deondergangvanmijnouders

Hi! How are you?! I'm sitting in my 'blogging' cafe today, catching up on a bunch of emails and different work projects... for the Internet is broken at my place. SO SAD! The router died and we're all waiting for the next option. Fingers crossed! I have kept this scarf in my blog drafts section for a little while, and would love your thoughts... it's SUPER long right? Maybe a little too long for people under 5 foot, but I LOVE this floaty silk fabric! I'd sewn it up a little while ago, and haven't decided if it's for me or for a customer... so it's in the Little Studio with my girlfriends right now The fabric is from my favourite Dongmen Lu Fabric Market , and the last two metres from the roll, so it was cheaper than other fabrics, maybe 100RMB, around 18 dollars? So while not super cheap compared to other scarf fabric, it's so luxurious! I love it! As usual, it's my loopy scarf pattern... you sew the ends together and then hem the edges,...

Xin Nian Kuai Le! It's now the year of the monkey, and I've never felt so overjoyed by the lunar calendar, for I really feel the momentum swinging with this monkey year! Absolutely love being here in China and experiencing the traditions and overall positive vibes. However astonishingly, there were NO fireworks... no loud noises... no crackers! The government decided they were to be banned this year and everyone complied. Outside of Shanghai I believe people still celebrated with a traditional bang (the noise scares away the evil spirits!), but happy new year nonetheless! But after seeing a bunch of the gigantic knots around the city, I wanted to try my own little knots ... and over the new year weekend, I tied a few different knots, and found a gigantic pool of internet knotting resources! So many knots , colour codes but with some Chinese instructions. A big pinterest feed of knots! A Panchang Knot , this is one I tried! Chinese Good Luck Knot , tried this one too! Chinese F...

A few days before Christmas I had a quick idea, my son was getting a few Duplo boxes for Christmas (we found a special deal on Taobao on the famous 11.11 sales) and as I suddenly realised he’ll need some extra storage for the colourful blocks, I remembered the lovely playmat I’d seen on pinterest five years ago (or around then) that you could easily build and sift through the blocks, but then once finished you can draw it all up and hang it on the back of the door or somewhere out of the way for next time. I googled up a few photos and tutorials, but for these first attempts, I followed the very straightforward Fabric Mill idea . It was great and used up some fabric I had in the stash leftover from birthdays through the year and other bunting adventures… the smaller ones are for smaller children who also got their first batch of Duplo this Christmas, so a useful bag for them for the next year. The one I made Felix is bigger, around a metre wide at least… and now that I’ve sewn it...

Hi there! This week I've started wearing my winter-y scarves again... it's dropped a whole 10 degrees (celcius!) during the day in the last fortnight... and I'm so not ready for winter yet! Three of our holidays this year has been back to the homeland hemisphere, and the most recent one in October really threw out my weather gauge. Ha Ha. *sigh* So I pulled out this scarf loop I made for one of our little pop up markets in September, and now it's officially mine! It's almost a metre wide, and the width of the fabric long... sewn in the long edge, but I leave space each side to turn it... then right sides together - stitch - pull through your hole and then slipstitch closed with the little Veronica Darling tag sandwiched in. My friend Michell suggests everything I make needs a tag, as people prefer it... making it all a little more polished I suppose! What are you making for winter? I'm super stuck, but have a few things to finish off ... I think with some...

It's Market Day this weekend! Also see my Birthday present!!! David Lynch floating above the world print! Squee! Have you made anything for a market before? I know lots of lovely creative types who attend the regular handmade markets in Australia... lots of lovely friends with great handmade wares! But I've never really sold my things beyond my etsy shop - now closed - or to friends directly! Until now! I'm involved in this: The lovely Shanghai Bloggers Society are just the best for networking and Line, the co-founder, has been checking in on me... and we're hosting a dinner together tonight for Bon.App and she mentioned that the Spotlight Festival is looking for vendors, and as I've been making lots of rope bowls lately, I just kept going this last week! A little more hardcore and thanks to She Sews A Lot from Perth/Instagram who suggested trying with fabric wrapped around the rope... I've sewn up most of these with my fabric scraps from this year's c...

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 ...

Since I’ve started my Sewing School with the Couture Nomad group in Shanghai, I’ve been sewing almost everyday and making at least 1 creation a week… a dress, a t shirt, a bow tie (yes really) and getting back into the swing of blogging & reading blogs big time. AMAZING as always.  It’s so fun and I’m feeling really body positive most of the time, and loving slowly growing my wardrobe with handmade things! But one of the BEST things about going to Sewing School and hanging with a small group of sewing enthusiasts is the GOSS and if you know me IRL, I LOVE talking because I just love stories! I’ve learnt so many things about Shanghai and where to buy fabrics… and because of my new French & Spanish speaking sewing friends, I’m getting a different perpspective on sewing and fashion, and culture and language. Just love it. AND, who in a million years would think I’d sew something that wasn’t a fitted bodice dress and/or leggings and actually think it wasn’t half ...

This week, a little boy was born in Shanghai and his parents are new friends of ours. So I made some pom poms to decorate his room. And to play with later. In Shanghai, there are quite a few knitting haberdasheries in certain areas. There's a shop near my house, but there are several around the Tianzifang area (more on that another time) as well. But I bought this wool from the nearby shop, and had to muddle my way around what I wanted to make and buy because the two lovely shopkeepers didn't speak English so I spoke my basic Chinese and used my translator app for the words I forgot or couldn't say. Luckily they had pom poms in the shop so I could point a lot.  As you can imagine these were quite straightforward to make, but using the pom pom plastic thingie mum bought me from the shops was MUCH harder. I had to go the old fashioned traditional pom pom way and use 2 pieces of cardboard shaped like a 'C' (have a look at the Mindful Mumma's Post for more) to make...

I made a bag, and it's made of vintage tea towels. Tea towels from the old lovely op shops of my past. My idea was to bring a few tea towels to Shanghai so I could piece them together in a lovely way for cushion covers for our couch. I still have them cut up, but I just couldn't figure out the 'lovely way' for them to be sewn up. There was a gorgeous market stall at the Rose Street Market in Fitzroy that made lots of things from vintage tea towels, so I've always wanted to try it. I'm just a patchwork type sewing person. BUT, I gave it a go with the scraps, and made the kangaroo the focus/beginning of whatever this is called. A spiral of scraps, into a patchwork? I'm not sure, I googled scraps and patchwork till the internet broke, and I just settled on whatever I found, and I've since lost the page. (The internet breaks a LOT in China!) You sew onto stiffer backing fabric, the kangaroo bit, then you sew the first scrap (right sides together), then press...