Ribbon Flowers on a Ready Made Clutch

Since I showed my clutch collection here, some friends gave me questions. Like, "Did you make the ribbon embroidery (re) on a ready made clutch?" My answer was, no, I made it on a piece of fabric and sent it to a clutch maker.
Another question was, "But is it possible to make it on a ready made clutch?" The answer was, yes, it's possible, but I haven't try it yet.
So to satisfy me & my friend's curiosity, below was my first attempt to make a ribbon embroidery on a ready made clutch.

1. I bought a ready made clutch.

2. I prepared a ribbon flower with the gathering technique. I used a gold colored ribbon 1 inch wide, rolled it 3-4 times and work a running stitches along the selvedge.
3. Pull the thread carefully to gather the ribbon so it will shaped like a flower. Secured the shape with a couple of stitches.
4. Prepare the leaf by folding an 1 inch wide green organdy ribbon so it shaped like pyramid and make a running stitches along the selvedge. Again pull the thread, gather it to shape it like a leaf, secured with a few stitches.
5. Carefully stick the flowers and leaves onto the clutch with some stitches.
6. Voila! My clutch is ready...

Sew Loving it!

Last week my crafter friend mbak Dita of Cemprut who lives in Jakarta, came to Bandung to have a sock doll making workshop at Crayon's.

Of course I eagerly attended it, not only because she's one of my close friend on the net that I haven't meet in person, but also because I've never learn to make a sock doll before, I love to learn something new.

As I expected, at that workshop I met other crafters, I already knew some of them from the net but haven't got a chance to meet in person. I was so happy to find that the crafters are so friendly, down-to-earth and hilariously funny ! We laughed at our own jokes through the workshop session with our hands kept busy on the needles and threads.

The Cemprut's workshop at Crayon's Bandung

Unfortunately I had to go before the workshop's over. Nevertheless, I had fun and I especially loove to have & meet new friends (or old friends but "newly met") . I "sew" loving it!

Speaking of sewing, this month I've finished commissioned orders on "Love to Sew" bags. This time I designed it in form of pochettes. Not only "Love to Sew" actually, there is one pochette embellished with nothing but crewel and beads embroidery. They all have gone now to their new owners (thanks so much customers, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy making them ).

"Love to Sew" pochette in pink flowery canvas & brown faux leather

Beads Couture Needle

Remember my post about Tambour stitching?

As I said in the past, I will save some money to buy the tool, because I really interested in it, but it's relatively pricey for me.

Today, I've received the tool I ordered from here. It was Clover's and came with a plastic tube to keep the needle.

So happy, I tried it right away. At first, it's kinda awkward because I've never use it before.

But after 3 trials, I finally got it and love the tool because it make stitching (whether it beads or chain stitch) done faster (and more even in size...I think) .

This is the result of using the needle for beads stitching

These are the chain stitches I made with the needle. Not bad, eh?

Hmm, projects, projects...

Occupation Theme Bag

For those who've read my previous blog, know that though the mini hoop can be used as a doll house thing, I intended it to be a bag embellishment.

So here's the newest bag I made; shall I call it "Occupation bag"? Hmm, doesn't sound right...

Anyhow, this bag's theme is "Embroiderer". Made of faux suede and cotton fabric, with felt inside lining. Can be worn as a shoulder bag or wristlet. In dusty pink color.

The Bag

The details

Another themed bags I made were "Love to Sew".

Recycled Mini Embroidery Hoop

Once a friend asked if I could make another "Love to Sew" bag, but instead of sewing, she'd like the theme to be about embroidery.

I thought, there won't be much different with sewing theme, the only significant thing is the embroidery hoop. It has to be mini, as the same size as miniature things used in doll house.

I came up with the idea of making one, using recycled objects, which were mineral bottle cap's rings.

To make one, we need:

1. Two mineral bottle cap's rings (the ones left on the bottle's neck). They're made of plastic. You can use toilet paper cardboard tube cut into rings too, but I want my bag to be washable and we all know cardboard will be ruined if mixed with water.

2. A scrap of fabric.

3. Sticky tape and a good glue. I use E6000, because it was proven to stick well on plastic.

Here we go (apologize for the poor quality of the pictures though :P) ...

1. One of the bottle cap ring will be the inner hoop, while the other will be the outer. Cut the one intended to be the inner hoop, so it will be fitted the outer one.

Addicted to...

... cabochon embroidery!
Can't stop doing it ever since I learned it (and mbak Dini as my mentor is to blamed, lol...canda mbak Din, mbak Dini memang wokeh!)

I especially love the ruffled embroidery technique.
I have these cute images, bought from Etsy, covered it with resin stickers to make them into cabs.
I just use a simple, basic ruffle embroidery, not that I'm too lazy to apply fancier technique, but I don't want the bezel competed the cute image and ruin the entire look .

My land lady commissioned me to make the above brooch, she picked the image out of my collection, it was a picture of three cute fairies and requested it to be made in brown color. I combined the brown beads with champagne and a hint of gold color. This is a magnetic brooch (using magnet instead of a pin at the back).

My Other Flower Fairy Magnet Brooches

After I finished the green-pink Flower Fairy brooch, I actually made another two of them, also Flower Fairy, but different flowers/colors.
The images were also grabbed from The Graphic Fairy.

I think, the ruffled edge of these two are better than the first one I showed in the previous blog, though I still didn't dare to make it wider. Don't you think so?

Yellow Flower Fairy

Pink Flower Fairy