Candy Castle Designs Funfetti Dress

It's almost Lunar New Year! For the Chinese, Lunar New Year marks the start of the new lunar calendar. There's lots of festivities, visiting, exchange of mandarin oranges between relatives and friends and red money packets for the children. 

One tradition of the Lunar New Year (CNY) is the wearing of red outfits to symbolise good luck and fortune. Being able to sew means that my kids are getting mum made new year outfits this year even if we aren't going to visit many households due to Covid. 

For my girl's first day outfit, I have chosen the Funfetti dress by Candy Castle Designs. This is a super cute dress pattern with loads of options. And since CNY is traditionally a very hot season in Singapore, I've decided to go for a sleeveless, dress length, circle skirt version of Funfetti.

To go with the theme, I chosen a beautiful Cotton lycra with Hello Kitty prints and red and yellow blooms then paired it with a bright red circle skirt. So cute!!

She had a beautiful red leather bag given to her by her grandma which is a perfect accessory for this dress AND it serves the important purpose of keeping her red money packets when she goes to her grandparents house to visit during the holiday!

We love Hello Kitty in this family so we even had matching hello kitty masks so that she can look pretty and be safe! 

Funfetti was a very fast sew. I think cutting took longer than the actual sewing! There's definitely going to be more Funfettis in the future! Perhaps a gathered skirt version next time? Or a sleeved one? The options are plenty! 

And now for more photos of the pretty dress! 

Sewing a messenger bag!

 If you google Messenger bag sewing pattern online, you can probably find a lot of patterns and they are mostly free. I have made messenger bags in the past and they were self drafted and I didn't save the dimensions that i used cos i mostly winged it on the spot.

I had a pokemon fabric that I wanted to make into a messenger bag for my brother to go pokemon hunting with my mum. I already made my mum hers - it's a tote bag pattern from Winter Wear Designs.  But for my brother, I didn't think a tote bag would be good - hence messenger bag. (p.s. you can read more about that tote bag pattern here. It's a free pattern!)

Here's my mum's bag btw. Cute right! 

Anyway, so I found this blog post with a cute messenger bag pattern. What I liked about the pattern is that it is a Jpeg with GRIDS so i can download it and use my projector to project the pattern and rotary cut the pieces. 

I had to hack it a bit in order to use my directional fabric. But it wasn't too difficult! 

Here's the bag i made!

Isn't it cute? I checked with him already, he doesn't mind the kiddy print! yay! 

I hope he likes it! Hehe. The pattern is good and I really liked the overall size. It can definitely be used for A4 sized papers too so u can make it for school/work! (Reinforced first of course)

The pocket on the flap is very useful and i made it with an extra big pocket bag.

I think u can stuff loads of snacks in it if u want to hehe.

On the inside, I opted for a water resistant material with a nice textured look. I used a scrap piece of the main to create a pocket just the right size for an ezlink transport card (this is a card we use for public transport)

The pocket behind that is perfectly sized for handphones while the other pocket can fit a wallet with room to spare. 

Summer days, Summer Sewing~

Where I live, we get summer pretty much all year round! So while most of my northern hemisphere friends are sewing up for cold weather, I still need to ensure I have a decent summer wardrobe! 

Since it is the school holidays, this is the best time for me to sew up on summer staples: shorts, tees, that kinda thing. It also means I have time to sew for family too! 

Here's a top I made for my mum that I paired with shorts meant for me! 

Despite our height differences, (I'm a little taller) we wear pretty much the same size clothes so I can model the clothes for her (she's shy!) This top is Winter Wear Design's Traveller Tee and it's a raglan top that you can make with a woven panel. COOOOL! 

I had a piece of textured Japanese Dobby fabric that I bought some time back that I realised was too small for most woven top patterns (always buy more than 1 yard!!) and I was just feeling sad about it when I realised I can use it with Traveller Tee! And because it has texture, I thought pairing it with a navy stretch crepe knit would be lovely and I like to think that it really is cute! 

In fact, I have half a mind to not gift it hehe (actually no, I will gift it then I will go back to that shop and buy the same fabric to make another to twin with her! yay!)

The shorts that I am wearing with this is the Endless Summer Shorts. This one I made is with a cotton sateen twill that gets really soft and comfy with every wash. I like how the shorts look on me though now that I am older, I think I would extend the inseam just a tad more cos I prefer more coverage these days hehe. (As I am typing this, I do realise just how old I sound lol!)

Front view:

Back view:

Both Traveller Tee and Endless Summer Shorts are great staple patterns to have in your pattern stash and you can really get a lot of sews out of them! 

They are on sale for a very limited time ($3 each!) now for WWD 12 Days of Christmas so don't miss out! 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas~~

Over at our house, Christmas is usually a quiet affair and with young toddlers in the house the past few years, the Christmas tree has not been out of storage for a really long time. But 2020 has been a crazy year and the kids are both just so excited about Christmas and decorating and gifts that we decided to finally take the tree out of storage this year! So I'm going to be posing for photos next to the tree! Hehe

Hello from Singapore! A warm welcome everyone who's here for the Winter Wear designs blog tour! I'm Hwee Ke and I'm here to show you WWD's latest free holiday pattern (Don't you just LOVE Suzanne Winters for being so so generous? 💋💋💋)

 So... On the 7th day of Christmas, WWD gave to us... All Wrapped Up (a beautiful scarf pattern)! 💖💖💖

There's 2 versions - a pocket scarf version and a sleeved version. I made the sleeved version and I just love it so much, don't you?

After you downloaded the pattern, you would notice that recommended fabric for the scarf is actually structured knits. In fact it doesn't actually require any stretch (only the sleeves need a good stretch) Well... I had this beautiful, stretchy, drapey, shiny lurex knit that is so soft to touch inside and shiny (So holiday appropriate!) outside that I just HAD to use this knit for my sleeved scarf. 

I'm 5"6' tall so I'm using the regular size but cos my knit is so so slinky, I took 4 inches off the width (you may wish to remove more width if this look isn't what u are going for! But if you are using the recommended fabric then no length removal is necessary. Tip: Check first by wrapping it ard yourself b4 sewing to test the length! ) 

I think it works really well as a wrap scarf and the sleeves help keep the wrap on me! The shiny lurex also gave it just that extra bit of holiday cheer! Also, with the knit I used being so slinky, I knew I could wear this sleeved wrap differently so after playing ard with it, here's another look:

For this look, I pull the wrap all the way past my shoulders so that the entire sleeved portion of the scarf can be seen, then I allowed the wrap to drape down my back so it forms a deep cowl. I think I am gg to wear this wrap like that quite often! Loving that cowl! 

Here's another look:

For this look, I simply wrapped the scarf ard me without wearing the sleeves, then I tied the sleeves at the back of the wrap with a knot. 

And the last look I came up with is this one:

I think you can probably guess how to put this look together 😂 All I did was rearranged the wrap ard my neck, tie the sleeves part and tucked them in. 

Are you excited to try it out? I'm excited to find out from all of you the other ways I can wear this versatile little wrap! 

Download the pattern here and remember to check the FB group for the code to get it for free! 

Thank you for coming and Merry Christmas everyone! 

Designs by Call Ajaire: Overlay dress

After I made this dress, i felt it needed a post all for itself cos I loved it so much! 

I decided to start my Chinese New Year sewing early cos I knew my work schedule for next year is crazy. No procrastination here!

This watermelon double gauze fabric was bought some time ago just for CNY sewing but I haven't decided on a pattern when i got it. I bought from nekoneko.co a red watermelon and a yellow watermelon double gauze, intending for the kids to twin. 

The boy (who is fussier) got to choose first and since he picked yellow, the red watermelon naturally goes to my girl. 

I think she wears it well! This pattern is the Overlay dress by Designs by Call Ajaire. To be honest, I had my eyes set on another pattern of hers initially -- raglan party dress, but that one had no layers, no A0 and obviously no projector file as well. For a sewist spoilt by my projector, i just didn't wan to do the paperwork.. so i decided to give the overlay dress a go instead. And I am so glad I did! It's just about the perfect pattern for a cute watermelon dress!

She had so many compliments today about her pretty watermelon dress. I can't wait to make the yellow one into a twinning shirt for my boy. 

Stay tuned! 

Sew PDF Holiday Showcase

Are you in the habit of sewing gifts for the holidays? 

I only started sewing last year so I hadn't started any tradition of sewing gifts. In fact, I probably can count with both hands the number of gifts I sewn for friends and family over this 2 beginning years of sewing (masks not included of course - i sewn too many masks to count) 

As my skills improve, I feel more confident gifting me-mades to people and I'm hoping that they love the things I made too! If you are in the market for patterns to make holiday gifts, there's a 1 stop holiday gifting pattern ideas shop you can go to that showcases more than 1 pattern companies! 

I'm talking about the Sew PDF site! What's special about this site is that it works with indie pattern designers that are less well known but who have some lovely patterns just waiting for us to discover them! 

I've been busy sewing up several of their showcased patterns and here are some of them to hopefully inspire you!

Cufflet pattern by Make it Last Great for using up all your knit remnants and it is rather useful as well! 

Rogue Cloak by Buttons and Bibs If you don't know the recipients' size, this can be quite forgiving so you can probably guesstimate it hehe. Also, it is such a lovely cloak!

Mabel by Goober Pea Design I made the handkerchief skirt but there is also a super cute circle skirt version and they also have puffed sleeves!

Split Pea by Goober Pea Designs This is one of our favorite for running around and playing cos of the looser fit. 

Copeland Cardi by Tie Dye Diva I made the shortest version cos it reminded me of my teenager days but there's also a top length version is very flattering!

Coastal Crossover (Adults) by Buttons and Bibs and Coastal Crossover (Kids) by Buttons and Bibs

I made a twinning set of us and LOVE it. It's flattering and there's so many options i have more lined up! 

Arthur's Chinos by Suco by Susana Hands down, this pair of pants has the best zipper fly I have ever made! The instructions are so great! I love the button elastic back cos then he can continue to wear this as he grows. YES! 

Overlay Dress by Designs by Call Ajaire for those of us who are experiencing summer now, here's a lovely summer top for little girls. This one here is made with a lightweight cotton woven main and double gauze overlay. When making ur own, don't forget to use a lightweight drapey woven for the overlay for best effect!