slateblu

happy mother's day!

I'm having breakfast with my side of the family with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. and then having an early dinner with my husband's immediate side of the family in the East Bay.  It will be a busy day.

I was busy sewing for little mother's day gifts...and some lite shopping.  At work we were given a special deal on some skin care from one of our affiliates.  I got these olive oil soaps:

I wasn't sure how to package them until I saw these little plates at Japantown.

I'm including this book with the soap:

...and FYI: I'm quoted on page 55:

I packaged everything together in fabric bags:

It was the first time I did a buttonhole...and sew a button with my sewing machine! I'm so proud of myself - haha!  I had to interrupt my husband from his online poker playing so I could watch how on YouTube. 

I had lots of practice since I made 8!

Have a Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all have a good one.

sewing and pictures

I wanted to experiment with sewing nylon.  Inspired by Yorktown Road's supply sack which is made out of a heavier nylon, I set out to make my zippered pouch with a very light weight nylon.  It came out great.  I didn't even have to sew interfacing. The nylon pouch is the one on top.  The pink one on the bottom is my regular cotton sewn pouch.

The inside:

We also set out to Yerba Buena Gardens so I could take pictures of Jason for his 5th b-day invitations:

Someone was not a happy camper:

finished and starting...

We went to Ikea last Saturday and I bought some fabric there to make new couch pillows.  I picked the red and orange flower fabric to add some brightness to my green couches. I finished these pillows rather quickly.

I also finished my sister's black scarf made with the brushed silk from this post.

Here is the pattern.

 

Now I'm starting a little baby hat made from a Rebecca pattern. I'm knitting with 100% cotton and there is simply no give at all but I like how it feels.

more knitting and sewing...

I've been knitting more fingerless gloves:

 

This is the same pattern as the black ones I knit in my previous post...

and these are the "dashing" gloves from Knitty.  I think I'm going to modify this pattern to make it shorter.  I love the cable pattern on these.

More sewing...

Pouches I promised to make someone a long time ago...

...more zippered pouches

We had a craft fair at work.  It's been an annual thing so employees can do some one-stop holiday shopping.  I made zippered pouches again.  This year they sold out! I made 21, which was less than last year because I didn't sell out then.  I think it was the fabric choice that did it. I used my stash of Junko Onishi fabric.

Ava can almost fit the sweater I knit when she was in my tummy.  There's still lots of room to grow in it.  A few pictures to share:

This is what she does when I say "no" (besides throwing herself on the floor).

I can't believe it's almost Christmas soon.

sewing and knitting

So I finally finished my tie top tank.  Yay!  It's very easy but it took me awhile to finish because the kids needed attention and I could only do so much at a time.  I'm sure if I just had a couple hours to myself I would have finished faster. Nancy told me how to fix it if I wanted a higher neckline.  She told me basically just to add a couple more inches to the top and it worked.  I used a medium weight linen and the tie straps are made of the same material as well as the bias tape.  I think I made it flair too much but I like it and if I had time I would have made another one for my trip to San Diego next week.

Since we're going to San Diego next week, I'll be working on this.  We'll be driving and not flying.  This is how far I am:

Hopefully I at least finish the back part of the jacket.

This was gifted by my sister.  She's great! She's always buying me things. This is a

Kosta Boda piece, designed by Kjell Engma (and it's my favorite color...slate blue)!

Well everyone...have a good weekend!

origami planes, knitting & sewing

Here's what I've been doing:

Making origami airplanes with my son:

Knitting baby hats: (a co-worker put together a project to knit baby hats because Lion Brand gave us a whole lot of yarn - which once all done, will be donated)...

Working on my tie top tank.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

this weekend

I was on vacation from Wednesday until today. I go back to work tomorrow.  I didn't do much on the weekdays but on the weekend I did some stuff.  I went to the Vivienne Westwood Exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.  She inpires me to want to learn to sew clothes.  I like her later collection.

Today I sewed this bag:

This is the bag reversed:

The tutorial is from Nancy of Belle Epoque - click on her link and you get all the information you need to make the tote.  It's very easy.  It was my first time sewing with bias tape so my work is a bit messy.  I need to practice. I used brown linen with interfacing for the outside and natural linen for the lining. The next thing I want to try is her tie top tank. It looks like a cool top for summer.

Yesterday, we also went to a nephew's birthday party at Malibu - not much for the little ones but this is how my son plays skeeball:

I've been tagged for a meme - I promise to answer in my next post.

mother's day gifts & sweets

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day.  I went to Japantown Saturday to pick up a coffee crunch cake for a Mother's Day luncheon at my aunt's house.  I bought if from here. It was very yummy.

 

I made these little pouches to put gifts in for the mothers:

Some gifts I received:

A lovely handmade teacup made by Little Flower Designs gifted from Caitlyn. 

...a Tokidoki handbag from my sister:

... a cake plate from my cousin - which I used later at night for a dinner at my house:

I also got green tea mochi from Japantown --- very yummy indeed; wish I had the recipe:

and some swap goodies from Kumi:

made:

I made these favors the past weekend- yes, I folded all these little bags:

My sister and sister-in-law punched holes and helped put the ribbons through:

Made a couple small drawstring pouches:

Made chocolate covered strawberries:

Bought these two shirts on sale at a local street fair from Abe Jones:

...and here is one of my son's creations - a star wars spaceship made out of his legos: