Button holes

I decided that I wanted buttons on my heat pack bags I made the other day after all. I liked the way the button looks but I figured if I was going to put a button there anyway I might as well give it a purpose instead of just being decorative.

So I went to the quilt store and had them teach me how to use the button hole option on my sewing machine. The button on the left is mother of pearl and the pink button is just a plastic button. I’m keeping the one with the mother of pearl button but I think the pink one actually matches better.

The lady at the store had a really nice sewing machine that had a one touch button hole making. It also does all these other nifty things like automatically cut her threads. It makes me want to buy a new sewing machine but I would feel a little guilty buying one when I already have one that I could use. Granted the one that I’m using is my sister’s but she doesn’t use it and it’s a perfectly good sewing machine.

 

New clutch

I saw a bag the other day that was made of pleated linen and ever since I’ve been wanting to experiment with pleating. I bought a piece of Kona fabric in a beige color (I can’t remember the name of it right now) for a quilt that I’m working on and had a little extra fabric. I also bought a red and cream toile-looking fabric and thought they looked really beautiful together. I started messing around with the fabric and came up with the pleating. There wasn’t any planning put into this bag, hence the way it looks. I just started adding as I was working.

I made the bag with a cotton fabric, interfaced with cotton flannel and then lined in cotton fabric. It’s much thinner and more flexible than I was hoping for. I had thought it was going to be stiffer than it was. I’m thinking maybe I’ll try starching it. I found a homemade starch recipe and thought I would try it out. I’d actually like to make it a lot of stiffer.

Here’s the other side of it. The pleating continues and I had initially thought of cutting it off but I liked the way it continued off the purse. I also thought it would be cute to put a flower in the same fabric as the lining. The ends of the pleating fabric looks like petals so I thought it worked out well. The vintage button is some kind of shell and mother of pearl. I bought a box of buttons off ebay and have been wanting to use that particular button. The bag closes with a magnetic snap. It’s keeps the bag really secure but since the bag is so thin, I fear that I’m going to end up ripping it because the magnet is so strong. It was a very pleasant surprise that the button and the snap match.

Picture of the lining. I absolutely love contrasting lining. It’s always a nice surprise when you see beautiful lining.

 

Fake Hot Water Bottle Holder

So I had a really bad stomachache this morning and I asked my boyfriend to bring me a microwaved bag of rice. I’ll explain that later. So I was lying in fetal position in pain and started thinking, I could make a pretty bag for my bag of rice.

So all day I was trying to make this stupid bag but my sewing machine wouldn’t work. I had taken the bobbin area out the other day to try to clean it and I’m not sure if I put all the pieces back together correctly because now the bobbin is loose and ends up clanking around until it falls out. Super annoying when you’re trying to sew. So it’s 11pm and because I’m completely obsessive, I try putting the machine back together so I can finish this bag. I started really slowly hoping that the bobbin won’t clank around and fall out and I ended up sewing the whole thing one stitch at a time until I finish it. I tried doing it as slowly as possible to avoid any kind of clanging. I really hope I didn’t break the machine. But anyway, I finished it, finally.

So here it is. After a whole day of obsessing about, it’s finished, my faux water bottle bag/bag for microwaved rice/heat pack bag. I don’t know exactly what to call it. I wanted to put a button on it but when you’re sick, you really don’t want to bother with buttons.

So back to the bag of microwaved rice… If you take a bag of dry rice and put it in the microwave, you can use it like a heat pack. It stays hot for a almost an hour so it’s pretty convenient and easy. I keep a bag of rice just for this purpose. The rice could be used over and over so just make it the designated bag.

The inside is lined in cotton flannel so it’s just thick enough that you won’t burn yourself on rice but think enough that yous till get lots of heat. (Yes, I tried it out as soon as I finished). The inside is just a quart size zip lock bag filled with raw rice. I’m thinking you could use beans or anything dried but I’ve never tried it. I’ve only used rice.

I also made this flip over lid, like on sandwich bags so this helps to keep the bag of rice in it. I had a bit of difficulty figuring how that worked. The little mouse was working hard. Took me two times before I worked it out. The picture doesn’t show it very well. The pictures overall are pretty bad. I don’t really want to “pose” my crafts but I may have to. My friend, Mieng is probably cringing at my photos as he reads this.

 

Pink & Brown Clutch

So this is the first artsy clutch that I’ve made from the Amy Karol book. As soon as I saw the instructions, I knew these were the colors I wanted to use. I’m not really a pink kind of person but I just thought these colors went so perfectly together and I love the way the button fits with the colors.

So I showed my friend the clutch and she was absolutely in love with it. I guess her opinion is a bit biased as her favorite color is pink.  But nevertheless, she loved it =)

The inside of it reminds of something but I don’t think I should say considering I want this blog to be appropriate to everyone.

I need to figure out what button I’m going to use as I don’t have the same button. I became obsessed with buttons after my first zippy. I ended up buying A LOT of buttons off ebay. Most of them weren’t really that great and a batch that I had bought were unsearched so they had strings still attached & they had a really weird smell that made me a bit nauseous. Also, there were a lot of really bland plain generic-looking buttons. I was going to throw them out but I think I’ll end up giving them away or something. I have to find someone who will take them. Anyway, they smelled horrible so I ended up washing them in a solution of dish soap, vinegar and baking soda. They smelled even worse after that. It was indescribable. This awful old sour smell. Just awful. Some of the buttons were metal so the solution made some of the rust start to appear. Anyway, after all that, I think they’re finally clean. I went through and cut all the string off the and dried them so now they’re ok.

 

Party!

My friend invited me to her girlfriend’s and sister’s 30th birthday party. Wow that’s confusing, right? So they’re having it at their new house and it’s going to be casino-themed. How cool! They’ve hired professional dealers to come with their professional sized tables and we get to play the games for tickets. At the end of the night you enter a raffle and the grand prize is a trip to Vegas.

So I’m super excited. I hope I win the raffle. I went to a party a few years ago where they had a casino theme. It was a corporate party though and I didn’t know normal people could hire dealers. But then again, I guess you can hire people to do just about anything.

So I’m really not that close to my friend’s girlfriend and sister and have no idea what they like. So what does a person who’s zippy-crazy get people for their birthdays. uh… ZIPPIES!

So this is for my friend’s girlfriend

And this is for my friend’s sister. I bought so much of these 2 fabrics because I was planning on using them as backing for a quilt but ended up going with something else. But then again, I really think the pink flowered one is too busy for a backing anyway. I like the backs of my quilts to look like a whole other quilt. Anyway, so lots of the fabric and now I have to find things to do with them. I’m afraid I’m going to get sick of it.

Here they are all wrapped up and ready for the party.

I just found two pairs of old pants I had at my parent’s house. One pair’s linen and another one is gray with white pinstripes. I’m planning on taking them apart and doing something with them but I’m not sure what yet. I’d like to do something different because a person can only do so many zippies. Suggestions?

On a completely different subject, about my first love actually… FOOD! I LOVE FOOD! Food, food paranphanelia, food porn (not actual porn involving food but like food mags & stuff… get it? food porn… stuff you enjoy). Anyway, I LOVE FOOD! So is it me or are there fewer good restaurants than there used to be? Or maybe my tastes are just changing. I used to go out to eat several times a week and now we rarely go out because there’s rarely a restaurant that we’re much impressed with anymore.

Our favorite restaurant in LA is definitely Urasawa. This could quite possibly be one of our favorite restaurants of all time. Hmm… perhaps I shouldn’t have put that on the web as it’s already getting a little harder to get reservations. But then again, not that many people read my blog so there isn’t really a chance of too much overexposure. Anyway, every meal I’ve had there is so perfectly executed. Basically, the chef is your personal chef for the evening. He prepares EVERYTHING you eat. It’s just absolutely amazing! It’s rare that you see someone so in love with their craft.

On a different scale, I went to a restaurant in Huntington Beach last week called Izakaya Zero. Well, I guess it’s not completely different because they’re both Japanese but Urasawa is super fancy traditional Japanese and Izakaya Zero is bar food/tapas/casual Japanese. Anyway, so the decor was really modern and I was initially pretty pessimistic as all the workers were white. That makes me think, trendy bad japanese fusion. And while it wasn’t traditional, it was really good. We had a popcorn shrimp that was similar to a tempura shrimp but much crispier. I think I could even venture to say that I prefer it over tempura shrimp =X. We also had a miso eggplant, softshell crab, edamame, and a salad. The best part of it was that it was really cheap. Most of the dishes were around $5-6 and the most expensive one, the crab I think, was $9. The beers were really reasonable; only $3 each. Oh and the workers were really cute! Drool… Anyway, great restaurant, cheap food. I wish there were more like it.

Another favorite restaurant I have in LA is Piccolo Paradiso in Beverly Hills. Super good chef’s menu. You really can’t beat the price at 5-6 courses at $55. I wanted to take my sister there for lunch tomorrow but I dont think they’re open for lunch =( I’ll have to blog in detail about that at a later date.

 

My first post

So this is my first blog. I go through random obsessions and am currently in a sewing obsession. I just got the Amy Karol book, “Bend the Rules of Sewing” and “Simple Sewing” by Lotta Jansdotta. I made a few zippies from the Amy Karol book. They are surprisingly easy and I was quite happy with my first sewing project. It took a bit of time but now I have a cute little zippy.

Here’s my first little zippy. I sewed a strip of fabric to the front of it and added some buttons. It looks very vintage-y to me.

Here is the lining of the zippy.