Sunday 31 March 2013

NZ-OZ Trip ~ Changi Airport

Finally I'm here in the departure area waiting for my 830 PM flight to Sydney!

I spent my day packing 25 inch luggage, it's officially full with clothes and all the crap a girl needs. It indeed crossed my mind that I might pack too much crap, but after repack twice, I only managed to remove 3 items -_-

It's raining in Singapore which I hope it won't cause any delay to my flight as I have a connecting flight to Auckland and I really don't wish having to spend too much time waiting in airport... though I have to say that if only all airports are like Changi, it might be alright - but until now, I haven't found any airport that is at least has the potential to become the second best airport after Changi.

Anyway, there's a very cute display of 2 pandas in terminal 1 public area and departure area which I believe it has something to do with Kai Kai and Jia Jia-2 pandas lent from China to Singapore Zoo.


And this is my plane waiting for its passengers in the rain...





Saturday 30 March 2013

NZ-OZ Trip ~ Preparation (check!)

Cute luggage tag from a dear friend

Well, for the past one week I have been busy preparing for my upcoming one-month trip to New Zealand and Australia...

Yes, it was somewhat sudden, but as an Indonesian, I have to apply for New Zealand and Australia visas first before I can plan the detail of my trip, and since I had a history of my Europe trip got cancelled due to visa being rejected while I had already been in half-way of planning my trip, when I applied visa for both Australia and New Zealand, I avoided all kinds of planning, or even conversations that may touch the subject of vacation, Australia, and New Zealand.

And true to be told, I was kinda touchy for few weeks while waiting for the outcome of my visa, and I might have been snappy towards few of my friends... *so sorry for that dear friends :(

Anyway, end of last week I came to NZ embassy to collect my visa and only since then I dedicated most of my time to do all the travel planning, and now I can say that all of them are done and I'm (almost) ready to fly tomorrow evening~ yay!!

So.. let's see...

 passport and visa 
 print out of all accommodation and day tour/flight bookings 
 a copy of passport and visa (just in case) 
 maps 
 cash 
 medicine 
 travel adapter and ipad/phone charger 
 camera 
 toiletries 
 clothes... what can I say... I still have few clothes hanging outside waiting to dry so that I can pack them up and put it into my blue luggage

This trip is actually going to be my first long vacation that I have to basically take care everything myself. I had planned (and quite successfully done) several trips, but none of them were longer than a week, while this trip to NZ and OZ is going to be for one whole month!!! I'm totally excited, thrilled, and somewhat nervous about this trip! I just hope everything will be just fine - wish me luck!

PS: This is something I'm kinda proud of :D I printed everything needed to be printed, then I tagged each of them with paper tape (so that it's easy to pull out) and put them in a transparent file folder with dividers, take a look:






Thursday 21 March 2013

Singapore Sewing and Craft Store - Sing Mui Heng, Chinatown

When I first started on sewing, I remember that I had quite a slow start in finding local sewing/craft stores as the information available online wasn't much at that time so I only knew a huge Australian franchise store in one of the malls here, and though they offer a wide range of sewing supplies, I find that their price is more on the expensive side. So then I resorted to buying online, and since most of the online stores are in the US or UK (where sewing is much more popular), the delivery takes a while in which delaying the progress of my projects :(

But then I was lucky enough to find this store by accident. It sells all the stuff I need for my projects and almost every time I thought that I may have to buy something online, I go there and voila! - they carry it in their store :)

So this post is for all crafters and sewers in Singapore that haven't found a good local store for their sewing supplies needs!

The store name is Sing Mui Heng. There are 2 branches, in Chinatown and Textile Centre, and they now even have a new online webstore: seweasy.com.sg. Even though the items they carry are more or less the same, if you're looking for laces and cotton/linen tapes, the branch in Textile Centre carries wider range of them, while the one in Chinatown carries more fabrics, beads, bag making supplies, Brother sewing machine (and quite various presser foot) - and they also have sewing/quilting classes.

However, since today I went to the one in Chinatown, I post some pics of their branch there. Enjoy!

store front

pretty display of Swarovski(?) decors
right after the entrance
Swarovski crystals
Beads
accessories making supplies
pre-packaged assortments of buttons
pick-as-you-like drawers of buttons
ribbons
threads and bias tapes
yarns and more threads
bag handles, frames and zippers
more bag handles and zippers
kits - purses, pouches and many more! 
Clover's notions
more Clover's notions
fat quarters
fabrics
more pretty fabrics
colorful fabrics!
Note: I heard that they just renovated the Textile Centre branch, I will post more pics once I have the time to visit them. 





Wednesday 20 March 2013

Basic Sewing 101 - Get Yourself Started



Okay... When I finally decided I wanted to try sewing, first thing I did was googling the basic supplies I needed to get me started. I can't count how many blogs or articles that I visited during those days, however I managed to get myself a list of what I should buy and I just thought of sharing to help those who is thinking of picking up sewing ;)

Note: I started sewing with interests in quilting, some of the the items may be more quilt-oriented... though in general, they all can be for general sewing.

First of all, you have to decide if you want to sew using machine or hand - this could be one of the biggest expense during the start of your new hobby, so it would be better if you get yourself a beginner sewing machine which would not drain your savings account. The price range for beginner sewing machines should be approximately 150-250 Singapore dollars (~120-200 USD) - depends on the brand, its features and also the number of stitches it can do. The most used stitch is basic straight stitch, so unless you're thinking of doing a lot of decorative stitching, machines with lesser number of stitches would do just fine.

Now, the notions...


1. Rotary cutter: this is very helpful in cutting fabric in straight line, though you must be careful not to have your hand in the way, because the blade is very sharp.

2. Scissors: don't hesitate to invest in a good fabric scissors, it is extremely useful. Don't buy a cheap one because you will end up throwing it away after few months...
3. Sewing pins
4. Sewing needles
5. Seam ripper: as a beginner, you are bound to make mistakes and there will be many times that you need to undo the stitches and start all over again, so this is when the seam ripper serves its purpose ;)
6. Thread: oh colorful thread....
7. Bobbins
8. Self-healing cutting mat



9. Rulers

10. Measuring tape

11. Chalk/marking pen

That's it... And of course you can't start sewing without these...


I have to admit, ever since I got into sewing, I have one new addiction... fabric shopping! 

Oh, one more thing... these pretties could be useful to prettify our project ;)


12. Leather snap button

13. Leather decoration patch

14. Assorted buttons

15. Cotton tapes, ribbons, etc

16. Laces

So, I think you're now good to go. I do hope this post can help! ;)

Good luck and welcome to the beautiful and creative world of sewing!




Sunday 17 March 2013

Felt Sewing Machine Cover with Hand-stitched Applique - Semi Tutorial


For the past few days, I have been eager to make something using few rolls felt I bought from Daiso the other week, and when my eyes laid on my sewing machine, the answer was just right there - a new sewing machine cover!

You see, the original cover (the one came with the machine) has torn itself up in so many places that it can no longer properly serve its original purpose - protect machine from the dust, etc: 


I also managed to find so many helpful tutorial on applique using freezer paper (just google with these keywords: applique freezer paper), I got myself a roll of freezer paper from Cold Storage. It sits neatly near the other rolls - aluminium foil, cling wrap, etc - and I gotta tell you... I totally LOVE freezer paper!


I started with designing and printing the applique templates that I want and traced them onto the paper (non-coated) side of freezer paper, and then ironed them onto the felt. This is what it looked like:


The blue pants and pink blouse are the result after cutting them nicely and peeling off the freezer paper. 

And then once all the cutting and peeling are done, we are ready to hand-stitch each of them: 


For my design, I used a simple running stitch and a little bit of chain stitch. 


I also made bias binding from a Japanese fabric from my stash to add some more fun. :)

I sewed the bias binding for all bottom sides. I chose brown color for the left and right sides. 


The last two steps would be assembling them, and add the bias binding. 

Tip: clip the rounded edges of the brown felt in few v patterns (like this), and sew the edges slowly. 

Here is the finished sewing machine cover: 


And now it serves two purposes: protect my sewing machine, and make my room prettier :)

Lastly, for everyone that celebrates St. Paddy's day:





Friday 15 March 2013

Introduction

Welcome to my blog!

At last, after much procrastination, hesitation and worries, I finally decided to have this blog up and running.

My name is Liz, and I'm Indonesian and currently living in a sunny and tiny country Singapore!

I very much want this blog to record my journey in the craft world (or this world in general), and so I promise myself to post as often as possible, which I surely hope that this time this blog indeed becomes my resorts to write (and whine) about anythi - ehm.. craft and its related stuff.

As far as I remember, my interest in art started as a childhood hobby - as a little girl, I thought that the people I saw everyday were very interesting, especially their face structure, how the eyes, nose and lip were placed in certain way that it created such beautiful balance. and then in no time, I started drawing and I was soooo into it for couple of years. And I even won a prize in a drawing competition held in my church!

Unfortunately, I was soon strayed away from anything artsy or crafty after I started high school. I was busy surviving public school (the competition was terrible), and then surviving university, part-time job, full-time job, adulthood... But now I'm ready to drown myself in the world of creativity! I'm a bit rusty, but I am sure I can catch up one way or another ;)

I still draw some sketches once in a while, and I also got into sewing for more than a year, and now I'm interested in learning a little bit of embroidery, hee~

So, in conclusion, this blog will contain anything art and craft related - especially that has something to do with fabric and needle :p - and maybe a little bit on travel and cooking - both are my hobbies too :)

That's it for now, I hope I see you guys again!