sock doll: christmas bunny

this baby bunny was made on christmas day, so it shall (uninspiringly) be called CHRISTMAS.

adapted from the book Go Forward Happily: Sock Sewing in Danta's Classroom (快乐向前行:丹塔的袜子娃娃). he's really quite cool (you can check out his website here!)

cut up socks

stitched and stuffed

faceless

mummy amused herself with CHRISTMAS by making the bunny put on a mini tee printed with her jc photo

and then putting her to sleep

first 袜子娃娃! :D my stitches are really rather ugly. it was unexpectedly hard to sew, especially 'cause the short black threads from the knit of the socks kept dropping. and it was tough sewing neat backstitches too, so the mouth and whiskers of the bunny look rather messy. but oh well, first try. ♥ my christmas bunny (:

bake: cinnamon tea cake & rock buns

lovely saturday afternoon spent at my cousin's house baking lovelies and singing along to english oldies (:

the recipe for cinnamon tea cake

and rock buns

mixture for rock buns

mixed to hard dough

ready to be put into the oven

baked and unbaked

perfect for afternoon tea (:

part 2: cinnamon tea cake

we were um, rather adventurous with the choice of cake tin

so it kinda turned out looking like a huge doughnut

but both turned out rather yummy, so i'm glad (: and we had fun. the cinnamon tea cake was "good" (so says the family---we baked for a gathering), if you like the dense kind of cake. i.e. like a pound cake, and not sponge cake (which is light and fluffy) but i'm guessing it's supposed to be like that? yeah. and the rock buns turned out good too. we cut down on the sugar, so they weren't too sweet, and replaced ground ginger with cinnamon (i think nothing can go wrong with cinnamon haha)

pimp my shoes #2

first painted pair of shoes! another pair of to-be-salvaged shoes from the same friend. her keds yellowed too. so i repainted them white as well. this pair took me a really really long time. not the painting, but rather the design. j said it was up to me, that i could paint whatever i wanted, but i had no design in mind, and no inspiration. but when i finally just decided to randomly draw on the shoes, everything just fitted together.

and then there was the painting of the design. i was so so afraid i'd destroy the shoe, 'cause it's not that easy getting clean lines on a shoe with a brush. but i didn't want to use a marker either; i'm worried the colour might fade to look worn after a while. paint should be more lasting, right?

anyway, if you look closely, there are still some lines that are non-too-fine. it is rather hard controlling the brush, especially with the texture of the shoe being rough. so the simple solution is, don't look too closely.

my cousin says the shoes remind her of alice in wonderland. probably 'cause the design's a little whimsical. i shall take that as a compliment, since i love alice.

it still looks quite acceptable for a first attempt, no? my friend hasn't seen this pair, i hope she likes it...

pimp my shoes #1

a friend from work requested help in salvaging her schu(s)! after scrubbing and washing them and letting them dry, her off-white flats yellowed, and there were ugly patches on them. so she passed them to me, and i painted the shoes white (which was rather difficult, as the material didn't take paint very well, so it took a lot a lot of paint), and sewed on some colourful buttons to brighten them! (and make them not look so much like school shoes)

cute as a button (:

shoes: train & tracks v2

version 2! the train kind of became my favourite motif after i made the pair of shoes for my sis. and apparently i'm not the only one who thinks it's cute, 'cause this design was requested by a girlfriend of mine (: this was made for her birthday this year.

removed the elastic strap, painted the rim red, and added some trees to the side

and i sewed the felt pieces down this time too.

oh and subsequently she decided to attach red ribbons from the side of the shoes (from the rim) so that she could tie a bow in the middle, and i thought that was rather cute, but i don't have pictures of them, so try to imagine...

shoes: train & tracks

one of the first pairs of shoes i ever made. this was for my younger sister, and she requested for it to have something to do with trains. i loved it when i completed them, they just looked so cheery. my sis loved them too (:

left shoe - train

right shoe - tracks

mini scrapbook

this was made for one of my best girlfriends too. had a lot of fun making this. i have a bad habit of buying anything i like, so i tend to always end up with a lot of materials with no particular theme in mind...then try to think of a theme after S: maybe that's why they always don't end up looking as nice as those displayed in the scrapbooking shops. oh well. but it's not wrong to be whimsical!

foodie

sleepyhead

shopping queen

superstar wannabe

travel buddeh :D

magpie

made with much love <3

next up, baking session at my cousin's today! :D

shoes: buttons

this was made for my cousin as well. simple black pair with colourful buttons sewn on. i think buttons are such a wonderful embellishment to add to anything (:

subsequently i decided to sew pastel pink stitches around the rim, like i did for the teatime pair, but i forgot to take pictures of it. pink on black looks nice too. especially with the pastel-coloured buttons!