What I miss doing these days and a new venture

I miss....sewing for pleasure..for my boys..for fun..trying out new patterns for my shop.. Counting the days to when I can have some me sewing time. Not that I don't enjoy working on orders..but since I have now become a slowpoke at completing them, I can hardly find time to sew other things.

I will be entering my 3rd trimester next week. So it's time to slow down on taking orders. And with that I hope to have some time to sew for my boys and the new baby :). First thing to do is to plan on what to sew and head to local textile shops to get the materials. Soo..looking forward to that hehehe.


Though I'm currently on a short break from sewing, besides enjoying the time spent with my kids, I 'm also quite occupied with a new business venture me and my dearest husband started recently. A party favor service/ business...We do favors for weddings, birthdays..gatherings etc. We have been planning this for a while but never had the time to really launch it. With two big wedding favors jobs given by my aunts for their son's (my cousins) wedding this month, we decided that this is the best time to kick start our new business. At least..i can still do something (and earn something too) especially after the baby arrives cause it might take a while before I can resume to sewing like before :).

Do pay Nazmin Delightful Treats a visit. We are also on Facebook. Like our page to get the latest update on our work and what we have to offer.

Hope to have more time to blog too. Till later..

For my boys

I'm 25 weeks along into my pregnancy. All early pregnancy symptoms have gone the moment I entered 2nd trimester. However, for the past two weeks, have been experiencing nausea and headache as I did in 1st trimester..huhu.

I am currently finishing up pending orders. Normally it would take me about two weeks top to complete an order. But lately..i took more than that.Can hardly sit for more than 1 hour per sewing session. Lucky i have clients who are kind & understanding about this. Two more bags to sew then I will be closing on custom order slots until further notice.

And the first thing I plan to do while on 'leave' is to sew for my boys. It has been ages since I last sew anything for them. To get me it the mood, i splurged on this beautiful boyish prints. Can't wait to turn them into something :D 

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The reason behind my super loooong hiatus

Alhamdulillah. I was blessed with the unexpected good news a week before Ramadan. This is baby no.4 insyaAllah. And at this point of writting, I am already 16 weeks along. Those who are in my friendlist on FB might already know about this though.

Ramadan was a bit haywire for me as I was down with a very bad case of pregnancy sickness (morning-afternoon-evening-night). Alhamdulillah, managed to survived through it and at the same time managed to complete all pre-raya orders till the very last minute. It was hard to find time to sew when most of my days were spent lying on my the bed or running to the bathroom,lol!

Hope to get things back on track with sewing and all,now that we are in the second trimester. Missed blog reading, blog hopping too. Can't wait to catch up with everything I've missed for the past three months :)

A clutch purse is..

a medium-to-small-sized handbag with a short handle, designed to be carried (clutched) in one's hand (source here).

I have before sewn a cosmetic clutch but not a clutch purse. And I have sewn wrislets but it seemed that the wristlets are more casual that formal. So I decided to come up with a semi formal-formal kind of clutch to be added to the Itsy Doodles bags collection.

And for this, I tried on two different design of clutches. The first was inspired by Zura lovemelots. I had seen her made this kind of clutches a while back. She named them Cherie :). Here and here are some of the beautiful Cheries she made that was totally stunning.

These are what my version of the Cherie looks like. I named mine the Glam Clutch ;).

As for the second design, it it something much simpler but yet as lovely. This was partly inspired by my Moon-ie bag. Didn't turned out as I imagined it should on my first try. After some adjustment, the result was splendid! *happy*

From my first try...shape was kinda funny ;)

I named this clutch, Eleganz.

I had so much fun sewing the two designs. But my favourite is Eleganz. I just love the way it stands..with the pleats and all. How about you? Which of the two you captures your heart?

Ready made Glam Clutch and Eleganz are available at The Shop. Do come over as you might find one that catches your eyes *wink*

For new mommies...

Nursing covers (NC) and diaper pouches. The NCs are for my sister in law (hubby's sister) who gave birth on the 30th of May to a baby boy, Muhammad Sulaiman  and hubby's friend who recently also gave birth to a baby boy.

I love mixing and matching fabric for the NCs and the ric racs gave the NCs a different look. I hope these NCs will encourage the mommies to fully breastfeed their babies for as long as they can and give them confidence especially when nursing in Public. Breast is best!

As for the diaper pouches, one is for a blogger friend who had just been blessed with a baby girl (after having 3 boys in a row) while the other two will be put up for sale at The Shop. 

For more pictures of these lovelies, hop over to The Shop.

Why I super love zipper pouches?

Because of the endless way to use them.You can practically pun anything you want in it. Put some cash, it becomes a purse. Put some jewelry, it becomes a jewelry bag. Stash in some panadols, band aids, minyak kapak, it becomes an emergency bag or your personal 1st aid kit.

Before I can sew one, my zipper pouch collection comes mostly from my mom. Whenever she travels, be it around Malaysia or abroad, she never fails to take home a stack of zipper pouches as souvenirs for her herself, daughters and also her colleagues.

A part from the various ways you can use it for, as mentioned above, zipper pouches are also great for keeping your bag tidy. So recently I sew a few sets of zipper pouches in various sizes for the shop.Below pictures show how zipper pouches can help you organize your bag.

Next is the picture of one of the zipper pouch set that are available at the shop. This cute  fabric has pictures of handbags printed all over it. It comes in two colours - pink and blue. Being a fan of pink, I bought the pink one of course ;). What do you think? Cute, kan? I meant the fabric design...not the pouches. But if you think the pouches are also cute, thank you hehehehe *wink*

Why buy when you can make your own...

BAG! What else? Hehehehe...Yup! I made myself a new bag recently. It was to replace my Carlo Rino, where most of its handle have peeled off. The handle was not made of leather and was coated with thin shiny material. I have not been wearing it long pun but since the peeling gave the bag an ugly look,I guess it was time to put it away.

I already have a Mama Bag (see here) and Weekend Bag (see here). So what I needed was a bag for my quick outings like maybe to the nearby supermarket or to wear when I'm going out for dinner, where all I need to bring along are my purse, my phone and maybe a pack of tissues.

So I made this bag and I named it the Pesona Bag. It's made using corduroy combined with designers cotton. Closes with magnetic snap button and has one zippered pocket inside.

See how it perfectly fits my purse and my Tab :), And a pack of tissue.


Pesona bag is now available at Itsy Doodles Shop. Hop over to have a look or custom order one to suit your personality :).

One of our best moment together

...that soon shall be missed. We have been doing this together for 21 months now. The feeling of knowing I have given him the best is priceless.

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Passport Sleeves for my recent trip

I was supposed to post this before I left for my trip to UK during the school holiday recently. But time didn't permit me to do so. I was busy packing for five people and getting the house spick and span before I left (yeah right *wink*). Had a great time and experience during the trip. If you are interested to read about it, hop over to my other blog here.

Anyway, I made 10 passport sleeves/ cover all together. They were for me, mr.hubby, my 3 kids, my mom and my two sisters who went along, and each for my aunty and uncle who are currently living in Hull, as gifts.

All 10 of them

Ours

 

 For the others

A special order from a husband

When i first received an email from Mr.MKZ requesting for a custom made bag set for his wife's birthday in June, the first thought that came to my mind was 'Wow! What a sweet and thoughful husband this man is'. That took place in March.Again, Wow!

After a few emails exchange..on what he had in mind, what are his wife preferences - colour, style, here are some of the points for me to take note in making his order:-
1. A sling handbag that's roomy and practical to put in Mrs.MFK's personal things as well as their daughter's diaper and change of clothes.
2. Mrs. MFK a fan of the colour green and loves polka dots too.
3. Requested on a matching Money Purse set.

So, for this order, i purposed the design I used for my Weekend/Travel Bag but with a lot of improvement done. The bag is fully padded and interfaced and that gives it the right sturdiness. As for the fabric design, i purposed a few and Mr.MFK chose this, Floral Swirl in Turqoise by Erin McMorris. A perfect choice. And I love how gorgeous the bag turned out.

 

Hop over to my shop to see more of this gorgeous bag.

Preparing for my travel....

In between sewing orders, I 'll try to find time to sew something for myself or my family. InsyaAllah this coming school holiday me and family will be going on a long planned vacation. One of the things on my to sew list was a weekend/ travel handbag for myself.

I won this lovely fabric form Lil Arwen's giveaway many moons ago. I love this print so much and i knew it would make a perfect dream bag.

I was inspired by this lovely bag here. I find it simple and yet big and roomy. I need it to be so as I normally put my things and Akif's too in my bag.

Source : Etsy

Another inspiration came from the Everyday bag made by Azie of Syasya Creative. I love how the bag has two way handle - sling and tote.

This bag is fully padded, has 2 large slip pockets inside, 1 zippered pocket inside and 1 zippered pocket outside. It also has a key holder and closes using magnetic button. Can be a sling bag (detachable handle/strap) or a hand tote bag.

However, the bag is a little sloppy when wearing it crossbody. Sohana of MyBotang gave a tip where I should also add interfacing even when it is padded. I have tried that in a similar bag i sew for a customer and love how it turned out. Will post on that bag next. Stay tuned...

Plaid pj pants

6 pairs of them. 2 pairs for each boy. When i saw the print during my last trip to tewah, the plaid pattern and the colours caught my eyes. I knew they would make perfect pj pants.
During my recent trip to my hubby's hometown on Labour's Day holiday, i brought the fabric along and did my cutting there. Only last night I managed to sew the pieces together. I somehow cut the pants too long. But since i know they will all grow tall fast, instead of cutting them off, I made the cuffs extra big. So later I can unpick and adjust the length accordingly. Well, at least that's the plan for now heheh.
Now i need to find some tops to match the pants. Will take some in action pictures when the boys put on these pants.

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Handbag Organizer and Jewellery Roll

*this is a long post*

The idea of making these two items were put off since last year. They came up during one of my 'brainstorming session' with Rozi of Rozi's Needlework, while searching for ideas for Mom's Day, for my shop. She suggested a jewellery roll while I had an idea on handbag organizer. But I was still very new at sewing bags then, so the ideas were kept aside. I did gave sewing handbag organizer a try (twice actually) but both didn't turn out as great as it did now , LOL! Rozi had recently made one. So, finally, this year, I braved myself to try and make them for this year's Mom's Day.
 

*note to Rozi : for this post, terpengaruh rakan tak sebaya on the product version labelling*

Handbag organizer version 2.0 (version 1.0 was discarded *wink*)

Mom bought this for me in Jakarta sometime last July. Been using it with my Chic Mama Tote. So I had a sample to follow. Didn't copy exactly but I followed the measurement as I like the size very much.

The sample

The outcome

Version 2.0 is all great except that it couldn't fit into medium size handbag. Only large ones like my Chic Mama Tote. So I decided to adjust the size on my next try. Hence, version 2.1.

Handbag organizer version 2.1 

I love the adjusted one better. Especially now that it can fit into medium/large size handbag. That is very important as most women these days (including myself) carry handbags of these two sizes.

 Great for organizing personal things in handbags

Can even be used to organize baby's essentials in mama's handbag or baby's diaper bag

Jewellery Roll.

I can't remember the sample Rozi showed me. But this was recently forwarded to me by a client cum friend, Akmal who lives in Qatar. When two friends suggested the same thing, I decided to give it a try :).

These were made using beautiful brocade fabrics my mother bought me. Yup! She bought this during the same trip where she bought the handbag organizer :). Brocade was delicate and slippery to handle, especially when I'm so used to sewing anything cotton. However, I was glad I chose these fabrics over cotton as it gives the jewellery roll an exclusive look. Very suitable for the occasion too.

Comes in two colours : Red and Blue

3 zippered pockets for necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches and 1 ring holder

The handbag organizer and jewellery roll are now available at Itsy Doodles Shop. Hop over for more details and pictures.

Love Note : Have you thought of what to get / make for your mom/ mom in law? I'm still searching for ideas. Hope I can find time to make something for them..cause lately, my time management is very lousy especially when it involves sewing *sigh*~. Must be hormonal. Hah! *wink*

Working from the dining table

I have back problem. Therefore i prefer to cut fabrics on the dining table. So what i normally do is cover the space I would like to use with a big brown paper and then put my cutting mat on it...even when I don't cut with a rotary cutter.

I'm am currently working on some ready stock items for Mother's day for the shop in between orders. What about you? What have you been busy with lately?

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Dinner and of Meeting New Aquaintances

Had makan-makan at the Famous Hj. Sharin Low, a newly opened Muslim Chinese Restaurant in Bangi last Sunday night. It was a special treat by mr.hubby's friend, Jamili, the towkay of Asyimi Style Network. Another associate, Hafiz was also there. All three brought their families along.

It was my first time meeting Jamili's and Hafiz's the wife,Syima and Izza. Didn't get to chat much as we arrived late. By the time we got there, the others already started eating.

Here are some pictures I managed to snap there. Super love Akif's picture here :).

I managed to whipped up a gift for the two ladies on the morning of the day itself.All done in an hour. Made them each an identical wristlet. I used the swirl cotton fabric I have in my stash. Had it for quite sometime but didn't know what to make out of it until now. Sweet aren't they? :)

To Izza & Syima, it was a pleasure meeting you both. Hope you two like your gift.

Celebrate The Boy : Favourite Roundup

Celebrate The Boy month ended about 2 weeks ago. And I am already missing it huhuhu.. So many things to sew, to try and make but so little time in hand. Though the party has ended, it will not stop me from celebrating. I want every month to be the boy month :). Well, at least I can try.

Here are some of my favourite that was featured on MADE and Made-by-Rae during the 'celebration' ;)

1. Peek-A-Boo Toy Sack 2. Flat Front Pants 3. Sprinkle Shirts 4.Snack Bandolier

5. Money Cuffs 6. Refashion : BIG sweater to Little Sweater

1. Basic Pants 2.He's All Boy Cap 3. Boys Wallet 4. Toy Bags 5. Harmonica Jacket

1. Refashion : Shirt to Jacket 2. Lined Pants 3. Button Fly Pants 4. Boy Shortalls  5. Lego Sack

Do give any of these tutorial a try. And I you do, please let me know ya. I'll definitely be posting if I get the chance to make some too :) 

Have a great weekend ahead!

Scrap busting and a swap

I'm not good at patchwork. But scrap is building up so i need to find a way to utilise them. Throwing them away would be a waste as they were expensive in the first place. To sell..well..they are not THAT many ;). So i googled and found this wonderful tutorial on making a simple yet cute patchwork zipper pouch by Make It Perfect.

I thought it would be a piece of cake. So I prepared enough scraps to make 6 pouches. Everything went ok except the turning part near where the zippers were as they were fully padded. I didn't really plan on the measurements so ended up with pouches in 6 different sizes LOL!

Five of them are already up for sale at the shop. One however, I made it for a fellow crafter nickname Malaysia Poppy Trefftry :). Yup! it's for kak Ann of c.r.a.f.t.y.a.n.i.q.u.e. She made a come back from a super loong hiatus by making these lovelies. I like them all so I (shamelessly) nagged her to make me one. I offered to buy though, but she gave me one for free. Told her I would sew something for her so it'll be like a swap between us. I told her that..many2 months ago :P.

So here is the pouch I made her. K.ann, it's all wonky as i'm terrible at patchwork. So I hope the gorgeous designers scrap will somehow cover any flaws. Boleh na? Will send this to you as soon as possible ya (meaning...when I'm done with the orders I'm working on - which are all still less than 50% in progress). Sabar naa...hehehe

More Moon-ie Bags

Remember the Moon-ie bag I made last two weeks? The experiment bag? Well, an ex-schoolmate, Ratna decided to make it hers. While Zura, the friend whom in a way inspired the making of this bag, changed her mind on the Moon-ie bag and opted for the Itsy Hobo Sling bag instead :).

Here's the hobo bag I made her. In Lacework in Olive by Amy Butler from her Lotus Collection. It has 1 zippered pocket and 2 slip pockets inside.

As for the Moon-ie bag,  I fell head over heels in love with the pattern so over the weekend I made another THREE *grin*. The first bag took me a day and a half to complete. I forgot which step comes before which. This pattern doesn't have a manual since it was discovered through a trial and error method (and by referring to a few tutorials, of course). And I didn't jot anything down while making it the first time. Alhamdulillah, the other two...didn't take me as long to complete.

Know what I love most about these bags? The zipper pull :). Made a matching fabric zipper full for the bags.

To view more of these bags, click here.

Love Note : How's your day so far? Mine has been great! And about to get more ceria (and kelam-kabut) as I have to babysit my 2 1/2 months old nephew today. His babysitter is unwell and his mommy has to go to work. 4 boys...wow! Bring it on hehehe. Ermmm..I may need some luck so send some to me ya ;)..