Knitting!

Oh, I can't believe the year 2009 will be over in two hours! I'm not doing much today, just watching K-1 fight on TV, since I have to leave relatively early on tomorrow morning.

As I said before, I re-discovered the fun of knitting the other day, and I've been spending more time on knitting than sewing lately. I took out this Japanese knitting book from the library, titled, "Onnanoko no Knit Komono", which means "Knit Goods for Girls".

I really wanted to make the scarf above. I think the ruffle at the edge is so feminine and cute, and the scarf itself has lace-like feel to it. I tried to follow the pattern 4 times. Knitting and re-doing again and again for 4 times! But I kept missing the seams(? not sure the knitting term in English), and I just couldn't do it. I gave up. Some day, though, I want to make that one.

So I went for easier stuff, and just did the rib knitting for a scarf. I used a thick needles on purpose to creat more chunky look. I have not finished it yet though.

At the same time, I am knitting gray scarf as well. I'm making this very skinny, and long. I didn't use any pattern, but just came up with this on my own, and not sure how to describe it. I need to learn more knitting term...

I am taking these to the plain tomorrow, and I will be away for a week on vacation! So excited:)

Have a happy new year!!

2010 New Year's Resolution

Images from GirlHula via Loafing Odysseys.

I really like the nostalgic feel of these photos above. I also love blue sky in sunny days. I miss those now, that it's cold outside! I'm actually going against the whether and making a sailor collection with cute helm print fabric I got in Nippori a couple of months ago. I long for the summer.

Inspired by Aya from Strawberry Koi Vintage, I decided to compile a list of new year's resolution:

♡Be good at knitting

♡Organize my sewing room

♡Box like Roy Johns Jr.

♡Work out 5 times a week (now I'm at 3 times a week frequency)

♡Run half marathon (in 2009 I ran 10 miles, so I want to be able to run 13 miles next time!)

♡Floss everyday

♡Have devotional time with my husband every day

♡Manage both work and keep up with my etsy shop

♡Buy nice SLR (deciding either Nikon or Cannon... any recommendations?)

My new year's resolution is pretty much focused on working out regularly. I started going to gym three years ago, and it really became part of my life. Before, I hated working out, and sweating. But since I started to work out, I feel much better, stronger, and get a cold fewer than before.

What is your new year's resolution?

Mom's closet

Before the craziness of Christmas and Holiday had started, I had a chance to sneak into my mother's room to go through her closet. I just wanted to borrow some interfacing, but ended up finding more fun stuff than that in her closet. A few of them are the old patterns above. They look like they are from the early 90's or something.

The one on the left is a blouse pattern with cute sleeves. I'm not a big blouse person, and I don't wear them except I wear a suit, but I really like the sleeves and the sash around the waist. When I get a chance, I want to make one for myself and pair it with shorts or something in the summer.

My mother called the pattern on the right "pregnant dress", and I think it's perfect! Perhaps I will make one for my best friend, who is now 6 month pregnant.

I also found these fabrics along with the patterns. Mint green hound tooth print and brown polka dot! These are something that I would not be the first one to buy at the fabric shop (since I always go for florals), it's good, gives me some varieties. I only had a little over 1 meter of them, so I decided to make the following clothes...

♡Mint chocolate chip skirt♡
I used the same pattern as this leopard skirt I made for Tokyo Made Market.
I like this pattern since it only needs 1 meter to make, and I love pockets.

♡Polka dot dolly dress♡

Same pattern as this dress I made before. Just omitted the pockets. Since this fabric does not have stretch, I cut back in half and added an invisible zipper for a closure.
Both my husband and my sister tells me either I look like a nun or a little child with this dress. But I'm fully satisfied with the result, and most of all, happy to be able to use the fabric that had been sleeping in my mom's closet for more than 10 years!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! God bless.... xoxo

Illustrations by Anja Verdugo via Nadinoo.

Neck warmers

I've long forgotten how much I enjoyed knitting. I had not knitted for so long, perhaps more than 5 years, but I recently rediscovered the joy of knitting while my mother was in the hospital. I spent hours in the hospital, waiting, and I needed to do something with the time. I could have read, but I wasn't in the mood for reading, so I picked up a couple of yarns and started knitting.

The picture above was my second neck warmer I made. I first made the same one in white for my self. I used 100% wool white yarn to make a chunky neck warmer. I love it, and I take it with me everywhere I go now, except, 100% wool kind of irritate my skin a bit. So for the second one, I used 100% acrylic mohair yarn, and it came out much better - it is so soft! I added the second one to my shop. I didn't use any patterns and I can't read knitting patterns, they confuse me very much. So I just knitted in rib, and connected the ends at the end.

I think neck warmer is perfect for me, since I don't like wearing turtle necks. They choke me and I feel like I can't breath when I'm wearing them. So I always wear something open around neck, and I like the neck warmer since I can take it off easily, as oppose to turtle neck sweaters.


Oh, and by the way, I'm finally starting to figure out how to use twitter...I've had an account for months, but never updated it, but I'll be good and update it more regularly from now on... follow me on twitter♡

Colette Patterns

I found out about Colette Pattern via Casey's elegant musings. Casey made this wonderfully vintage inspired dress using one of their patterns (shown above, left). Sometimes I find it easier to draft my own pattern to fit better if it's a simple shape, but I think their patterns are worth purchasing. It is elaborate and nicely fitted and even it's $18 a pop it's worth having..
I love the dress above on the right, with two different fabric - it looks so cute with polka dot-ish fabric and baby blue. This Lady Grey coat pattern is nice as well!

Market

Pic of mememachine gallery via verypurpleperson.

Tokyo Made Market has been opened since Monday December 21st! I have not seen the gallery displayed for the Market myself yet, but Novita from verypurpleperson kindly sent me a picture above. She is participating in the event as well.

I'm planning to be there on the 25th and 27th, so if you have a chance to drop by, let me know!!

Tokyo Made featured me as a seller in their blog:) Check it out here.

warm + cozy

All images are from The Cherry Blossom Girl.

Just wanted to share these photos from The Cherry Blossom Girl. I love her style, and the fact she is French! Not only that, her photos are just wonderfully dreamy..

Hope everyone had a great weekend:)

Done!

I'm done! I'm all done with making clothes for Tokyo Made Market. yay!
Sorry for the not-so-exciting background of the photos... I wanted to get a photographer and shoot mood shots of the collection with my sister as a model, but I just ran out of time. Besides, my sister was being a bit uncooperative, so I just had to do it myself. So today I had to run around the house and the back yard trying to get these photos taken before sunset. I feel like the sun goes down so quickly, and by little after 4pm, it already looks like midnight.

Do you see that I cheated a bit though? I did not make all 9, I only made 8.. the bubble sleeve cardigan was borrowed from my etsy shop.. but I just thought it goes well with the rest of the clothes, color wise.

My favorite is the top right corner, two-tone dress with criss cross detail in the front. I would have worn it to work everyday if I still work at the office! My second favorite is the middle in the second row, high waisted skirt. It is quite comfortable and warm, since this thick fabric has some stretch.

These will be available at Tokyo Made Market, and they are all one of a kind!

Happy anniversary and diy t-shirt

Andy and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary on December 12th! Our actual weddings were not on the 12th, since we had two weddings one in the states on Dec 2nd, and the other in Japan on Dec 23rd, we decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary on the 12th. It's easier to remember, 12/12.

Anyway, we do small gift exchange every year with a limit of 20 dollars. We do this since we'd rather spend money on traveling than physical gift itself, and with 20 dollar limit, it forces ourselves to be creative and fun!

This year, I wanted to get him something related to Manny Pacquiao, a Filippino boxer, since he loves him. I check Manny t-shirts online, but it far exceeded 20 dollar limit with shipping and all. So I got a blank white t-shirt (about 5 bucks) at a super market, and got an iron print paper for another 6 bucks. You basically print out whatever picture you want on the iron print paper, and iron the picture on the t-shirt.

I stole this Manny picture somewhere online (I simply googled imaged him), and brought it to my photoshop. Then I added "Manny Pacquiao" letter on the top.

For the iron print, you have to make sure that the letters are mirrored.

Tada! Custom made t-shirt for him! He loved it:)

I also got him this hat that he kept telling me he wanted. I dislike this hat, but hey, it was our anniversary, I decided to be generous. I thrifted it for 3 bucks. Then we went to a French restaurant for lunch - I love eating out in Japan, because I don't have to chip the waitress here, and ends up so much cheaper to eat out than in the States!

winter shorts!

Wearing: ruffle camisole I got in Japan, vivat veritas shorts, payless booties and random white cardigan.

I made these shorts a while ago (2,3 weeks ago) but finally got around to make a post about it today. I'm almost done with the Tokyo Made Market prep, which makes me relieved.

About this black camisole, I've had this forever, at least 5 years, but I rarely wear it since Andy hates it so much. Andy hates anything ruffly. I do like a little bit of ruffle, as long as it's not too much like this.

The shorts are made based on the Jane pattern, I added pockets and waist band for added height in waist. Also added a zipper on the side and a button for closure.

Jane is such a versatile pattern, in the past I made harem pants and rompers based on this pattern. You can lengthen the hem or crunch the hem to make so many different variations.

Work in progress...2

My mac died for two days and I thought I really had to buy a new one. But today, I took out the battery package from the back of the computer and started working again! I'm so happy:)

Here are 4 more. I'm more than half way done (7 so far), and only two more to go!

This one below is so cute with black tights and a pendant!

Mod dress in light peach color
High waisted skirt with bow
I love this! Sorry the picture only shows the top part of the dress, but it's connected to high waisted skirt, and with a zipper closure on the side.

Vacation clothing

I want a maxi dress to take with me to a vacation coming up in January. Andy and I are going to Thailand to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary! So I was thinking it would be nice to have breezy maxi dress to put it over on bathing suit, with flip flops... but I can't decide which on I want. Any advise?

From top left, clock wise:Vintage Hawaiian maxi dress, $24, Vintage 70's Hawaiian maxi dress, $19.99, Maxi Plaid dress, $16, Tahiti maxi dress, $32. All from Etsy.

Pretty in color

Alex Prager's photographes via Nadinoo.

So pretty in funky colors.

Andy and I went to a little shopping to a nearby mall today. We got some gift for his mom, got another prison break DVD. Also we wanted to get a campaign to make a mimosa in the morning of 12th, which is our 3rd wedding anniversary. But we had hard time finding a campaign, and ended up getting this "warm wine" (this was the first time I've heard of this). It's a wine that has added sugar and cinnamon spice and what not and your warm it up before drinking...sounds so good. but we will save it till Saturday morning.

Work in progress...

Here are some photos of the clothes that I've made for the Market in the past two days. Six more to go...

Leopard + floral high waisted skirt

Peter Pan collar dolly dress

Teardrop dress

Gingerlillytea

Just happened to come across these photos from Gingerlilly via Nadinoo. I love her dreamy photos..so nostalgic. Check our her flickr here.

leopard + floral

On the way home from Chigasaki weekend trip, I stopped by at Nippori fabric row for some fabrics to make clothes for the Tokyo Made Market. I had fabrics I wanted in mind, but I got upset because I could not find the ones I envisioned... All the sketches I did before the shopping became nothing, and I had to re-consider what I was going to make. I initially planned to get pale pink and light gray, and one floral fabric, but it was very hard to find perfect pale pink in perfect texture, and thickness. I ended up drawn to this fabric in the middle, in salmon pink color, and picked the rest of the fabrics based on it. This salmon pink jersey has the softest feel, and I knew this fabric would not stretch out and look ugly after a couple of wash. and I love this floral leopard fabric I found! I usually don't like leopard (I think leopard usually looks too slutty for my liking) but the pastel pink and floral balance it out, I think. The right fabric is thick knit, with a bit of a stretch and it kind of looks beige but has a hint of pink.

After the shopping, I realized I work much better with designs once I have the fabrics I like, instead of trying to find a perfect fabric for the design already exist. Picking one fabric that I like and getting two or three more in same or contrasting color pallet, and then deciding on designs work better for me.

My goal is to make 9 pieces of clothes in two weeks. I pre-washed the fabrics, and already made two pieces! Photos coming soon... :)

Going to Chigasaki for the weekend

Wearing: Calvin Kline skirt, random stripe shirt, Abcrombie sweater, thrifted boots and Bandolino bag

Andy and I are going to a weekend trip to Chigasaki:) I feel so age-appropriate with this outfit and the hem line. I am not a teenager any more, I should not wear mini skirt and shorts all the time..hehe
I layer the stripe shirt with a sweater cardigan, so I can adjust the weather..I always get so hot in train! I was tempted to pair high heels with this high waisted skirt, but I decided to wear flat heeled boots so I can walk around without pain.
I packed everything I need for tonight and tomorrow in this Bandolino bag: pj, make up stuff, contact solution, clothes and undie for tomorrow, book to read in train, and a bottle of water. I'm a minimalist for most things and this is one of them!

Have a great weekend!