Mending of ripped fabrics

Here are some mending done by a sewing machine. When there are tears, cuts, or wear, I cannot make it back to its original shape. However, I can close the hole so that you can still use the garment. 

This is recommended on pyjamas, underwear, or otherwise considered private wear. It is especially good for a favourite pyjamas or nightshirt that are so comfortable because you've worn it for a long time... 

Or, if you don't mind a little stitches here and there, you can definitely wear the repaired garments in pride in public! 

I see in many articles about clothing industry waste that people just throw away reparable or mendable clothing pieces in garbage. What a pity. (There's also an issue of too much being produced, too, but that's another issue that I am afraid to write about because I would not be able to stop talking about it. If you're curious, just google the topic... There're a ton of articles in the cyber space.)

In any case, if you are interested in having your clothes repaired like above, please feel free to contact me. Or if you would like to learn how to, please let me know, too.  

Linen drawstring pants

It is getting warmer, and I needed a simple everyday kind of draw-string pants made of grey linen fabric. 

This is the stage where I finished serging and attached the seam pocket pieces. 

A couple of button holes for the drawstring. 

Done! I cannot really make my dress form Glenda to wear the pants, and I find photographing pants a bit hard. So, they look funny, but they fit all right on me.  

Boxy marker cases

I was asked to make some big boxy pouches for markers using some fabrics from Japan.  

The red fabric is "harvested" from a wool kimono. The purple one is a remnant of an obi fabric (synthetic) from Japan that my friend found for me. 

Here are the finished pouches. 

I am sure they hold a lot of markers! The size is about 8" x 6" x 3" (20 cm x 15 cm x 7.5 cm). 

Taking apart kimono

One of the steps for upcycling is to take apart the existing garment. 

In this case, I was taking apart a wool kimono from Japan. 

I see many upcycle videos online where people just cut out necessary amount of fabric without taking apart seams. I see nothing wrong with it, but with kimono, I like to take them apart by ripping seams and ironing all the pieces.

This is because kimono are made of mostly rectangular pieces of fabric. The width of the fabric is usually not very wide, and I like to get as much width as possible to make new items out of them, too. 

This particular wool kimono was partially hand sewn and partially machine sewed. A VERY expensive silk kimonos are usually all hand sewn, and what they do to launder kimono is to take it all apart, wash, dry on pieces of board, and sew them all up again. Of course, a hand-sewn silk kimonos are easier to take apart. So, when I see some machine sewn seams, I am a little disappointed. Oh well. But at the end of the hard work, I get a beautiful set of rectangular fabric pieces. I shall not complain. 

I hope to have some pouches and bags for sale at Christmas Craft Sales this year. 

Art tool tote bag

I got an order for a tote bag to hold numerous art tools! I was excited to make a bag like this. 

First step was to make sewing patterns for the specifications given. (I use reused paper to make patterns. Why not?)

I cut the canvas fabric into pieces and started sewing. This bag has total of 16 outer pockets to hold markers, bushes, boxes of coloured pencils, and any other things that need to be kept there. 

I keep on sewing and sewing. So much fun. 

Here is the picture of the finished bag below. 

I hope the artist will make this canvas bag unique by splashing some paint on it and leave interesting marks on it.