Tutorial: Tube Box

I have been experimenting of how to make a sturdy tube box to store the Kanzashi Christmas Tree. The box must be strong enough to be able to withstand all the rough handling during shipping and reach the winners’ hands in good condition.

I used cardboard, folded 2 layers, no, not strong enough!

I used a thick cardboard, no, I couldn’t fold it in round!

I shopped around but all I saw were rectangle boxes and they are rather huge for the small tree I made, which means I have to include more bubble pack in the package, no no I don’t want that either!

I want it to be light weight yet strong….. I was grumbling to my technical staff about it during a casual talk while they were having their tea break. The chief showed me a UPVC pipe and said: “Use this!”. Yes, it is the perfect material that I want, why I never thought of it!!! More brains is always better than 1 as long as we are not the cooks and won’t spoil the soup lol!!! …..

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Sewing Tutorial: Kanzashi Christmas Tree

Congratulation to the 3 winners who won the Green, Red and White trees during the Kanzashi Christmas Tree Giveaway Draw recently!!! For those who didn’t win or missed the boat, don’t be disappointed, here is the tutorial with complete step-by-step photos and even videos to guide you all the way to make the Christmas Tree!!!

Though it looks tedious but if you get your hands on it, it is pretty simple!!! Try it out!!!!

The Christmas Tree is made from 2 types of Kanzashi fold (or TsuNami) petals, round tip and pointy tip. Watch these 2 videos which I made to show you how to fold it. Perhaps you need to practice first before you can get a perfect fold for a start. Trust me, it is not as difficult as you see and think

I also prepared a pattern drawing for all the cut-out materials you need, you can download it here! …..

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Turtle Pincushion – Greeny & Pinky

Did you get it right? [click here to see the question]. Yup, the hexagon quilt is for the back of my little turtle pincushion. Let me introduce ***drum roll***** WELCOME, Ms.Pinky and Mr. Greeny!!!

I created Greeny as an experiment, if you go back to my hexagon quilt tutorial post, you will see Greeny is hiding in the background as I photographed the steps. From idea, to paper, to sewing and finally the birth of my turtle pincushion, I created my first sea creature. The project went on smoothly and I never thought that I can be successful in the very first trial. Lucky me, I think! …..

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Basic Hexagon Quilting – Tutorial

I am doing bit of hexagon quilting during the weekend for a project. I am not telling what it is, you got to guess. Some photos here should give you a great hint!!! I will post up the finished piece, so come back later to check out. See if you get it right! Sorry, no prize!

Since I am doing it, I photographed the steps just to show you the process to make a hexagon quilt. …..

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Craft Fair: Hexagon Quilt Blanket

This blanket recalls childhood nostalgia. We (with siblings) helped my mum make this while I was in primary school, in return for the hard work and time spent, each of us have a warm and homely cozy piece of blanket that lasts for years, which is priceless.
About the process and work, I remember my mum needs to trace and cut out lots of hexagon templates from cardboard, all must be in equal size. Then collected lots of loose pieces of cloths with all kind of textures, colours and patterns; cut them into a slightly bigger size than the hexagon template. Then she has to fold and loosely stitch the cloth to the hexagon tamplate in such a way that they form equally size of hexagon just like those shown in the picture above. This is not all, she then matched the colours of the centre piece and the surrounding 6 pieces so that they look like a piece of flower. After that, the most important step…. hand sewing them up!!!! Hand sewing is the most time consuming process and need skill to make a good piece of creation. In order to encourage us to produce a good work, my mum will pay us each 5 cent for each quality flower that we have made, ha ha ha that was my first part-time income!!! Once completing a sufficient amount of flowers, match the tone and colours again, this time my mum will sew all the flowers into a big piece of blanket. All in all, the process took months to complete!
Thanks to my mum, without her encouragement and motivation, I will not be interested in handicrafts, a hobby and skill that can produce so many unique crafts that we can’t get from the market, not to mentioned the satisfaction to see a new creation made by my own hand.