Another top

Another top made with the same peasant's shirt pattern:

I seem to receive complements when I am wearing a top made with this pattern, so I decided to make another top for the warmer weather that I am hoping for soon. 

This cotton fabric was given to me by a friend who received it from her friend. The fabric was already cut into pieces to make a simple dress. However, the size was not the same as mine, so I decided to recut it to make this top. I believe my friend's friend must have given up on finishing the dress midway... It is a nice fabric from Madagascar (based on what I was told) with very interesting print. 

If you get stuck in the middle of a sewing project, please let me help. I have knowledge and skills to help you finish your sewing project to pass onto you so that you can finish it yourself in one of my sewing lessons. Making a garment yourself gives you a special feeling, so I hope you don't give up. (Or I can finish it for you, too.) 

Hair accessories

One day, I decided to make some headband and scrunchies with some fabrics I had in my stash. 

Here they are:

The top set is made of leftover fabric after I made myself a raglan-sleeve shirt. (The fabrics above and the one immediately below were donated by a good friend of mine.)

I have not decided which style of headbands I like better - the one with a flat piece eon the top and the elastic in the back, or the scrunched up wide band that goes all the way around? I am using them both and decide. 

The last set was made of a Japanese cotton fabric called Kasuri. Since it's a combination of black, white, and some light blue, this set may be easier to wear than the colourful ones like the above. 

Pen holder - leather craft

Before I forget how to sew leather by hand, I made another thing. Here it is. 

It is a pen holder to keep a pen. I think I will put it on my purse. Or, I may put on my lanyard and hang it from my neck. 

Again, I used a donated piece of leather to make this. 

* I cannot offer custom orders for leather craft with hand stitching because I am too much of a beginner. 

Passport case - leather craft

This is the first time I have sewn leather by hand! 

My aunt taught me how to stitch leather by hand (online lessons). It was, well, my very first time trying hand stitching, so if you zoom in on the photos, you can definitely see there's room for improvement. As with any other craft, I am sure I just have to keep on practicing to make my stitches nice and uniform.  

What can I say, it's perfectly imperfect! For now, in any case. 

Here is the finished passport case. I didn't want card slots like many other passport cases as I saw on the internet. So, I made the left pocket an accessible pocket like shown below. I can slide in some printed sheets of paper (like baggage claim tags) in there. 

With the passport inside (below). This whole case nicely fits in my pocket. 

As you can see, the inside pockets are brown, and the outer colour is black. This is because I am using donated lather pieces which might have been in garbage otherwise. I am glad I can make something useful like this with rescue materials. 

I found leather crafting interesting. It's like a combination of another craft (because you use glue to hold the pieces together) and sewing. This is a very simple thing I made, but I hope to try making other things, too. 

* I cannot offer custom orders for leather craft with hand stitching because I am too much of a beginner. 

A bowl cover for sour dough

I made a quick bowl cover for my rye sour dough bread. 

My friend taught me how to bake Danish rye bread a while ago, and my husband really likes it. So, I bake it regularly. 

In one of the steps, I have to put the dough on the counter for a day or two with a damp tea towel so that the sour dough can ferment. In my recipe, it specifically says not to let the tea towel touch the dough. I thought if I had a shower cap like tea towel, it will not touch the dough. So, here it is. A very quick make, and I am glad I made it. I used two layers of tea towels, so once I dampen the towels, they stay moist for a long time, too.