Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Embroidered Bawal Scarf (Sulam tudung Bawal)

My customer asked me if I can embroider bawal scarf for her. Well, I must say this is my first time doing it on a scarf. She wants a simple design for her tudung.

My experience while embroidered the bullion roses on this soft and fragile scarf is that it is hard to maintain and to pull out the thread through the needle. It is easier though on Tasneem’s cardigan.

The material I used to embroider this tudung are
a) “Sharp” type needle

b) DMC embroidery floss . This one I used 3 strands of floss to make the bullion roses and leaves.

This is the picture taken after embroidered at the corner of the scarf.

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For second tudung/scarf. This design is taken from Rosita books. Thanks to Aina Creative World for her information on “Info Mulakan Sulaman” that mentioned about tracing the design by putting the scarf (sheer) over it. So, I did that technique and walla here the outcomes. I like this one though.

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Hope that the owner likes it.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Tutorial – How to make neckline of baju kurung (part one)

I was thinking of sharing how to make the neckline of baju kurung (leher baju kurung). When I first started sewing, I found that this is the hardest part of all. But now,when I already learned the technique from Rosita Jaafar sewing book, I can do it easily. In fact, this is my favorite part of sewing baju kurung.

Here is my style of how to sew the neckline of baju kurung. I am not an expert, I just want to share a little bit of what I have learnt from sewing lots of baju kurung. If you have any comments or any additions to what I mentioned, please do so.

Here is the tutorial:

1. Using remnants of the fabric (after cutting all the major parts), trace the facing using the fabric with a pen or a tailor’s chalk or a pencil. Let’s call it “neckline facing”.

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Base of neckline facing         Shape of neckline

 

2. After sewing the body parts together, iron the body parts in two, so that there will be a line folded in half in the middle of the body.

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3. Using the line from the body that we iron on earlier as a guide, then pin on the neckline facing to the body parts. Match it from point to point.

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Till then, wait for part two of making the neckline of baju kurung. If there’s any questions or comments please do so.

Krispy Kreme Brings up Nostalgic Memories

It has been 4 years since I last ate Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the US. My husband used to buy me the doughnuts near midnight at Flying J gas station. It was on clearance sale at that time about $0.30 a piece. We ate till we were full.
Last week, I went to KL and my husband said that they now opened one branch of Krispy Kreme in Berjaya Times Square at the ground floor. So, we did go there on our 3rd day in KL.

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We ordered a dozen doughnuts and 7 of them were our favorite flavors, the chocolate custard doughnut.
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It was very delicious, sooo delicious compared to Dunkin Donuts or JCO or Big Apple. The custardy taste is similar to Mary Lou doughnuts in West Lafayette, Indiana. But it was far more cheaper than Krispy Kreme, just $0.30 a piece. To anyone who never tasted Krispy Kreme doughnuts just give it a try. I bet one is just not enough.
There is also Papa John’s pizza and Wendy’s branch from the US opened there. I recommend Papa John’s pizza to everyone who never tasted it before. For your information, Papa John is the number one rating pizza in the US.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Japanese Books

On the 8th of May, my family and I went to KL because of my husband’s cousin wedding. On top of that, I have an agenda to accomplish while I was in KL. So, on the first day, we went to Kinokuniya in KLCC. The bookstore is so big that I might be lost in it. The books are divided into different sections by language.

So, I went to the Japanese section, hoping to find the sewing books that I dreamed about for so long. I roamed through the bookshelves at the Craft section looking for baby and toddlers handmade sewing books. I found many sewing books for children. I ran through all the pages of each book, trying to find which one will fit for my taste. With a limited budget amount of money, I chose this sewing book. This has patterns for 60,75,80,90. Which I think from 6 months until 3 years old (worth the money spent).

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Besides that, I also looked at the crochet and knitting section, I found this lovely book “Crochet Lace”. It has various designs of doily and also have patterns for making flowers and bags too.

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I was so eager to try one of the patterns, so I made this while I was at home.

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Peasant Blouse for Children

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I was thinking of making peasant blouse for my niece who lives in KL. I did not know her measurement, but just know her age which is 7 years old. So, I tried using the patterns for age 7 from this book “159 Pieces; 4 to 10 Year Olds. As Each is in 3 sizes, All can Fit Children of Any Size” and luckily when I gave it to her to try it, it fits her very well. This is a Japanese sewing book from Stitch House Children’s Wear (English Edition).

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Actually the patterns is for a full dress, but I only have a one meter of this strawberry cotton fabric, so, I need to make some adjustments to the blouse. I shirred using elastic thread at the waist so that it will not make it look really loose when she wears it.

Things needed to make this peasant blouse are:

- elastic tape 5mm, elastic thread, 1 meter of cotton fabric

Time to complete to make this blouse is about 3 hours from pattern drafting to final sewing.

Here is the close up for the neckline, I insert elastic tape about 30cm in length.

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Insert elastic thread about 20cm for the arms.

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I shirred using elastic thread twice in the waist area.

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Tips on sewing this dress, for the armhole area, please measure the armhole length from the body and the armhole length should be the same, so that you will have exact measurements from end to end.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Receive an Award


This is my first time receive an award from someone. It is from Ilarazali whom I known from WMC. Thank you Ilarazali. Well I do not know how to put it on the right side of this web, so I am pasting the award here. 

What I have known so far about Ila from the web, she is very funny (from the way she express her feelings on her blog), interesting, I think talkative, and loves to cook. I am sure she is a very amiable person to be with. She looks very much like my cousin too. 

Thank you once again. 

P/s: I am posting this from my hometown. I could not publish any posting for the next one or maybe 2 weeks the max, thanks to TM for their slow service.