Scrunchie Made of Kimono Fabric

Look at this!  This scrunchie is made of authentic kimono fabric and Western fabric, tulle.   It's great for both casual and formal occasions/  The bright red tulle makes the scrunchie more energetic but the kimono fabric makes more sensitive taste to the scrunchie.

You can find it here if you want more information.

Bibs

My son drools lots, so he often changes his clothes.  I made some bibs for my daughter when she was smaller, and my son still uses her bibs now.  However, some of the bibs need to be replaced soon.  Today, I decided to make one for my son.


I used doubled gauze fabric on the front and the back.  This is for the back

Here is the front material.  It's polka dots in blue.

Strings for three bibs.

The left bib is for my one-year-old niece and the others are for my friend's baby and my son.
I hope he doesn't take off the bib!!

My New Apron!

     If I would say hand-sewing is like riding a bike for me, using a sewing machine would be like riding a bullet train!

     There are a few aprons in my closet but I had been thinking they should be replaced soon, and I ran to a fabric store the other day to get the material.  This apron took only 3 hours to make a pattern, cutout the material, and sew it.  It was a very easy apron for me.  Also, I love this fabric because it is so cute!  When I am in this apron, I feel like I've got to cook something very fancy, don't you think?

This is the top part.

Here is the pocket!

And this is me in the apron!

The Kid's Meal Apron, my 3rd piece

     My daughter just turned 4 last month but she still spills some food on her clothes while she is eating.  At this moment she had been wearing her 2nd handmade apron but it got a little dirty for using it for a while.  So, I decided to make new one for her and probably it would be the last one for her I thought.  I always go with this pattern since it's super easy. She doesn't wear an apron when she has lunch at her kindergarten so that she should be used to not wearing it.

     This time I didn't go to a fabric store to get the material but used some leftover material from the last piece.  It is just used different part of the pattern from the last apron.  It became her late birthday gift from her mom!

     Actually, since my daughter started her kindergarten from this April, I have been very busy every day.  I used to take her to kindergarten by bike with her younger brother, but I now go there by walking since May.  You know why?  I'm pregnant a gain!!  The baby will come out in January but I need to have a c-section again.  So, the due date will be in the late December.  Anyway, everything takes time to finish now, like taking her to kindergarten and back, going grocery shopping, do all the housework and so on.  Also, I often feel sleepy so that I can't knit or sew much.

 This apron was the first piece in 6 months!!!  It's unbelievable for me not to make much for such a long time.  Now I feel like I'm back!  By the way, I made this before I bought the sewing machine, so it was done by hand!

For echino Lovers

echino fabric always attracts me at a store. Needless to say the designs are cute. Very cute. They make me feel energetic. The combination of color usage and motifs makes the fabric perfect. Are you interested in the fabric? You can go to Purl SOHO now.

Today, I made a kid's apron out of echino fabric! Again! I mean "again." About a year ago, I made an apron with echino but a different design. This is the post you might want to check out! However, it became old so that I decided to make another one. How do you like the fabric? Isn't it cute?  My 3 year-old daughter keeps saying "tweet tweet apron!" I have some fabric left, so I'd like to make something else.  If I have enough time,  I'd love to share the pattern online later.

Done! The Yukata is Ready!

I've just finished this yukata a couple of days ago. This fabric was bought last summer and had been kept until this summer. I just didn't think I would finish it during the summer, so I kept it until this year. If you are interested, check out the old post here. Yes, summer is here! I am ready to sew and wear yukata!!! It is of course hand-sewn! It took one and a half months to finish because I only had an hour or so every day. After all the children go to bed and finish up the housekeeping, I can spend my time on sewing. Also I think I am a slow sewer. 

Before you start sewing, it is important to match the patterns. With matching, the kimono will look great; however, without matching the main motif might come on your back or even worse, the motif might be cut in half! Ouch! Decide which motif to come to the front, back or sleeves. Once you decide, it is time to cut the fabric!

After cutting up the fabric, it's time to mark and sew. This is the sleeve.

Time to start!

Curve a corner!

I would wear this yukata to the festival in the end of July, but I couldn't finish it. The next festival I could go was in the middle of August, and I finally finish it one day before the festival.  I was so happy!

 Which obi do you like? a reversible yellow obi(hakata)

a reversible blue obi(hakata)

a red obi

a black obi

Can't pick!
Next time I'd like to try combinations of the yukata and Nagoya obis for kimono.

New Tote Bag Debuts

This summer is a little different from the past. These last 2 weeks, it was mostly cloudy and the temperature stayed under 30 degrees! Comparing to last year, it's not that hot and humid, which is very nice for a pregnant woman. One thing I concern is vegetables grown in the farms because it'll be expensive!

Well, no matter the weather is hot or not, I neither give up sewing or knitting. This time I made a tote bag with cotton fabrics. Cotton is so much easier to sew than oil cloth, so it didn't bother me sewing at all. You can use this tote casually since it's cotton, so that carry it around everywhere you go!

The size is as follows;
width: 19cm
height: 19cm
depth: 12cm

I attached a flower motif at the bottom of the tote!

The base fabric is as same as the inner fabric, and the red part is crocheted. On the top is a pink button.

For the details, you can see here. You can purchase it online too! Please go to my etsy shop!

A Water Bottle Carrier

My husband brings wheat tea in a plastic bottle to his office every day. But even though the AC is on in the office, sometimes the tea goes bad. Also lots of companies in the tokyo area reduce the power usage in the summer for lack of electricity since the quake so that the AC is often weakened recently.

So, I made the holder for my husband. It should keep the tea cold! This looks very girly, I know, but I'm not interested in buying fabrics for men. It's boring for me, on the other hand, there are so many cute fabrics for girls to look around. It's more fun! As a result, my husband has to carry this girly holder. I attached a insul-bright sheet as the inner fabric to keep cold. The color of the string actually doesn't perfectly match with the exterior fabric because I used my left over material. Possibly I wanted to use white but I still like it.

Our family took a day trip to the aquarium in Tokyo on a hot humid day, and the carrier really worked! It kept the tea cold for a while. I wanted to test how long it could keep the coldness but he finished it soon! Anyway, it's proven it works!!

Attaching the Collar on the Kimono

This is the most time-consuming and difficult part of sewing kimono. Oh, well, at least for me. Kimono consists of two parts of collars if it's an hitoe, which is a single layered kimono or yukata that is made of cotton and worn in summer, but formal kimono consists of three parts of them!

For now, I'm making hitoe. I've finished the first part of collar sewing. This part of collar is called "hon-eri," and the other part, which I've got to work on it soon, is called "tomo-eri."

Even pinning took a while because it didn't seem well. And finally, I finished sewing! But wait, I need to go through more hard parts to be finish the collars... Oops! I'll upload more photos later.

Playing with Needles

It's fun to make something without thinking anything serious. Do I use my brain or not? It doesn't always succeed but sometimes it turns out right! This time I played with fukuro-obi fabric, and it turned out like this.

I made a necklace!

Fun Fun Fun! Thanks for reading!

A New Apron for a Toddler

I have some nylon bibs for my daughter that I bought a while ago. These days whether she thinks she is old enough(really?) or not, she doesn't like to wear it when she has a meal. So, every time she eats, she's made a big mess on her clothes even if it is after shower! Does anyone have the same problem as me?


It is a little annoying to change her clothes every after meal, so that I decided to make own apron that she probably won't take it off.

I picked echino for the apron and made it. The size seems well on her.

She can't take it off by herself anymore like regular bibs.
Tonight is the first time for her to use it!

A Purse with Obi Fabric

I made a purse with one of the obi fabrics I bought the other day. Since my scanning technique was poor or the machine wasn't good, the photo on the post didn't appear well. Now, you can see it better here!

The frame is 9cm wide and chose the black obi fabric and polka dot fabric I had. I love how it looks like!! The fabric was used to be a fukuroobi that is often worn when you dress up such as a wedding, or a party. This type of obis are usually gorgeous.

Anyway, I got a piece of the fabric and made a purse! What do you think?

Help For Japan---Does Anyone Sew?

Thank you everyone! There are already over 2,000 bags sent to the association! They say they still receive bags but you don't need to start new bags now.

Actually I haven't finished mine but I'll finish it ASSP and send it. For more information, please check this out. They only have a Japanese page on this information.


Japan Handicraft Instructor's Association now wants handmade book bags for young children who have been evacuating since the quake. Does anyone sew?

Their goal is to get 1,000 donations from everyone due on Friday the 15th. The size and design are specified but simple. They pick only one design because it'll be unfair to those children when they receive if the designs vary.

The recommended material;
Quilting cotton fabric

The size is as follows;

Body
width: 40-45cm
height: 30cm

Handles
handles: 30-40cm

No pockets or depth

Name Tag
Attach or sew a piece of white fabric on the left top corner so that they can write their name on it.

width: 10cm
height: 3cm

Please check out the instructive picture here.


I know it'll cost your time and money if you send it from overseas, but if anyone interested, please help the children!!

The address is;

Japan Handicraft Instructors' Association

8F, 3-23, Motomura-cho,
Ichigaya, Shinjuku,
Tokyo 162-0845, Japan

If you have any questions, you can contact them or me.

Two Pieces of Obi Fabrics

I've found these two obi fabrics a while ago. The colors are totally contrastive but somehow I couldn't pick only one. What should I make? pouches? purses? hmmm... so many to think of.

By the way, I scanned the fabrics at home but it turned out slightly different from the original. Although photographing might have been better than scanning, I hope you can see the colors well.

Thanks for reading!!

New Pouch and Tote

You might know that tap water in Tokyo is a little tainted now. Babies under 1 year old shouldn't take tap water said the government. As some people already know we live in Kawasaki, so the water is still safe.

Today I saw a sad scene at the grocery store nearby. Even though the tap water is not harmful at all for ADULTS, even though we are in Kawasaki, lots of adults who don't seem to have babies or infants bought many bottles of water. Don't you think adults should stay calm and let moms with babies buy water? My daughter is 1 year and 7 months old now, but just in case I bought two bottles of water. Even I didn't buy lots. It was a sad scene to see...

Anyway, let's talk about new items! It's more fun to talk about!

Here is one that I made.

height: 12cm
width: 23cm(the widest part)
depth: 5cm

This is the same combination as the other tote and the coin purse.

Instead of a clutch, I attached a red zipper for this pouch.

Here is a tote. This looks exactly the same as the tote I made before.

height: 22cm
Width: 22.5cm

The both items will be listed on my Etsy shop soon.
Please visit!