Custom Orders

March was unbelievably and unexpectedly good month for my little etsy shop. Last week, I had to finish 8 custom order dresses in 5 days, while I still worked my full time job! It was crazy.
The floral cut out dress became a best selling item in my shop, and I love making that dress:)

Besides sewing, my husband, friends and I went to Hanami (Cherry blossom viewing) at Ueno park the other day, and it was a lot of fun! It was packed with people, different vendors etc, and I love the fact that we can have drinks at public places! In Pennsylvania, they had a strict alcohol rules, and it was not allowed to drink alcohol in public, or buy it at a convenient store. I love the freedom of that in Japan.
Now I'm in NY, and heading to Philly tomorrow!

Karla Spetic

Karla Spetic A/W10

I'm so inspired by this Australian designer, Karla Spetic. Everything about her A/W10 collection is perfect and I want them all!
The bottom right, bondage dress kind of reminds me of Burberry skirt. OutsaPop has a diy tutorial of the twisted skirt here, which can be used to imitate the Karla Spetic's bondage dress.

I also love the different kind of cut-out details in her dresses.

Baby shower and handmade baby clothes

We had a wonderful weather this weekend! I planned a baby shower for my best friend, and this was the first time I thew a baby shower. So I was so glad we were blessed with the amazing sunny weather.
So I decorated the garden with colorful balloons, baked cookies, and my friends brought over other foods to share.

My close friends from high school and their significant other got together...

Played some games.

As for the gift, I made some baby clothes, using polka dot double gaze fabric in different colors. I bought the fabric at Yuzawaya.
The pattern I used was from a website, called handmadenokokoro. The website is in Japanese. Pattern can be downloaded from here. Just like BurdaStyle patterns, this pattern can be printed out in A4 copy papers and glue them together.
The pattern has only one part, and is extremely easy! You only need some bias strips other than the body part.
Since I'm used to making adult's clothes, the baby clothes seemed super small! so tiny and cute.

I only needed 50cm of fabric each for these.

With the fabric left over, I decided to make some matching baby bibs.

The bib pattern is from the same website.
This website is great! They offer a bunch of patterns for baby and kids clothes, all for free!

Since the Japanese patterns do not include seam allowance, I cut out the pattern with seam allowance including.

Baby clothes are amazingly small!

I put everything in a box, with a small soap.

I was so glad that my friend loved it!!

Tuxedo Dress

This is my new favorite dress! Although my husband told me that the ruffle in the front "is not doing for him", I don't care:) I love this design!
This is a modification of the cut out back dress, and also the back bow dress I made a while ago. the back bow dress was made of jersey knit, but this stripe fabric is cotton without any stretch. So instead of making the back bow, I decided to open/close with a small covered button in same fabric. I also added a zipper in the back for closure.

I also added a piece of fabric that I made into a ruffle. I don't like excessive ruffles, but I like something small like this. I'm thinking of making this design in some pastel color fabrics, to make it kind of look like cup cakes for the Spring!

Hope everyone will have a fabulous weekend!

kitty washing machine

I don't know if I ever posted my cat here? But here is my cat, he's been with my parents for about 5,6 years now. He is very friendly and likes to be pet in the head and neck, but hates to be touched in his body. He really annoys me in the morning because he mews too much for the food and wakes me up.

And oh here is a really funny video about cat washing machine that sells in Japan.. only in Japan!

Heart print

This dress was my last week's creation. I did not get much sewing done last week. I don't know what my time were spent on, but the week just flew by without me getting much done.

So this dress. I used the same pattern as my cowboy dress for the top part. But while I was making the dress, I totally forgot to gather the shoulder part, so the dress ended up being a bit bigger than my cowboy dress. Since the shoulder parts were so wide, I took a piece of fabric and wrapped the shoulder part around and gather it to make it a bit narrow. Sorry it's not showing in the pictures.
And the skirt part. I wanted to add a circle skirt for this one, and I thought I drafted it just right, but after I sewed the skirt part into the top part, I realized it wasn't really a circle skirt any more, because it left this interesting drapes on the sides. I don't know what I did wrong, but it was not circle. But I kinda like the drapes on the sides! Sometimes mistakes brings some uniqueness...
The fabric was one of my recent purchases from Nippori fabric row. When I went there two weeks ago, I only had 10 minutes before the stores closed. Those fabric stores close so early! So I had to pick whatever the fabric that attracted my eyes.
This fabric was just perfect, with tiny white harts all over the orange background color.

♡♡Heart print dress♡♡

Cowboy prints

I finished this dress a while ago, but never got around to post it here. I already wore this for a couple of times, and ended up staining the dress with Okonomiyaki (Japanese style pancake) oil the other day:( which, did not come off after a vigorous wash. But this is one of the few items I'm keeping to myself, instead of posting it on my etsy shop. I just could not resist the cuteness of this fabric, and did not have enough fabric length to make another one for the shop.
I made the pattern myself. The inspiration is from some 70s vintage dresses. I found myself being attracted to cross over front, tight waist line and gathered skirt lately. I actually wanted to make the skirt part accordion pleats, but I did not know how to make it - I'm guessing you need a special presser to make accordion pleats?! Perhaps that might be too much for me right now.

I lined the top part with the same fabric.

It was a bit difficult to determine what part of fabric I should use for top part, and skirt part, because half of this fabric has the trees (which i used for skirt part) and the rest of the half had just flowers. They were not all the same pattern, but perhaps that was why I liked the fabric.

Sorry for the blurry photo, but just wanted to show the little cowboy and some animals on this fabric. so cute, right?
And I think this green color is perfect for my skin color. I'm pretty picky on green color. I hate kelly green and I cannot wear a lime green because it has too much yellow in it (matches too much with my skin color). But this green, (paste? not quite?) is just perfect. I'm not sure what this color is called. sage green..?
And last but not least, my recent favorite jewelries: thrifted pearl ring, f21 pins, and heart shell shaped earrings from Kayo.

Secret garden

Have you checked out the Forever 21's Spring look book, called "Secret Garden"? I fell in love with the look book immediately after the looking at the first photo! It's so Springy and girly and cute!
First thing that popped out was the fun and statement necklaces. They are bib necklaces but made in pastel color gems or pearls. With the statement necklace, it change the image of the whole outfit!
I also love the lace and floral prints (of course), and the vintage feel in general.
Speaking of Spring, I just posted this dress on my etsy shop today. I thought of waiting to post it till Spring really comes, but I could not wait:p