this is the place where i poured stories of my life, my thoughts, my feelings also my ideas.
there's excitement, sadness, laugh, desperate, anger, happiness, and other kind emotions.
i just hope that we can learn something..

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

rainbow tee


It's been showering since last night, the sky is grey but the temperature is just perfect 21 degree in Celcius. Noelle and me get along together very well, which means she ate her brekkie and finished her milk without fuss. While she enjoys her morning TV shows as well as playing with her toys in her room, I decluttered my sewing table so I can enjoy looking at my sewing machine and colourful threads.


And as my hand start sorting piles of clothes (for refashion) and fabrics (awaiting projects), my eyes stopped when I saw two old tank tops, one grey marle, and the other is grey marle with rainbow stripes. The greys on both garment exactly the same and the weight/thickness of both fabric just match, they must be prefect for each other. Suddenly I got a rainbow tee with raglan longsleeves in my head. Within 3 hours the tee was finished, I put elastic on the neck ribbing and single bowtie from leftover fabrics to make it more girly, I stitced it on the left shoulder. The neck ribbing looks wonky, but when Noelle tried it on, it looks just fine for me :D I hope the tee will survive until next winter.


I think I've been very productive during this month, and I managed to take photos of garments I made and blog about it right away. Winter almost over but I think I've been bitten by sewing bug ;D


Sunday, August 29, 2010

batik dress


today i feel like in the mood for sewing again, and i made this dress for noelle.

i encountered my very first buttonhole. I t W a s S c a r y ! see the wriggly buttonhole stitch there? yes. i don't know if i will be dare to make another buttonhole.




Friday, August 27, 2010

onesie on noelle

she will never pose nicely whenever or wherever i asked her. especially when there were toys around. so i opt to take candid shots, i've just finished changing her nappy and try the new onesie on. perfect sizing for her, still plenty of room left to grow until next year maybe?

first handmade onesie!!

after months of looking for cheap yet fitted 2T-3T onesie for noelle and never succeed, i finally decided to make our own onesie. i studied existing onesie, got the tutorial from this talented lady NAOMI and started to make it.

and since i am a thrifty mama, i do not want to spend a cent on buying knit fabric so i just go to my junk pile and decided that the victim was an old tank from POLO, i just love the white and blue combo (noelle loves blue too), and turned out i got the matching stripes knit (bought at opshop about 6mths ago) to go as binding. i made this onesie for full 2 hours because i dont have overlocker, i learnt how to cut the binding on quilters board using rotary cutter and i pressed the binding/seam (just like those sewing mamas do!) and got "help" from noelle :D

the hardest part of making this onesie was making the pattern and sewing the binding because i am impatient. i did not print the pattern from the site but i just traced existing onesie and add width and add length of the body by sliding the onesie up and down when tracing. i need to make the crotch area longer and more comfortable when she wear it. and when i sew the binding, it was pain because the stripes binding tend to roll.. but when i see the result, i feel pretty happy with my self.

i compared the result with babyGAP 18-24mth onesie and mine is huuuuge.. noelle was sleeping when i started sewing this last night, so i havent got any chance to try this on her. hopefully in a couple of hours more??

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

chop chop the old sweats!


today i commited a crime. i killed my dad's old sweater! he bought it when he went to england like 10 years ago, and it was a souvenir from Warwick Castle. it was big (XL), warm (love it) but he just never wear it (maybe because jakarta is too hot for this kind of sweater). i stole it from his wardrobe about two years ago and he didn't even notice!!!! i love the embossed thingy on the chest, so knightly.. :)

long story short, i just chop chop the arm and the neck binding, sew a little bit here and there, with a huge help from black binding tape and elastic the sweater became oversized vest for me, and a track suit for noelle.. love it!! thanks POP!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

mickey mouse is in the house



i really really like mickey mouse and still wear clothing with mickey mouse on it until i was in senior high school. so, when i browse for fabrics on ebay, my eyes were stunned when i saw this mickey on white, cotton knit, 1.5mx1.20m, and it was a buy it now for $3. without further consideration, i clicked the button, and the fabric became mine. and what made it even better, the seller lives in northern suburbs of perth, (like me and it was only like 10km from our place), she speaks indonesian too, and she offered for pick up so i can save on postage YAY!!!!




it's mickey happy face, he's smiling and you can see a little bit of his red tongue and would be noelle's very first mickey mouse. the fabric has been sitting on my stash for about 3 months, and finally today i made something out of it. i purchased a red fleece binding because i want to make a sweatshirt for noelle, and for her big noggin i knew i will use the envelope opening just like neck opening on onesie. and the red binding looks great on the sweatshirt, i sew it as binding on the neck, arm and hem. oh and i handstitched an applique in the shape of mickey head (sillhouette) on the chest too..




i am glad the sweatshirt fit perfectly on her (and hopefully until next winter) because i just traced her existing t-shirt as the pattern.




still got leftover fabrics and i want to make one or two onesies for her because i never find onesie for 2T. finger crossing..

Sunday, August 15, 2010

jolimont park

today we spent the afternoon at jolimont park. we used to take morning stroll here when we live in wembley. but now that we live in balcatta, we come to jolimont park only on weekend before church or weekdays before pick up my husband at his office. noelle loves to play in the playground, she loves to climb up the stairs and going down on the slides. lately she loves to "read" the letters on the plank which spelled SS Jolly Rogers.

look ma! bunch of letters!

steering the wheel

her expression is priceless..

Saturday, August 14, 2010

candy kisses


it has arrived!!! two tins of candy kisses lipbalm. i used to use this on my lips, they taste and smells great (strawberry). when i can not find them here in down under, i was a bit devastated. but luckily there's EBAY where we can sell and buy things from far far away place. i purchased the lipbalm from a seller based in USA, it's worth it. *HAPPY MODE ON*


Saturday, August 07, 2010




Ditinggal suami kerja di site selama 11 hari bikin saya cemas pas lihat roti tawar yang masih banyak padahal tinggal dua hari lagi masa layak konsumsinya. Kepikiran untuk membuat Puding Roti Karamel karena bahan2 lainnya pasti ada di lemari dapur. Resepnya boleh dapat dari dapurbunda.com tapi penyelesaiannya pakai sedikit improvisasi.

Bahan:

75 gr gula pasir
5 butir telur ayam
300 cc susu
1 sdm mentega, lelehkan dan dinginkan
1/4 sdt kayu manis bubuk
2 sdm mentega untuk menggoreng
8-10 iris roti prancis, tebal 1 cm (saya pakai roti biasa utk toast)
50 gr kismis
Kayu manis bubuk untuk taburan

Karamel:
150 gr gula pasir
175 cc air
1/2 buah jeruk nipis, ambil airnya

Cara membuat:

Karamel :
Lelehkan gula hingga kecoklatan (dengan api yang kecil), tuangi air dan air jeruk nipis lalu masak hingga gula larut. Angkat dan tuang ke dalam pinggan tahan panas. Sisihkan.

Puding Roti :
- Panaskan mentega, goreng roti prancis hingga kedua sisinya berwarna kuning.
Angkat dan sisihkan.
- Kocok gula pasir dan telur hingga gula larut. Tambahkan susu, mentega leleh, dan kayumanis bubuk, aduk rata. Tuang dan saring adonan telur ke dalam pinggan tahan panas berisi karamel. Atur potongan roti prancis di atasnya lalu taburi dengan kismis.
- Tim puding karamel roti dalam oven bersuhu 160 derajat celsius atau kukus selama 45 menit hingga matang.
- Keluarkan dari oven. Taburi kayu manis bubuk dan sajikan hangat-hangat.

Improvisasi : Saya menuang sebagian karamel di dasar pinggan tahan panas, sisanya dituang di atas puding yang sudah hampir matang, lalu kembali masuk oven selama 5 menit.