Christmas Photo Album with Christmas Theme in Lincoln Green

For the year 2009, I think I can conclude that one of the most enjoyable gift I have made and probably the most meaningful gift as well is this Christmas Photo Album with Christmas Themed Fabric Cover mostly in my favourite green colour; and the green tone here is Lincoln Green.

If I could use the term ‘Everything I like’ it certainly applies to every material or item used. I love hard copy photos as I am sentimental so in the first page of the photo album I place one of our photos. My love for Photo Albums to hold photos is one special book that we can look at and relate to – be it people, animals, objects, place and time – sometimes the moment becomes special only when we move forward and looked back in time. So customizing a photo album cover has become one of my joy to create.

I made this gift for my partner’s parents. His dad favourite colour is green, both of them loves to garden and because Christmas is one festive that is really special for them as it is a celebration of being together so a gift most appropriate none other than a photo album to keep all Christmas photos together.

Material used for the cover are felt, a bunch of artificial flowers, ribbons and a ring.

Hope this gift idea appeal to you for next Christmas.

Baby gifts to make

I gives me great joy to share with you two gifts I made recently for meant for a baby girl. I think both gifts are really practical, functional and rather easy to make.

One of the gift is a Baby Nappy Changing Sheet and the other gift is a Fabric-cover-customised Photo Album.

For the Baby Nappy Chang Sheet Gift I had actually stumbled upon the suitable material to use and the idea came upon me when I was browsing books for Baby Gifts.  Sorry I do not know the actual term of the material but one side of the material used has to be coated-fabric, the feel should be ‘waterproof or rubber based’ yet comfortable to feel for a baby. I had used thick wadding as the lining layer and the other other material used here is felt fabric.

The other gift item I made was a customised fabric cover photo album. The colour theme is baby’s mom favourite colour.  I had personalised the cover with the initial of the baby’s name and year born. To make the cover of the album look outstanding just add ribbons and a heart to complete the entire look. Well, the gift is meant more as a keepstake for the mommy to store all baby photos.

There are many good books on gifts to make for babies but one consideration should be the ease of material supplies, skill level in using the sewing machine and most important is time…which I am always running short of.

Hope you enjoy reading this entry and find the ideas useful.

Travel Accessory to Make – Passport Holder

For those that travel, a simple and functional travel item to make as a gift or for yourself would surely be the passport holder.

These passport holders are made from fabric which is durable yet washable. Each have a slot for pen, passport and side pockets. The side pockets can hold the paper ticket, boarding pass and currency notes. The closure flap is Velcro.

Here I have made a few designs using with different type of fabrics and prints.

Hope you like them and can consider the idea of making one when you think about making a gift for someone that travel.

 

Fabric Book Jacket Cover using Australian-themed Fabric

I sew the fabric book cover jacket as gifts for my two sisters after my holiday trip to Sydney,  Australia.

Concept Inspiration : The main focus of the fabric has to reflect the country of visit. The Qantas Flight uniform really inspired me to hunt for aboriginal-art designed fabric (which I could not find). In the end I settled for Australian-themed designed fabric. I bought a meter of this fabric at AUD$22 from a Quilt shop in Leura, Blue Mountains.

Design emphasis : Personalised the gift with names. In this instance I had used iron-on letters to form the name; concept inspired by army name-badge.

Hope you like the idea and it can really save you some money too as gift items at tourist attraction are expensive. The blank notebook cost SDG$3.50 each.

Bag for Darren (Corduroy Material)

I designed and sew this bag for Darren.

Material used : Cordurory fabric, felt fabric, straps, hard iron-on interface, soft iron on interface, plastic zipper, plastic bag clips.

Challenge in handling cordurory fabric : Since the fabric will stretch (because it is slightly elastic) and the edges fray badly I use iron-on interface to “control” the fabric so that it does not ‘warp’ during stitching and more so the edges do not fray easily. Using iron-on interface advantage is that I can skip one step of sewing a cloth lining for the bag.

As the bag must be able to withstand a certain amount of weight and pull (from the shoulder strap) using hard iron-on interface to the fabric makes it sturdy to be sewn on as well as ’sit’ properly when it is strap onto the shoulder.

Design emphasis and inspiration : Different shade of browns. I had wanted a bag that can hold two bottles of drinks – one for hot flask and one for bottled water so there are two pockets sewn to the side of the bag. The pockets at the front is both functional and asethic as it shows the different brown tones when the bag flap is closed.

The difference in the iron-on interface : hard interface v soft interface. The hard interface is thick but it does not ‘drape’ so it is used for the sides of the bag. The soft interface is used for the bag flap and front pockets, the one I used here called ‘iron-on adhesive for lightweight fabric‘ is from Spotlight, available near the quilting corner. It is very expensive – one roll cost close to SDG$56 (the hard iron-on interface only cost SDG$3 per meter). The advantage of using this soft interface is because it can be easily folded or pleated.

Other pointers to note : I sew this bag sized specific to the person intended so I did not include shoulder-strap adjuster and estimate the length of the strap by asking Darren to stand up so that I can gauge the height the bag will ’sit’ around the hips height.

Fabric Book Jacket Cover for Nicole using Heat Transfer Method for Photo

I made this gift from my niece Nicole.

Design concept : Blue theme because Blue is her favorite colour. She currently has a sticker album that is actually a notebook and some of her collection of stickers (which is growing) are kept together with this book. I created the jacket cover bigger sized that the actual book so that she can keep the big stack of stickers.

Design emphasis : Photo of her with many hearts (which are iron-on motifs)

Material used : Fabric, ribbon, heat transfer iron-on for photo, iron-on motifs of hearts and letter “N”.

Giveaway (Now till July 2009) – “Nonya Manis the Peranakan Paper Doll” Kit

Hi All, thank you for dropping by and I am so happy to annouce I have two “Nonya Manis the Peranakan Paper Doll Kit” as giveaway by lucky draw.

Please drop me a comment at the end of this blog page and leave a short introduction of yourself and which country you are from. It would be really great if you like to share your childhood memories if you have played with dolls and what type of particular dolls you hold most fond memories of. Feel free to even let us know if you would like to enter for the chance to win a kit for someone and who is this special someone you know that may like this paper doll kit.

Last date of entry is on 31 July 2009 (please enter once will do)

Visit this blog entry during first week of August 2009 to see who are the lucky 2 winners and I will need you to email me by 15 August latest your mailing address details.

Why I am giving this paper doll kit?

This paper doll kit was introduced by a fellow Flickr member and crafter “Pauseability“. It was soft-launched at a Silver Co-operative booth at a 50plus Active Aging Carnival 2009 in Singapore. Part of the sale proceed goes to the Silver Co-operative whose members are seniors or elders. This kit was collated by the seniors.

I have also included a snapshot photo of the carnival I had attended on 20 June 2009. For other photos of Silver Co-operative booth or the carnival please click on the photo link below or visit my flickr photoset.

If you like to purchase the Nonya Manis Paper Doll kit please visit Pauseability at Esty http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5206339

iPod Fabric Case

I made this iPod Fabric Case for my partner. This case is my own design but concept adapted from Flickr group ‘Pimp your iPod (Handmade)‘.

Design Emphasis : Personalised with my partner’s name.

Material used : Felt fabric, iron-on motif (the car), press studs.

Suggestion : If you like ‘form’ or make the felt fabric thicker, you may like to use ‘iron-on’ interface (those use for collar) on the ‘reserve side’ of the fabric.

Fabric Pencil Case – Blog Page Header Design using Heat Transfer Iron-on

I sew this gift for my best friend Rahima as a set of stationery (I sew a Farbic Book Jacket Cover to compliment the pencil case). This set of stationery theme is about her blog which is also her passion for cooking.

Design Emphasis : Personalized gift with her blog page header. The concept and design is my own idea.

Design method using Heat Transfer iron on : Please read my earlier entry on Farbic Book Jacket Cover if interested.

Material used : Cotton fabric, iron-on interface (those used for collar) onto fabric to give it ‘form’, zipper, iron-on Heat transfer, ribbon for decoration.

Caution when ironing near the Iron-on transfer: Caution and due care  to be excerised especially during final stage of completed project. The transfer will ‘melt’ if the iron touches the edge. The fabric will ‘crease’ during the process when the pencil case if overturn to the ‘right side’ as all machine sewing is done on the ‘reserve side’, therefore a final touch of ironing is required to ’smoothen’ it.

I have also included a photo of my work-in-progress shot. One of the pieces was damaged by my ‘over ironing’ so my final design of the pencil case changed a bit.

Hope this idea is useful to you if you ever thought about making a personalized gift for yourself or someone.

Fabric Book Jacket Cover – Blog Page Header Design using Iron-on Transfer Method

I sew this special gift for my Bestie Rahima featuring her blog “My Favorite Recipes“.

Design Concept : The original idea of using graphic or photo transfer is adapted from a English version craft book using only fabric as the main media. I cannot remember the exact title or author’s name (quite sure it is a English lady’s name) but I think its about creating memory book using fabric, I had flipped through the book when I was in the Singapore Public Library and somehow the idea got ‘filed’ to the back of my mind for sometime.

Design Emphasis : To personalized the gift and make it very special for the my Bestie I thought about what is really her hobby and passion. She loves to cook, bake and equally passionate about blogging on her favorite recipes so the idea of using graphic from her blog would be most suitable.

Graphic Design Creation and Material : I use the most a simple method to ‘capture’ the graphic image of the blog header – use the ‘Print Screen’ button then open ‘Paint Software’ and paste the image. In the paint software choose the ’select’ button to range the header then select ‘cut’. Close the file and open a new file, choose ‘paste’ and rename the file. The blogspot logo is downloaded, if you go to google search and type blogspot logo there is many file types to choose from. I use Word Software to import all these files to arrange before printing on the heat transfer paper. I use “Farrania” Iron on transfer.

Craft Supplies : I use cotton fabric (since the Iron on transfer instruction states so) with checks pattern and added lace to look like a dinning table cloth. The string is added for decoration.