Sorbetto Dress

In the end, I couldn't make adjustments by adding elastic because the embossed fabric is rather stiff and doesn't take kindly to elastic or gathers. I had to iron the inverted pleat down to death because it keeps sticking out instead of laying flat. The dress looked kind of plain so I added a small bow where the pleat ends. If you strain your eyes, you can see the bow :)

Not bad for a dress without a zipper. There is sufficient ease so that I can put it on and pull it off. 

Note to self: 
I have made adjustments to my Sorbetto pattern. Trimmed off a bit at the side seam at underarm. Trimmed the width and length of the skirt. If I sew another Sorbetto again, I should raise the front neckline by about an inch.

good night

Sunday night, it is the end of my weekend. It has been a fruitful weekend, made time for rest, time for God, time for family and time for myself. We bought a Japanese souffle cheesecake from Carrefour. It was yummy and cheaper than other bakeries. 

I made a frothy cup of milo for my son. He was studying for his Continuous Assessments (tests) coming up next week. So I make him a snack during tea time.

He frothed the milk using the Ikea Produkt milk frother. It's a nifty little gadget for frothing milk. The thick froth disappears very quickly though and what is left is bubbly milk, but it's still kind of fun for a hand-held, battery (2 AA szied batteries are needed) operated frother that costs only S$4.90.

Craftwise, I sewed my Sorbetto dress. I kept trying it on after sewing  each seam. Do you do that too when you sew and knit? I made some adjustments. First I took in a bit at the side seams at the underarms before the dart. I also slimmed down the bottom of the skirt by about an inch at each side. I think it still needs some finishing touches because it looks a little loose and shapeless to me.

Tonight, after dinner I had gone for a brisk walk along the linear park near my house. The park has been renovated and the path is much broader now, more conducive for walking or jogging. I used to walk regularly at night with my kids. I can't remember why we stopped. It is nice to walk at night. It is cooler than in the daytime and it is quieter too. So I had a nice time alone with my thoughts. That's when the idea for how to make my Sorbetto dress fit better came to me. I want to add some elastic to the dress to cinch in the width and thereby slim down the dress. The only drawback is that the embossed fabric is rather stiff and might cause the gathers to stick out. Fingers crossed, hoping it will do the trick. By the way, I took such a long walk, almost an hour, that my husband started to worry about me and my kids called me on my handphone. I was almost home by then and after I hung up, I took this photo of the streetlight. By the way, you would be so proud of me. On my walk, I passed an ice cream shop and I did NOT go in. Is that willpower or what? That and the fact that I did not bring any money with me :)

I'm looking forward to the new week, starting daily devotions with my kids for Lent using the book, "Hope Strengthens Me" published by the Singapore Bible Society for Lent 2012. First time we're observing Lent. Hope you have something exciting to look forward to this week too.

my weekend has started

My son has outgrown a pair of sneakers that he wore only a few times. I tried them on and guess what? They fit me! So tell me how this happens - I'm wearing hand-me-down shoes from my 11 year old son. I decided to change the laces a la these lacey ones. I used about 2 metres of lace trim from Daiso. I rolled the ends in some "cloth tape" (I'm not sure what they are but they look like a sturdier form of masking tape) that I found lying around the house. 

I love my girly sneakers now and declare them good enough to wear with a skirt.

We ate out for dinner. We had Taokoyaki - savoury Japanese fried dumplings with octopus inside, garnished with mayonnaise and bonito flakes. My son and I don't really fancy the octopus, but the dumpling is nice.

Yakisoba -fried Japanese noodles.

And another yakisoba topped with lots of mayo and sweet sauce and more bonito flakes. 

I have photos of two signs in my neighbourhood that I have been meaning to show you for a long time. The first one is a DIY sign made by a homeowner on a plastic plate. I like how it is illustrated for clarity, just in case the reader does not understand English. 

The next one is an "official" signboard put up by the National Environment Agency at the nearby playground. 

It is Friday night here and my weekend has started. I'm looking forward to spending some time with my sewing machine. Hope you'll have fun on your weekend too.

happy valentine's day

My daughter made these for Valentine's Day. Cute, no?

Sorry for the bad photo below, it was already late at night when I took them out of the fridge and the plastic gift bag was beginning to fog up. I wanted to show you the stick with a row of choc hearts.

Ingredients: Cadbury's milk chocolate, Glico Pocky and chocolate moulds from Daiso. My daughter said that making them was easy enough. But the difficult part was how to make sure they didn't melt before she gave them away! Our weather is so warm, chocolate melts very quickly at room temperature. I suggested that she freeze them overnight and thankfully they did last long enough.

I have been so caught up with bringing lunch to work that I got myself this set of melamine crockery from Daiso. Food tastes better on pretty plates.

My lunch lately has been sandwiches and more sandwiches. Mini tuna croissant-wiches, cashew nut cookies (leftover from Chinese New Year), mandarin orange and apple tea.

Chicken and olive sandwiches, salad and brown rice green tea. I need to stock up on salad fixings as I have run out of macaroni and salad dressing. Last week, I didn't bring any packed lunches because I didn't have time. Just as well I didn't because friends called up and I had the pleasure of meeting them for lunch.

cut and sew day

The top of my daughter's dress had stretched and the neckline and shoulders had become too big. I cut the top off and sewed the skirt part back onto a more fitted t-shirt. Dress fixed but it looks a little too plain now.

This next sewing project is for me. A dress in this black fabric, fibre unknown, probably a polyester something, that I bought many years ago. I lengthened my Sorbetto tank top pattern to make the skirt. I hope that it will drape nicely and not stick out weirdly at the sides. Keeping my fingers crossed. I had wanted to add short sleeves too but I did not have enough fabric. This fabric is very difficult to cut neatly because it is embossed allover with a busy pattern. Yes, I cut my fabric on the floor :)

We had a light lunch at home. Soup (chicken and old cucumber melon, thickened with ground soya beans) and macaroni salad. What about you, what did you do today?

eye candy

From the 2011 Spring / Summer Japanese World Knitting magazine. On the left is a 3-colour garter with slip stitch cardi. The ruffles is a tape yarn. Do you think it would look Chanel-ish in a black-grey-white combo? On the right is a simple checkerboard raglan vest. I'm drawn to it because of the soft beige colour and the flower pin. Seduced by a flower pin again.

Next, from Cotton Friend Winter edition 2011-2012 Vol 41. On the left is an unstructured, unlined jacket. I wonder what fabric would be suitable for this. Something soft and not too thin? The magazine probably has recommendations for fabric. Unfortunately I can't read Japanese. On the right is a tunic shift with cowl neck and a few pin-tucks mid-sleeve. It looks so fashionably chic on the model below but I have a sneaky feeling that it would look hopelessly shapeless on me. 

Sew February - cat tank top

I didn't sew anything in January. Maybe I can catch up by sewing 2 items this month. This cat tank top is for my daughter. I'm so glad that the tank top is wearable because my daughter likes the cat fabric very much. We bought the cotton fabric from one of the shops in Arab Street last April. Why do I take so long to get round to sewing up my fabrics? Anyway, I almost botched up the tank top by making it too small.

I traced the pattern from one of her favourite knit jersey tank tops. It's a disease, I can't seem to stop making patterns from favourite clothes. Which tends to be very much a matter of trial and error. Mostly error. In this instance, I had failed to take note of the fact that knit jersey stretches and cotton does not. So the top was too tight across the armpits. I had to unpick the seams and crack my head for a solution. The problem was that I had already cut the front and back pieces out of the 1 metre of fabric. Fortunately I could salvage it. I re-positioned the paper pattern lower down on the fabric pieces that had already been cut and re-cut the top part of the tank from the armhole upwards. Thank goodness I had cut it extra long to begin with. As it is an A-line shape, the lower part of the pattern had more width. I further extended the width by reducing the seam allowance from 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch. Disaster averted!

Worn tucked into a skirt.

Worn tucked out, it has a slight swing shape.

Note to self: 

• This tank top would look cute with a peter pan collar. 
• Remember to extend the armhole edge on the both the front and back pattern pieces by 3/4 inch for that much needed extra ease. 
• Also, remember that I did not include seam allowance in the pattern. 

this week's clean a corner

Sorting out my clothes cupboard took one hour. By sorting I do not mean organising and hanging by colour scheme or anything like that. What I did was to decide whether to keep to throw out my clothes. Most of the time was spent trying on clothes and convincing myself it was time to let them go. In the end, I threw out some dead clothes (that had lost their shape or had fallen apart from too many years of wear and tear) and set aside these clothes for selling at the next flea market. I am still thinking whether I should refashion any of these items.

I am pleased that I had cleaned out all the dust bunnies (how on earth does dust get inside a cupboard that is closed all day?) but I have a feeling that I wasn't ruthless enough in culling my clothes. By the way, you can see some of my hand-knits at the bottom. The pink and red on the right are 2 knitted shawls and there are some hand-knit cotton sweaters in the piles on the left.

currently knitting

My current knitting project is this vest. I think I was drawn to it because of the flower pin, and the fact that I had 2 balls of Sirdar cotton 4 ply that isn't enough for much more than a sleeveless tank top. I didn't want to knit a tank top, so the alternative was to knit a vest.

I'm done knitting the back, which is plain stockinette. I have started on the right front, which is more interesting to knit, as it has a lace panel. It looks like I might run out of yarn but I should have enough to complete at least the main body pieces. Then I will have to look for some contrast yarn to complete the crochet border.

Lunch recently was macaroni, pan-fried chicken fillet, crunchy grapes, butterhead lettuce with Japanese sesame dressing. Note to self : S$2.80 for 2 butterhead lettuces, enough to make 4 salad lunches. I had the salad again the next day and added boiled chestnuts.