A new bag in the making

I started on a new bag pattern on Saturday and actually managed to complete 80% of the bag!

Here's a sneak peek!



What's left is the bag handle, to put in all the closures (I am still trying to decide what type of closures to use) and the sew on my labels.

I am thinking of getting some new labels for my bags. Looking for the metal type. I thought I saw them on FB but can't recall who was selling them.

This bag is a cross between a tote bag and a handbag.

After almost completing it last night, it is bigger than the normal handbag size, but smaller than the usual tote bags.

I can put in a mini laptop, or iPad in the bag, I think.

I'll put up photos when I have fully completed the bag.

Keep a look out for this page!

NNC Craft Retreat 2015 – Day Two of the Retreat (Part 3 of 4)

For the 2^nd day of the Retreat, I was a little concerned that we might not get the 3^rd project done as I still had the pincushion for the Etui to show how to do.

So the night before the 2^nd day, I sent everyone a whatsapp to ask them to try to make it by 8.30am or latest by 8.45am so that we can have a head start on the 3^rd project, giving me some extra time to show them how to do the pincushion.

Everyone was very cooperative when everyone arrived early or on time. It being a Saturday, traffic was light and we were also able to park right in front of the Meeting Center, instead of having to drop off our things first and then parking our car quite a distance from the place.

As soon as everyone finished setting up their sewing machines, it was full concentration from the word go.

Our 3^rd project was the choice project of either the Dresden Plate Block Quilt or the Reversible Bag. 

I had prepared myself for a challenging day as I would be teaching 2 projects at the same time.

But I was surprised how things moved on smoothly with no hiccups at all! 

Everyone was being very cooperative, focused and eager to get the 3^rd project going.

Only Sally and Margaret opted for the Dresden Plate Quilt Block, while Paul, Idah, Oyah, Suseela and Radha chose the Reversible Bag as their 3^rd project for the Retreat.

Even though the Dresden Plate Quilt Block looked complicated, but it was far easier than the Reversible bag. It only required sewing of only one circle, while the rest were just straight sewing.

The Reversible Bag, on the other hand, had curves at almost every stage of the sewing! 

But that did not deter Radha from completing her bag! She was determined to complete it!

She could surely win the Determination Award if ever there was one!

She told us that her sister was impressed with her the day before when she brought home a completed Lotus Bag. 

I told Radha that her sister is going to be even more surprised when she brings home a completed Reversible Bag at the end of the 2^nd day!

BTW, Radha, thanks for your compliments and vote of confidence when you said that you’d join my class again should I run another sewing class! I’ll be looking forward to have you in my class again! 

Twenty minutes before we stopped to break for lunch, I showed everyone how to make the pincushion for the Etui Sewing Box. That got everyone eager to finish off their pincushion before lunch so that it can be showcased after lunch during our Mini NNC 9^th Anniversary celebration.

So eager was everyone that we finally only stopped for lunch at 1.30pm! LOL!

I had such great hardworking students! I’ll have this set of students in my class anytime!

After lunch, we set up the classroom into a Show Gallery of sorts as we showcased all the completed projects.

In my excitement to see all the completed projects, I forgot to snap a close-up of each individual projects, but remembered to snap a photo of everyone with their projects.

These individual close-ups came from the participants themselves which they sent to me by whatsapp. Thanks, everyone!

Only Suseela’s close-up photo of her project is missing.

A very pleased Suseela

A salute to Radha, who, despite not having a sewing machine of her own, managed to complete 2 bags besides the Etui!

Idah with her Black and white set of finished projects!

Idah was well coordinated with her finished pieces when she also wore black and white on the last day of the Retreat.

Was that planned or a coincidence, Idah?

Margaret made changes to her set of Dresden Plate Quilt Block to suit her choice of colours, and I think it turned out great!

I just love the combination of blue and red!

Zawiyah or Oyah with her completed projects

I think Oyah's last minute decision to change the threads for the Reversible Bag was a good one as it highlighted the gold threads in the fabric.

Paul with his completed projects.

The reverse side of Paul's Reversible bag is a camouflage fabric which was bought specially from Penang.

Unfortunately I forgot to ask Paul to reverse the bag after taking this photo, but you can see the fabric here in this photo of Paul working on the Reversible bag.

Sally with her completed projects.

If I am doing a set for myself, I think I'll do in this combination! I just love all the shades of PINK in all the projects!

Great work, everyone!

Overall, I think the Retreat was a success.

Having a small group is a huge plus, in my opinion.

Even though, initially I was targeting for 20 participants, but when I couldn’t get the number I was targeting for, I decided that maybe it was a blessing in disguise after all.

I think 10 would have been a good number, but I am glad that we ended up having only 9, even though eventually only 7 turned up.

In fact, I think even if we had we had all 9 turn up, it would have been just the right number of students to teach a craft class. It gave me the opportunity to give more focus on each participant.

Another plus point was that we were among people we are familiar with. We were among families.

Margaret, Sally, Radha, Paul and I are all NNC members who we are all very close to. 

Then there was Suseela, Radha’s SIL – a family member. 

Zuraidah and Zawiyah are my cousin-in-laws who I am also close to.

So having people we all know before and are close to helps a lot. For one thing, they are more forgiving, like the first day when, despite my meticulous planning, *blush* I still missed out the poly fiber fill for the pincushion for the Etui Sewing Box!

I think a total stranger might not be as forgiving, and would probably go onto FB and start complaining as soon as he or she could get online! LOL!

Despite my relatively strict (was I really strict? *wink*) way of teaching, every participant was very cooperative and did not give me much problems. 

In fact, they gave me no problems at all, except for one naughty participant who we still love her just the same no matter how nakal she is *wink*, and one star student who just couldn’t wait for the others to get done! LOL! *wink*

But, like Paul said, star students make life very easy for the teachers because then you can focus on the others, and a naughty student makes class less boring. LOL! *wink*

But I think I was not actually strict, but more of wanting to show the correct way of doing things, and not cincai macai, because I wanted to make sure that everyone learns the correct way first before they start making their own changes to suit the way they do things.

Suseela took a tailoring class before so she’s had some basic sewing skills, which also makes teaching her a breeze.

I was initially worried when Radha told me that she was not so looking forward to making the bags because of the sewing involved. But I must salute her for her dedication! 

Despite not having her own sewing machine (she shared a sewing machine with Suseela and Paul), she did managed to complete both bags and the Etui Sewing Box! Tabik spring gitu!

I am very happy to have cousin-in-laws Zuraidah (Idah) 

and Zawiyah (Oyah) join the Retreat, both an expert in their fields. 

Idah takes awesome photos with her professional camera, while I have always admired Oyah’s painting works.

So to be able to share my knowledge and introduce them to another type of craft was a great honour. Thanks for your support, Idah and Oyah!

Paul is an exemplary student.

He is a teacher himself and knows the stress of teaching students who are lazy or would not listen to the teacher, so he gave me no problems at all! I’ll have him in my class any time! *wink*

I think everyone had fun! I had fun teaching. I had a great class to teach!

This Retreat, hopefully will be the first of many more Retreats and Craft Classes to come in the future! 

It will be more challenging with different projects to teach over the years as the participants will be expecting different kinds of projects each year, but I hope I’ll always be up to the challenge, with support from friends!

Thanks, everyone, for joining the Retreat! It was a great honour to have you all in my class!

I think everyone went home happy and satisfied.

I hope that you will use the knowledge learned over the 2 days to make more similar projects.

Should any of you need a refresher course, just let me know. I am just a whatsapp away! 

NNC 9th Anniversary Mini Celebration coming up! (Part 4 of 4)

NNC Craft Retreat 2015 – Day One of the Retreat (Part 2 of 4)

I woke up as early as I would normally get up to go to work. 

I wanted to get a head start in getting to Wiseed Meeting Center, at Merchant Square, where the venue of the Retreat is, as I needed to get things ready before the participants start coming in to register.

Sally and Margaret had promised to come early too to help out.

Sally arrived my house at slightly before 7.00am just as hubby was about to leave for work.

After a quick breakfast of homemade waffles (Yes! I actually made waffles the night before because I figured I wouldn’t have time to go out and have breakfast but needed to start my day right with a good breakfast!), we made our way to Merchant Square and arrived at the Meeting Center just as Radha and Margaret arrived.

We quickly got things organised, setting up the registration table, the ironing corner, cutting corner, and tools and materials corner, before setting up our own sewing machines, ready to start the Retreat!

We even had a table set up for tools and other materials which the participants might need in case they ran out or forgot to bring. 

You can see some thread organisers I brought along to sell in case anyone was interested as I had some queries on them.

I also showcased the projects which we will be doing to give the participants an idea of the project in real life, as before this, they only saw photos I put up online.

I also made up some extra kits in case we might get some participants interested to buy extra kits to make on their own.

Soon all the other participant started coming in. Besides Sally, Margaret and Radha, we had Paul, Radha’s sister-in-law, Suseela, and my cousin-in-laws, Zuraidah and Zawiyah.

We were supposed to have 9 participants, but my cousin Ima and Sally’s friend, Alize, could not make it at the last minute due to some clash of schedule.

Class started punctually at 9.00am with an introduction of what is expected out of the class, what to expect and how I intended to run the class.

We went straight into the first project with the Etui Sewing Box.

This is a project that was mostly gluing and minimal sewing. In fact, only one item needed sewing. The rest was just gluing pieces together.

Seen here are Radha and Suseela.

Here are Margaret and Sally hard at work gluing the Etui pieces together.

I never thought about bringing a radio for some light background music, so the class fell silent as everyone focused on gluing the many pieces together.

Below are sisters Zuraidah and Zawiyah.

Our very own NNC member, Paul, hard at work.

We stopped for tea at about 11.00am before continuing again right up until lunch time at 1.00pm.

Everyone went according to their speed and level of skill. No rush. 

When someone is slow, we wait awhile while he or she catches up. 

When someone gets too eager to complete by going faster than the rest, I show him or her the next step first with those able to follow the same speed. If not, I just show the steps or instructions again.

I told everyone to get themselves comfortable. Most of us even went barefooted as the classroom was carpeted.    

I am impressed with the facilities provided at the Wiseed Meeting Center. They gave us extensions wires at every table for our sewing machines when I told them we needed individual power supplies for our sewing machines.

Tea and lunch was served right on time at 11.00 and 1.00pm respectively as requested.

When it was time for me, Idah and Oyah to do our prayers, because we catered the tea and lunch from them, we had the use of part of the smaller meeting room for our lunch and a space to pray. I was most impressed when they even provided us with a sejadah!  

I’ll definitely consider them again for future retreats or meetings, should I ever have a need for a big meeting place.

Except for the pincushion which we could not complete because I had forgotten to bring the poly fiberfill, everyone managed to complete the Etui before we broke for lunch.

Before we broke for lunch, I told everyone that as soon as they are done with lunch to start ironing their fabrics for the next class to avoid a long queue after lunch and waste precious time.

The 2^nd project for the Retreat was a Lotus Bag. It was mostly straight sewing.

Seen here is Zawiyah having a go sewing on my Janome.

Almost there, Zuraidah!

Sally is an expert in origami so this Lotus Bag was almost child’s play for her. She aced through the bag without waiting for the others! LOL! That’s my star student!

The 'Headmistress' Margaret all focused on getting her Lotus bag done!

Zawiyah with her almost completed Lotus bag!

Paul is all smiles as he puts in the last part of the Lotus bag.

Suseela helping out Radha to get her Lotus bag completed.

Everyone managed to finish their Lotus Bags by 5.15pm, before we call it a day.

NNC Craft Retreat 2015 - Day 2 (Part 3 of 4 parts) - coming up!