First ever carpet bag

Hobby without company can be boring at times, and I have been longing to be part of sewing club and meet sewistas... First step to that would be joining an online club and when I saw this Bag of the month club https://www.facebook.com/groups/649141071864918/?fref=nf, I jumped at the opportunity.

This club functions for 6 months jan - June and each month a new pattern is released by talented designers who are part of the group and all the members will get the pattern. This is a paid club and membership costs USD 40 . Feel free to join the fun, you can join anytime from jan - June, you will get patterns for all 6 months

Now to The Companion carpet bag , pattern by talented Samanatha is easy to sew. The cutting and fusing took maximum time for me. Fixing the frame and meddling with screws took sometime to get used to . But that is the last step so it's a breeze until then

Sewista Applique is my personal touch to the bag. The bag has external pocket with invisible magnet closure and also has a inner mobile pocket and misc slip pocket. It also has a zippered pocket on the inside. 

The bag also has feet at bottom to protect the fabric, my first attempt at using bag base and bag feet. Guess what I have used for bag base which is hidden between main and lining layers .

iPhone case plastic carton, which I cut open and used bag base, sandwiched between 2 Layers of fabric.necessity is the mother of all inventions ..yay!!

Handles have been made by me using Pu leather and fabric bias strips. Didn't have any 1 inch D ring in stock so switched the straps and then added the strap coverup in triangle shape to go with gusset fabric! 

Now Adithi needs one as ..guess what for ...as her lunch bag, cause the frame is so easy to open and close. In fact she checked if she can use this, which usually I do indulge her requests, but not this time as this bag is meant for the Sewista !!! Need to order one more frame now... Frame is quite expensive at usd 10.5 with shipping . Which means 45 MYR for just the frame..but I had decided this year to indulge with a budget for my sewing fantasies and I am going to do it, have fun sewing and be happy in life :)

Made for Mom

Somedays inspite of hours of digging through your stash of fabrics, staring at your laptop screen googling for inspiration , scratching your head..you seem to run out of ideas and just when you are about to throw in the towel , viola you finally do get an idea to create something ...

 In Spite of having to unpick seams of non forgiving pu leather fabric, and just about scrape through dimensions for end product , you did create something presentable , made with lot of emotions and passion... 

Pat yourself on the back, you were born to be a seamstress, albeit with some stress on 'stress'... Yes the you in this story is Me... Today's creation is a eyeglass case for my mom, who celebrated her bday last month .. Pu leather exterior with Amma appliqué in tamil script and lined with cotton which is fused with batting to provide the necessary cushion. Now having my fingers crossed as I am not sure if the dimensions are long enough to fit the eyeglass comfortably ..need to wait for hubby to come back to test his frame 

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My little angel turns 8 - mood board inspired dress

Dear Readers,

I know I haven't been posting regularly on the blog, but those of you who are on www.facebook.com/AdithisCouture know that I have been sewing ... I still have so many pending posts ,..oh yes elsa dress is still WIP post :( 

Ok now let me get on to this post. This is about the birthday dress I made for my little girl who actually isn't little anymore, she turned 8 !

Had made a sewing mood board using thermocol  and the first project on it was for her bday dress. I gave her collection of magazines and asked her to choose dresses she liked, it could be color, cut, design, embellishment anything she liked. She chose few and based on that I added a few and made the mood board

I have the mood board right above my sewing desk . I am surprised at the impact that it had on my design and sewing, I was improvising and working on bodice of frock and after having completing it, it was shocking to me that a design on mood board had come through in the bodice albiet in a morphed form , but It did come and without actually intending to do so while working on the bodice ...so yes Mood boards work big time and I recommend it for every sewista, infact for every creative person , I am sure it will help in your design and execution , especially when you get a whole whirlwind of ideas and don't know which ones to shortlist and choose ...pls try it out and you will be happy with your mood board .

Now let's talk about the dress in detail. As you can see the number 8 itself was in teal color as chosen by Adithi and the dress base color will be teal. She wanted to have peocock colors so teal, blue and green, slight hint of purple,  but I gave up on green and used teal, light blue, ink blue and a purple, blue, teal mixed fabric, sorry forgot the name, it was japanese something fabric I found in Kamdar. 

Oh yes fabric shopping was an ordeal, as I tried Spotlight once and couldn't get much to suit the mood board within my budget, which is surprising and had even thought of changing the pallete for the dress but decided to try one more attempt at shopping and I stuck s good deal this time at kamdar, the right colors, texture and price that I was looking for .

Bodice took an entire swwing day , with blink tuck pleats (yes my latest sewing technique obsession!!) which were in bias and then I filled in the gap between two pleated spaces using fan made of fabric in 3 colors, yes I went avant garde and to be honest I am pleased with the result, though I was initially apprehensive thinking if I am going over board... One shoulder bodice was drafted and I added elastic infused, intertwined straps for more stability on the other side. It has back zipper opening and is lined with cotton satin. Oh yes the main fabric for bodice is teal color tafetta . Wanted the skirt to start from low waist , hence added a big waist band with mixed color fabric 

With the bodice done, it was a tough decision to choose which fabric to use for skirt the dark blue organza or the mixed color name not known fabric . Adithi chose the later. Made an high low circle skirt which runs high low from side to side rather than front to back. Also another layer of ink blue organza is beaneath it and then  It is interlied with tafetta and underlined with cotton satin half circle skirt . Yes lots of layers for skirt and it adds fullness and gives shape without using tulle and is light in weight ...the only fabric heavy was cotton satin lining!

Bow on strap is last minute addition as I felt strap too nude compared to all those avant garde fabric fans on bodice. Bow is separate and is attached to broooch pin, so it can worn with any other outfit. 

After a trial session, Adithi said waist was itching , since the waist seams were visible though overlocked..i adding a seam covering using bias strip of cotton sateen and covered up seams, yes couture finish fit for a princess ...

 Oh yes had also made tile jewellery to go with it, earrings and necklace using fabric .

She had an awesome day at school, yes this year she wanted to go to school on her bday ..every year at the start she says how she would like to celebrate her bday and we plan accordingly ...last year she wanted a surprise a big one, so we took her to disneyland hongkong, this year she wanted to celebrate with friends at school..so it was ..then we went to park and temple in the evening ... Her favourite Geronimo Stilton book collection was the bday gift, which we had hidden in different places in the house and sent her on a treasure hunt, she was thrilled and elated. ... Made her handmade pop up card and then evening surprise gift was scrabble , which we played seated at the park until late into night when mosquitoes ensured it was time to head back home ...it was awesome birthday fitting for a princess.... 

Me N Mom Matching skirts

Made matching skirts for Adithi and Me. We love wearing matchy outfits and flaunting our matchy accessories. Just the thrill that we both are wearing alike keeps us motivated to wear matchy match . Not sure though, how long this will continue , with Adithi growing up, I am not sure if she would like to be seen wearing outfits which matches with her mom's... That is for future, now lets enjoy the moment right now where she really loves to match with mom provided I reassure her that despite the similarity , her outfit is better than mine :)

l Made half circle skirt using By Hand London Circle Skirt App which made my job easier

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Used waist facing with back zipper closure

for  Adithi it's a Full circle skirt for her seat measurement which us fitted using elasticised waist band.

Thank you By Hand London for the circle app, which saves me from doing the math. 

Meet Kawairashī on'nanoko aka Japanese Girl Avatar

Meet Adithi in her pretty little Japanese Girl Avatar

 BackView

Making Yukata (the traditional Japanese Summer Kimono) was qutie challenging. I had never seen this outfit in person before and had to make use of the pics i found on the net as reference. Checked a few online tutorials on how to make it, and more i saw them, the more confused i was. so after an hour or so of wandering on the net, i decided to take things under control and started drafting own pattern directly on fabric. 

Fabric folded lengthwise with chest width + 1.25 inch (mistake, i had to add 2+inches or so for overlap at front, will correct it next time ) and marked front and back pieces together without shoulder seam (sorry didn't take any pic while making it as i was too preoccupied figuring it out) , so mostly a rectangle with neck curve and sleeve without any curve as in armhole which are cut straight

Collar was another lengthy rectangle and had to sewn around neck and center front overlap sides . this is more like modern day bathrobe . I had miscalculated length of collar and next time when i make it will cut neck depth bit more at front so that overlap collar is up until low waist, rather than just below ribs in this outfit.

Sleeves were also a rectangle cut on fold with sleevelength as desired and breadth being armhole depth  * 2 as sleeves hang extra beyond armhole. This was most tough for me as couldnt figure out armhole vent which was there in pics and finally figured it out. I am still not sure if i did it right and i need to get my hands on Yukata to see if i did manage to sew it right.

 Made an Obi Belt, which was basically a  rectangle to fit her waist and added velcro straps at back. made a huge interfaced bow and attached it to the back of Obi. Making Obi was the easiest part of this entire outfit.

We were supposed to go to Bon Odori - festival on Saturday and since my hubby was unwell and it was raining heavily, we had to cancel it at the last minute. never mind we had a Bon Odori photosession at home! And she had loads of fun and said the outfit was very airy n comfy !!!! I did a cheatseat and added a godget at back for ease of movement and also to make up for my shortage on front overlap added a hidden flap overlap at front underside part. Liberty of sewista ...yay!!

Bon Odori @ home 

 Better view of Sleeves and yes a little bow hairclip made to match :)

She loved every moment of it and was jumping with joy ! ahoy !

Next time when i make yukata i will be more prepared and it will be much closer to original traditional version. 

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