deondergangvanmijnouders

Hi! Welcome to you Fabric Loving Friends! Haberdashery Heaven Seekers! Here's my latest tour of Shanghai's Fabric Market, and today we'll go behind the Embellishment Market (as I've seen it called) of 388 Renmin Lu! My previous tours are here and here ... and have lots of photos! Often it's hard to find exactly what you're after in Shanghai when searching online, so my fabric tours hope to cover a lot of what *I'm* searching for but what you're searching for too... so let me know if you're in town or coming to town, and I'll be totally happy to help you out! As I said earlier this week , I was poking around the Renmin Lu Haberdashery market as my son was keen on finding materials to make a fishing rod. We rode our bikes through the old town, and came south via Sichuan Lu to Renmin Lu, but instead of going around the front of the building, we parked around back on Xinyong'an Lu. I found my interfacing and some more zippers inside and then we...

Maybe not a million rope bowls, but I have definitely made 20 of these things! It might have been pinterest or a google search that revealed the rope bowl to me, but after I found the tutorial on Pair & A Spare DIY blog , I stored it away on a pinboard as a maybe project. I'm not sure about you, but I like sewing the most... and then I don't mind craft but would probably prefer knitting or crochet over learning a new craft or fiddling around with dinky craft things. I am definitely not a Martha Stewart type, and perhaps not a huge interior decorator even... and it's actually been a great break from our 'things' being here in China... as I'm learning what I do and don't like in a home... I totally like a few personal touches and photographs and plants... I love these indoor plants we have here in Shanghai. But looking around our apartment, it's not really that decorated. Maybe I'll get the urge when we move back home again... but I'm enjoying ...

My Scenes from Shanghai blog post today is about the patterns I see around town... I have another set to post next week as well, because there's so many and they're quite graphic all at once. Walking around some parts of the Former French Concession is never boring, but all streets can look the same unless you pay attention to the details. The details are my favourites! Wishing you a lovely Sunday!

Hi and welcome to my FIFTH update from my sewing classes here in Shanghai, and as Sewing School wrapped up in the first week of June, I haven't got stacks of info to share so that's why you can see the Nonna's above for my intro photo today! I'll give you a shout out if you can name the fashion brand that features these lovely women! It's a photo I quickly took at the K11 Art Gallery Shopping Centre (Yes, Shanghai has a mall for everything, I saw lots of Damien Hurst sculptures there last time I went!) and unfortunately I forgot to remember the store... I adore them though, what darling women! But there are a few things from the last collection of sewing classes... of course, I'm not writing every class down, just my thoughts of what I learnt and how I'm growing as a person... I mean as a seamstress! Last time, I wrote about a few things , but thanks you guys - lovely people who know a lot - I've also learnt a few more things too... so here goes! 1. What...

Hey, wow, it's Tuesday already! Yesterday was a work holiday for Husbie, and so we actually had a long weekend together... but we're trying to save some money so we hung with friends and didn't get out of Shanghai like a lot of people do. It was lovely and quiet (as far as a massive city goes) and it's always the best when there's no work! Today I thought it's time to quickly write up about my neon fern skirt... a really straight forward stretch knit fabric DIY pencil skirt that I made during May. Same fabric as my latest Manado Dress and same shape (and construction) as my Golden Jubilee Wiggle Skirt . It's two pieces, a skirt piece and a waistband piece sewn into tubes, and then attached. Very straightforward. And there are quite a few DIY tutorials online for this kinda thing, no waistband elastic needed if your fabric has enough thickness and reboundness. Is it called recovery? Not sure. Again, fabric description is not my strongest point... but this on...

Moving to Shanghai last year has been quite inspiring for me, but also incredibly challenging. Learning a new language, leaving our friends and family and putting my radio career on hold for a bit; these and many other things are all contributing to the ups and downs of our new life in China. There are over 24 million people living in Shanghai, with around 150 000 foreigners (I think around this many in 2011… so maybe more now) and without speaking or reading Hanyu/Mandarin, you can float around in a little English speaking bubble by yourself. But earlier this year, I started hunting down other bloggers in Shanghai, and came across Line Fricke’s blog Shanghai Habits . I then got in touch after seeing her Instagram post about a Shanghai Blogging Group… and last week, we all joined together to help Line and her project partner Nando Fonseca launch their new project, the Shanghai Bloggers App . My blog, along with many other wonderful local bloggers, are all featured on the app, and there...

Last week, I posted my Holly Palazzo Pants and I'm wearing a Deer & Doe Plantain tshirt ... yes... a tshirt pattern that is NOT a Built by Wendy one. Back in the day (2009-2011) I started sewing stretch fabric like the world would end and we needed supplies... it was so easy and fun and once I got the overlocker all was well... the Sew U Stretch Built by Wendy was my main inspiration and I used those patterns as blocks and created my own versions for dresses mostly for me and all my friends. Lately, of course, I am in Shanghai without my usual supplies (no BBW books!)... but I actually think that's a good thing, because now I can try other patterns instead of the same ones... AND test what works for my current body shape... instead of attempting something that suited me 5 years ago. I have seen oodles of Plantain patterns made up, so considering it's a free pattern, it's a quick & cheap one to try. But it's not a cheaply put together pattern in my opinion!...

Back, in April, I joined Jorth 's #30DaysofCycleChic for the days I rode my bike through Shanghai, our new home! Initially I wanted to document a little moment of my life on the streets (as I love the streetscapes and all the places we end up) but also show that bike riding isn't just about lycra... and as I went along, I of course realised that everyone in Shanghai rides bikes and scooters and no one wears lycra! So my intentions were then to see what I was wearing through springtime in Shanghai and then my parents came and then it was MMM and taking photos all the time of your outfit can get tiring. I don't know how those Outfit Of The Day people/fashion queens do it. However, here is my life in the Shanghai springtime, lots of photos, and lots of handmade starting to creep in... so I'm happy.  So there were 30 days of cycle chic, but not 30 photographs... Husbie took a few of these, mostly the ones I'm cracking up because he's a tease.. And you can see th...