Recycle Tutorial: Braided Rag Rug

My mum threw me 2 bundles of old bed sheets she found during spring cleaning. She knows that I love to recycle and able to make something good out from them. In support of the Earth Hour campaign, I am going to spend the whole March making recycle handmade and will switch off my lights for 1 hour on March 27, 8:30pm. Hope you will do so too

The first idea that came across my mind was rag rug, yes, with all this rotten bed sheets I can make lots of rag rugs. I stumbled upon some rag rug tutorials before, and this one really caught my attention, Moda Bake Shop’s braided rag rug. I like their idea to braid the fabric strips and sew it into a rag rug. Since I did it a little different from them, here is my version, a versatile and strong rag rug that can be used for many years, just like my granny’s rag rug.

I love the touch of this braided rag rug….. it is rough!!! My mum loves to rub her feet against floor mat, so this should fits her right. I will send this back to my mum, she is going to love it!!!! I will make one for myself, I need one to comfort my feet too…. I inherited this habit from her…

Let’s go and see how I make this 22″ x  16″ oval shape braided rag rug
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Purse Pattern: Tiger Coin Purse

This is the original idea of what I want to design and make instead of the kitty coin purse!!!! The test purse turned out too gentle and cute, so I made it into kitty purse. This one, with the ferocious look , it resembles more like a tiger now

This purse is 11cm W x 8cm H (11 cm from tip of ear) / 4 ¹/₄” x 3 ¹/₈“. Nice enough to keep some loose coins, notes, credit cards, or you can use it to keep your keys, or cosmetic for touching-up while out.

Just like the kitty coin purse, I used buff color polar fleece to fake the tiger’s fur. This time, I embroidered some branch stitches on the forehead and temporal points to mimic the tiger stripes. I also added a big muzzle on the tiger, sewed some black beads there to exaggerate the expressions. I gave it a pair of black button eyes, so it looks like it is staring at me (roar… I want to eat you, lol!!!). The nose bit is a piece of small black felt.

[At the background is the crochet tote I made many years ago, but I gave it a facelift last year by embellishing it with a daisy, put in lining and a zippy pocket, plus some elastic bands to hold contents in place.]

Let’s get the instruction of how to put the pattern together and sew the tiger coin purse. The method is ….

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Sewing Tutorial: Treats Holder

 

Today is the 7th days of Chinese New Year!!!! It is everybody’s birthday and we are officially 1 year older in our lunar age. Traditionally, we get together on this day to toss the colorful raw fish salad (yee sang, 鱼生) and make wishes for continued wealth and prosperity. The higher we toss, the better we will get

I made this treats holder to serve little treats during Chinese New Year. Every kids visited my house during this festive season likes it…. I mean the treat!!! I made another bigger one to put some mandarin oranges as well. To my surprise, it can also be a King’s crown if the fold is made deeper.

I saw this method quite sometimes ago and amazed on how the holder was transformed from, it was ….

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Sewing Tutorial: Simple Chinese Ornament

Chinese celebrates Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year for 15 days. Today is the 4th day of Chinese New Year and traditionally we don’t visit friends and relatives during the 3rd and 4th day since it is believed that we could get into argument or bad luck if do so. I was pretty much relax at home eating cookies, cakes, mandarin oranges and the left-over from the eve (chú xī) [opppsss... hope I won't gain too much weight during this festival :p] Well, I did another simple sewing of an ornament to decorate my pussy willows using silk and red packet. Unlike the previous Locker Hook Ornament, the process to sew 1 of this simple ornament took only about 10 minutes. If you make a few in one shot, the average time spend on them will be shorterned.

This design is not confined to only Chinese New Year ornament, you can modify it to suit any festive ….

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Locker Hook Tutorial: Chinese New Year Ornament

恭喜发财， 迎春接福， 新年快乐， 万事如意! 恭贺全球华人庆丰年! These are the common words that we wish each other during Chinese New Year. Hopping the best wishes will bring good wealth, happiness, good  luck, auspicious, prosperity, good health during the early spring of each year.

春 – spring, 福 – prosperity are the most conventional character found in Chinese New Year decoration， which means 迎春接福 – Auspicious.

Let’s get into the tutorial on how to make this auspicious decoration for the Chinese New Year. ….

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Sewing Tutorial: Piggy Pillow

As promised, I have completed the tutorial and the pattern for the “Be My Valentine – Piggy Pillow”, which was published 3 weeks ago. This time I made a pair for my kids, they love it.

You may not be able to do it in time for this valentine but as I said, if you have love in you, everyday is valentine. Hope you sew some for your loved ones no matter if it is Feb 14.

Besides as a pillow, you can use this pattern to make into other things, for example, pin cushion, smaller softy as gift, or a piggy back pack for little children. Just change the size by reducing or enlarging and modify it to fit into your design. You can even put a magnet on the nose to make them kissing each other, remember to reverse the polarity so that they attract to each other (Thanks to Jackie who left a comment to suggest this). Be creative, the upshot are endless!!! Love it ….

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