easy projects without pattern. So far, so good .. my kids are happy and I'm happy.

Skirts

Girls wear skirts, not pants! :-)

Ha! .. actually I wore t-shirts, jeans and shorts most of the times .. but then I remember my mom-in-law said that we women, should dress up like women and men should dress up like men. She also said men shouldn't wear jeweleries and they should not choose pink, red, yellow and other 'girly' color for their clothes. That's why my husband doesn't have a wedding ring and his clothes mostly in the shades of blue, white, grey or black.

Skirt is the first thing I've learned to sew. It was really awful at first, but I keep on making more skirts to improve my sewing skills. Tiered skirt for my daughters then a simple ruffle elastic skirts. I've learned to make it by asking my friends who's already advanced in sewing and got their tips and advice of how to make it look neat.

Using leftover fabrics

This is what happened, I still got some leftover fabric from my last sewing projects: -- A-line sundress for the girls -- and I was thinking of using it as a skirt for the little one, but turned out I've made a blouse!

That's what I did when plan A failed, I could use a plan B .. or C, D and go on. For me, sewing, cooking and most of the things we do in life need a plan .. but if the plan didn't work out, we need a little bit of imaginations, creativity and courage! .. ;-D

Mid-Life challenge ..

Hi, I'm a newbie in sewing and just got myself a sewing machine.

I want to learn how to sew because:

first, I love the beauty of color, patterns, fabrics and fashion.
second, we have two lovely daughters, and I'm thinking of making some cute things for my little girls. Something that is uniquely made for them and no friends at school will be wearing the same thing! .. it's made exclusively for them.

So here I am, learning to sew at 40 .. well, it's not a bad thing! isn't it? .. imagine if at this mid-life age, I'm learning to fly an airplane! that may be nuts.