Book review: Sew! Cath Kidston

About a month ago, a friend of mine came over to Sydney with her family for a holiday. She also brought a lot of presents that all my friends back home bought for me! I'm so loved. (o^_^o)v

This Cath Kidston Sew! book is one of the gifts that I received on that day and I thought I should share my thoughts about the book with you guys. I have to say that I am really excited about making the bag on the front cover, but I have no idea when I'll finally have the time to do that. I hope it won't be too long from now. However, I am a little disappointed by the projects featured in the book. I was hoping for it to have more projects on making various bags, but instead, most of the projects in the book are home-related. 

There are 41 projects in total, and out of these, there are only 4 bags and 2 totes. The rest of the projects in the book includes 6 cushions, 3 aprons, 2 quilts, 2 washbags, 1 oven glove, 1 lavender bag, 1 peg bag and other miscellaneous items. Seriously!? 6 cushions!? Boo hoo hoo~

Another major flaw of the book is that some of the pages have white words on lime-green pages that make it painful to read. Really!? White words on lime-green pages!? I think I need to put on my sunnies in order to read it in my room, under the white fluorescent light.

Nevertheless, I am still exciting about making the bag featured on the front cover. Oh, did I mention that the fabric pieces required for making the bag have already been cut? That should save me a lot of time! :)

Last but not least, check out the Cath Kidston-inspired fabric that I got from Spotlight just yesterday. It's a piece of fabric remnant that measures about 45x20cm and cost only 1.40AUD. Perhaps I can make a small project from the book using this fabric remnant. ;) Oh gosh... I just realised that this looks really similar to the fabric given together with the book! O_O


UPDATE: I have sewn the bag! The post on the completed bag can be found here.

What you can get with $100 at Spotlight

I'm not sure how many of you know this, but I won a $100 gift card from Spotlight a while ago. So, I've made a trip to Spotlight twice in the short span of a single month and have spent all the money in my gift card. (T_T)

You can't blame me for buying stuff at Spotlight today because it was Sewing Saturday and they had great offers in store! So... I thought some of you may be interested in what I got at Spotlight.

60's inspired retro prints fabric and white cotton fabric for lining (I know, the white bit on the left looks like the table, but it's not!)

I love how this print looks like the tiled kitchen floor/wall of the 60's. I'll be wearing kitchen tiles on my body!!! I don't care if people think that I look silly.

Printed pears jersey fabric and white polyester interlock for lining

Yes, I bought linings for both fabrics because they are not very opaque and I already have plans to make dresses out of them! (No, not using the following patterns)


I think I should really start making the dress using the pears fabric soon because I might get too old for such a cute print on a dress.

Hee hee hee, you have no idea how excited I am about using these patterns! I selected dress patterns that highly resemble a lot of ASOS.com dresses that I like. I'll do a blog post on that soon! Also, I'm a sucker for vintage dressmaking patterns. I actually have a number that I thrifted over the past 2 years.

Pinking shears

Other random stuff: zipper for current shorts that I am currently sewing, sequins, embroidery threads and nylon thread

I can't wait to finish the pair of shorts that I am currently sewing. I started making it in February (2011, of course), but have not had the time to continue with it because of uni T_T. Somehow, knitting and crochet just seem to take less time than sewing!

Speaking of crochet, I am currently crocheting this bag for my friend's birthday. I should get it done by next weekend. Well, I HAVE to. So, expect updates again next weekend!

P.S.: Excuse the poorly taken photos. I did this in a rush!

From the streets of Bangkok - 6

This is the last post of the series, "From the streets of Bangkok"! It's been great sharing all these neat stuff that I saw during my trip to Bangkok earlier this year. I hope all of you have been inspired! (^_^)

I think this is easy to make! 

Step 1: Just grab one of your fabric belts and sew the sides together, with the right side facing each other. 

Step 2: Then turn it inside out so that the right side of the fabric is facing you.

Step 3: Tie a knot at one end, leaving a short length of tail (as see at the back of the necklace in the picture).

Step 4: Alternate between putting a wooden bead into the sewn fabric and threading the fabric through the wooden bead.

Step 5: Continue until you are satisfied with the length, then tie a knot again!

Step 6: Don't forget to finish off by sewing the two open ends of the fabric strip for a neat finish!