It's in the Bag!

Updated on Aug 4, 2009 at 16:01 by [Carmen]

How come all the handicrafts that come out of Japan are so darn cute? They even have a cute word for cute - kawaii.

from Design Collection for Kids 365There are lots of Japanese craft books in print, but they are mainly written in Japanese. So it's a matter of looking at photos/diagrams and working it out from there. My sister-in-law Kia found this cute bag, but couldn't decipher the Japanese instructions.

It's not quite the same, but I managed to make my own version of this one handled bag.

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Re-Fashioning your denims...and the Art of Thrifting!

from ReadyMade April/May 2009Wandering past City Beach, saw some patched denim jeans and said to myself "That'd be so easy to do!" Here's how to attack them, courtesy of a great re-fashioning article in ReadyMade  magazine.

Try it out first on some old jeans- I found a great $8 pair of Levis at an op-shop.

Went out op-shopping recently

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(Organic) cotton-pickin' story

from Sunday Mail 7.6.09

Summer Rayne Oakes, author of eco-shopping guide Style Naturally was in Brisbane recently for Greenfest. (Missed it, I was out of town, but if anyone went, let me know!) The Cornell Uni graduate modelled these looks from eco-friendly companies for our local newspaper.

Nice to see it's no longer hippy, brown-sack type clothing, in case you were worried!

Lots of the pictured clothing ranges use organic cotton, and here's one of the reasons why.

This story's from Matilda Lee's book Eco-Chic...

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Just to wrap it up...

Updated on Oct 19, 2009 at 15:58 by [Carmen]

Still working on skirts made from a pair of pillowslips (see previous entry) ...

When I told Remo about my sewing business, he insisted I wear something I'd made to our next church meeting.  Luckily, this pillowslip skirt can be made in an afternoon. (Excuse strange pose - I photographed myself in the bathroom mirror!)

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It's a wrap!...skirt...

Thought y'all might be interested in how ideas for new patterns come about.  This one started with a note from a teacher, looking for an easy wrap skirt project for her year 9 students.  Came up with this little mini  skirt, which I quite liked. There was just one problem - as with most wrap skirts, a strong breeze and it all unwraps rather quickly! 

 

Hoping to avoid wardrobe malfunctions, I looked into another wrap skirt style that is a large tube shape (so it can't fly open, exposing your undies!).  Round about the   same time, I spied these little dresses in British magazine Sew Hip, made from a recycled pillowslip.

Figuring one pillowcase would not accomodate my hips, I started work on a wrap skirt made from a pair of pillowcases.  Here's some of the work in progress...Front of Pillowslip skirt Back of pillowslip skirt 

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