Notions for SALE !!!!

Hello everyone, I really don't know where time flies to, it seems I never seem to have enough of it, from the kids, to the home, to duties in school I'm whacked :( Well here it is, I promised I'd put up some sewing notions for sale, so here they are !

Prym Pliers - for use with all prym snaps and notions ( RM70) 

Save your arms and time without having to hammer!

Prym Jeans buttons - 8 pieces, includes plastic tool (RM35)

Prym Snaps - 9 pieces - available in 10mm and 12mm size (RM35)

Prym trouser hooks - 4pieces ( RM35)

Prym eyelets 5mm 40 pieces - RM35

Burda dressmaker carbon paper (RM25)

comes in pack of 1 piece of blue and red, another in yellow and white (83cm and 57cm each)

vlieseline iron on stabilizer- used to stabilize seams on jerseys and stretchy materials (RM25)

Framilon- clear elastic tape (RM10/metre)

Used to stabilise seams and makes perfect gathers on stretch fabrics. Also perfect for use on sewing lingerie

So friends, please hurry, email me at princessdiaries71@gmail.com. Postage will be flat at RM7 for any amount, so order in bulk to save! Delivery will be last week of December.

Lush Colors of Fall with Ottobre

Yup, there's no denying that Autumn is here, you should see the amount of yellow leaves outside my door! Its chilly too, temperatures went down till 10C in midday but last 2 weeks we had beautiful sunshine with temperature in between 12C to 16C. But I have to admit, it is beautiful, sweaters and wool coats are out again and everyone is busy shopping for winter boots. There's a cool fresh breeze blowing and activities seem to be winding now, everyone going into hibernation !

I found some gorgeous winter fabrics, beautiful rich babyrib corduroys , knitted jerseys and my favorite, knitted velour ! Velour has the plush look of velvet but with less fluff and a cotton underside, it is so easy to sew. I used my normal foot and size 11 needle on my machine, perfect. I've tried sewing with velvet and it was a nightmare, never again ! So here's a tunic and legging set made from velour, pattern from Ottobre 1/2010.

Suklaatwist  Tunic n Ruusunnuppu Leggings from Ottobre 1/2010

One metre of each in a size 128cm

Simple but comfortable, love the twisted ballon sleeve. I used Framilon, a clear elastic tape to gather the sleeves and skirt, excellent invention.

I fell in love with the picture above, but I couldn't get that rich brown velour :)

Wild Nature top from Ottobre 8/2008, made from fine baby cord. Made matching pink corduroy comfy pants with elasticated hem. 

 Blouse pattern from above, that skirt has been on my list of 'to-do's' for like forever!

Scenes of autumn from my house :) Gorgeous hues, yes ?

Anyone in Malaysia interested in the Ottobre magazine, please let me know soon , delivery will be 4th week of December. I can also get the velour knit , at RM42/ meter, just let me know the color and I'll go shopping for you :)

Watch this space, I'll be posting sewing stuff and notions that you might be interested in soon :) Till then , keep on sewing.

ps, anyone sewed any fall kids clothes ? would love to see them.

Introducing Elodie

I've really been dying to get my hands on this Elodie pattern by Farbenmix, the same people that brought us the gorgeous Feliz. The company is in Germany and it struck me that hey, its not too far from me so postage would not be too crazy! So here is my first creation of the beautiful Elodie, made in time for our Raya Gathering. Pattern sizes are from 86cm to 152cm.

The skirt is made up of 8 panels and a fully gathered raglan top with blind zipper at the back. I was really happy at how well it turned out, looks more complicated than it actually is, and unfortunately the pattern is in German.  Farbenmix is nice enough to show a detailed step by step here. Check out the other gorgeous creations of Elodie here.

Check out their gorgeous woven ribbons here too. If anyone wants the patterns or ribbons let me know and I'll calculate total for you, delivery will be in December when I go home yeahhhhhh, can't wait!!

Dinner with Dayang Nurfaizah !

Well, I had a nice malaysian dinner, but I'm sure she was getting ready to perform backstage and probably couldn't get anything down :)

The Malaysian Association of the Netherlands held their Gala Dinner last Saturday at the Bel Air Hotel Den Haag and there were about 300 guests, fully booked ! They flew in 2 Malay chefs so we had an awesome buffet with rendang, roti canai, satay, the works, awesome !!! ' 2 thumbs up ' And the highlight of the night was Dayang Nurfaizah! She was great and really wowed the crowd, and she got quite a few to get up and danced too.

So thankful I brought my little Canon, so the videos are a bit choppy but here they are, and oh, excuse all the giggling behind the camera :(

This first one is of her going around for song requests and the little guy in the blue stripe shirt is Adam who put up his hand and asked her first for Jonas Brothers, then Lady Gaga and finally she agreed on Justin Bieber ! Well, he is 11 :-)

And this is her singing one of my favorites, enjoy

And yes, we got a photo too , she really is the sweetest :)

Salam Eid-Ul-Fitri 2011

Salam everyone and Selamat Hari Raya / Eid - Ul- Fitri Mubarak !

I know how this is soooo long overdue, sorry but things have been quite hectic once school restarted :) We had a good Raya here in Rotterdam and was actually pretty festive. I guess that once you are away from family and close friends, you begin to appreciate more of what you have around you. So it turned out pretty great, with first Raya being hosted by the Malaysian Embassy in Den Haag, had some yummy food ( that was the best part hehehe). Felt a little homesick especially since it was 1st Syawal but once we started eating it began to feel like home :)

So here we are from Rotterdam !

Yes, we were always a family of mismatched Baju Raya :( not that I did not try !

The Malaysian Rotterdammers posing for a 'family' photo' 

I finally decided to smock again. A simple drop waist dress pattern and first time doing ribbon embroidery done on raw silk!

Inspired by Australian Smocking and Embroidery Issue 89 dress above. It was done on green damask silk full bodice smocked and ribbon flowers.

This duo is actually my favorite from that issue, simply gorgeous, one day I will persevere :)

Not forgetting my boys on this occasion ! Made them matching pants from plaid winter cotton and they choose the cotton for their tops. All patterns are from OTTOBRE and turned out like a pro 'cough , cough' But seriously, Adam's shirt had a double back yoke and real cuff and plackets. They loved it and now they want to go shopping for more fabric for mommy to make them more shirts, hahaha hurray for mommy :)

So thats it ladies for now, more interesting stories soon I promise, take care everyone.

Making cards

hello everyone, am sure that most of you must be really busy with the Eid preparations, sigh, for me here don't really feel anything :-( Hopefully on the day itself we may have some fun !

Just wanted to show some cards I made to send back home. Yup, it seems I've been bitten by the 'card making' bug ! I tried scrapbooking with my kids photos a few years back but got quickly bored cos it was so time consuming not to mention costly! And in the end, the only person that kept looking at the album was me ! But recently I discovered this !

This is the Magnolia company and that cute girl is Tilda! There's a cute boy version called Edwin. The mag sold here is of course in Dutch but you can get the English version at WHSmith UK. But still its full of gorgeous inspiring cards featuring the magnolia stamps. And so I decided to venture forth ....

My first attempt! I stamped the bird on white cardstock and colored with color pencils, cut out a window on the main pink card stock and inserted the bird. I just cut out the little green 'ketupat' from a glittered cardstock.

The inside, yup, very messy stamping, need to practice more

2nd card attempt! The girl stamp is from Blossom, the butterflies are stuck using 3D foam squares, see how they fly :)

Decided to use free hand script, still horrid

3rd card attempt! This is Tilda from the magnolia collection, used 'photo vintage' distress ink to ink up the edges around Tilda

The inside, glittered paper stamped with leaves border clear stamp using olive ink

4th card! Yup, was already exhausting my creative juices! So a simple layering of card stock and lace and freehand cut out fabric blooms from scraps

The Tilda stamp is rubber that is mounted on acrylic block. I rounded the corners just by using the ends of a circle template I made. Distress it using the the ink and the foam, still needs loads of practice !

The cardstock were all from 'First Edition Papers', a book of 64 gorgeous papers 6x6 200gsm weight. Its the same as looking at a stack of fat eights fabrics or jelly rolls ! Please don't use anything below 200 gsm, too flimsy. The ready cut wooden hearts are gorgeous and handy too.

So, what do you think? Should I abandon this latest craze of mine ? Its amazingly time consuming but there's such satisfaction when you see the end result. Now my nights are spent browsing the blogs of magnolia cards. My favorite designer is twopeasinabucket, she does such gorgeous work and has youtube videos too. I can get the supplies if anyone is interested, delivery in December.

These cards are going out to my friend and parents and inlaws tomorrow night, hope they're not chucked into the bin !

Selamat Hari Raya , Eid Mubarak all 

xoxoxoxooxoxoxo

Bridget Bardot Wannabe :)

Hahahaha, how I wish ! Well, take off 20 years, blond hair and blue contacts, might just see the resemblance :) The pattern is from Burda 6/2011 pattern 124. Its a simple peasant style blouse with 3/4 sleeves, gathered neckline, sleeve and hems. 

Do we look like those mom and daughter shots from the Japanese pattern books ? When I found these 2 checked voile cotton fabrics at a stall I knew I had to make matching outfits and I kept the pink for ME! And yup, we were both wearing white pants walking about town hehehe.

I bound the edges with ready made blue tartan cotton bias and added a 3 inch band at the waist so I could wear the blouse on top like that. Really happy how it turned out, true to size.

Doesn't the model look fab ? * sigh*

Whats that ? Its my little strawberry bush in my backyard :) Only managed to get 5 ripe ones and they were instantly gobbled by the 'girl' , she's a strawberry fanatic that one ! When the plant first started sprouting in march I thought they were weeds! Phew lucky I didn't dig it up. Hopefully more will ripen soon before all this rain destroys them.

So, thats the last of my Summer sewing folks, so baju raya siap dah ? I have little Danny's shirt left and some hemming , feeling lethargic today, must be this depressing weather :( 

Simple Summer Separates & Ramadhan Kareem !

Salam Ramadhan to all my fellow muslims, may we find berkat in all our doings in this holy month.

So, what are you guys having for buka puasa tonite? Ish I am sooo jealous ! Here it is going to be whatever that I decide to dream up hahaha. Buka is currently at 9.15pm and imsak is 3.50am, yup, its a really long day. But it actually feels alright because the weather is nice and cool, in fact summer has flown on by and the cold winds and wet days of autumn are already here. Kids are going to need warmer school clothes again.

Just wanted to share some summer separates I made for Shasha before they become obsolete :-)

The top was from here and I think its going to be her last time wearing it. The pants is from white eyelet cotton, loose fit with leg cuffs. Got the idea from a Burda March issue, just looks so relaxed and carefree.

The top and 3/4 pants are from Ottobre 3/2009, here. I added woven ribbons around the knees and a cute button, totally transformed. The top from jersey and has a very sweet flaired sleeves and hem. The pants are linen, really comfy.

Whats cool about separates is all the mix and match to get double the outfits :) The beautiful embroidered blouse was a steal from a small vintage shop in Amsterdam, some things never go out of style.

This is the pants up close. I topstitched the side seams with a bright pink criss cross stitch, vamp !

And finally, a simple peasant dress from Cucito, altered to flare it up more, added an elastic waist casing, green rickrack and red woven ribbon at the hem

Hmm I just realised all her outfits are blue this summer , not a pink in sight ! *Sigh* I am so missing summer already, just too too short.

Selamat berbuka all, I still have a longgggg day ahead :)

The Bernina Express - Switzerland

And here I present finally, the last installment of my heavenly Swiss trip :)

The Bernina Express is a gorgeous big red train ( the kids call it the ' Toy Train' ) , luxurious seats and even a high tech toilet , I kid you not! It travels the Bernina Line which is now under The Unesco World Heritage Site. There are 2 places where you can take it from, both on the East of Switzerland, Chur and Davos.

We started from Chur ( there's only 1 train/ day per way from the 2 locations ), at 8.30am. It travels through little mountain villages and slowly makes its way up the Alps. From green pastures, the train slowly chuges along until we are face to face with ice age old glacier high up! The train runs on a single track so it takes its time but that has to be the most beautiful train ride I have ever taken. The route is a quiet deserted one, going through Alpine jungles, crossing high arc bridges over deep ravines, broken only by a few stalwart hikers, it is eerily silent ( picture the train that goes to Hogwarts, thats the scenery :) ) 

The red train taken from my window in the 1st Carriage as it goes through a circular viaduct !

A pond from a melting glacier some 2000m above sea level

The Bernina Line slowly makes its descent down into the valleys and makes its final stop in Tirano, which is on the border of Italy, a total of 4 hours. We hopped off and had some Italian pasta ( things were in Euro's again ) and hopped on the Bernina Express Bus that would take us back into Lugano, Switzerland. The bus travels through little Italian towns with its killer curves and narrow roads. Tip, those with motion sickness, so not recommended! But I sat right up front and had the most awesome view as the bus passes by the quaint towns and blue lakes, travel time 3 hours.

Lugano has the flair and taste of Italy but the price tag and efficiency of the Swiss ! Some call it heaven on earth, it is a beautiful touristy little town right on Lake Lugano. 

By the Lake Lugano

The view from Lugano Train Station 

Reservations for the Bernina Line and The Bernina Bus is Chf8 / person and is compulsory but thats all you need to pay if you have The Swiss Pass, details, here. If you don't want to take the bus back to Lugano, you can make a reservation to return on the Bernina Line to Chur, Davos or St Moritz or stop at the last Swiss stop which is Poschiavo and take the Swiss regional train to your next Swiss destination. From Tirano you would have to take the Italian train on which your swiss pass will not be valid. Note , there is only 1 Bernina Bus per day so make sure you have a reservation !

And there you have it, THE END. hope you enjoyed the pictures, but seriously, they don't do justice to the real thing, it is something that has to be seen and experienced to be believed :)

Till next time, signing off from me in windy rainy Rotterdam  :(

Bernese Oberland & Jungfrau- Switzerland

In the 3rd series of my Swiss trip :)

If you plan to travel by public transport in Switzerland, the best and most economical way is to take the Swiss Pass. This allows unlimited travel on all trains, busses and trams for the specified period. With the mountain trains, cable cars and boats you get a 25% to 50% discount, here's the site. Children up to 16 years go free if traveling with an adult, phew that was  a big help :)

The Golden Pass Line travels between Montreux (south) to Zweisimmen (central region) and from Interlaken Ost to Lucern (north) just 45 minutes by train south of Zurich. The Golden Pass trains have huge windows and really beautiful carriages. As you leave Montreux, you will be chugging along right beside Lake Geneva with its clear blue waters and as the train moves up into the mountains, the scenery changes to green rolling hills with typical swiss houses and cows grazing in the fields, huge christmas trees dot the landscape. A reservation of Chf5 per seat for the Golden Pass in advance is mandatory

Going up the mountain, bye bye Montreux

After changing to a regional train at Zweisimmen, we reach Interlaken Ost. This is essentially the main gate to the Bernese Oberland Region. I've managed to scan a local map below

From here, we made a trip to Jungfraujoch or Top Of Europe, it is the highest train station in Europe at 11,333 feet! If you refer to the map, you can go either of 2 ways, via Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald and from there a beautiful mountain train will take you up to Kleine Scheidegg, a really beautiful mountain resort. The return train ticket to Jungfraujoch costs Chf160 even after the Swiss Pass discount :(

We decided to go up via Lauterbrunnen, beautiful scenery as you chug up the mountain side, this side of the mountain is more wild and rugged and you can see small swiss chalets nestled in the mountains with a pile of wooden logs ready for the fire.

From Kleine Scheidegg 6762 Feet, the train will travel within a tunnel in the Alps for the remainder 5000 Feet in 30 minutes! You suddenly start to feel the cold and everyone in the train starts pulling on their long pants and fleece jackets. We emerge from the train at Jungfraujoch in a cave ! The Swiss have really made it into an amazing tourist spot, there's even an Indian Restaurant! We emerge into the blinding sunlight and onto pure white snow in the middle of June! There's snow on the Jungfrau 365 days a year, but at -3C it somehow felt chilled and hot at the same time, quite an experience. But for those with altitude sickness, not to be recommended, the thin air can really get to you. After 1/2 an hour of toboganning I was ready to sink into the snow, you feel extra tired being up so high. But it really was an amazing experience and a feeling like non other to be so high up in the Alps, felt like I could reach up and touch the sky.

Adam had problems adjusting to the altitude, poor him, luckily it took a few minutes.

Danny having such a blast going down the slopes :) 

Living my dream of being Heidi of the Mountains :) @ Kleine Scheidegg

Make sure you try to get back down not too late because the que in the dark cave can get very long and the train is only every 1/2 an hour, there were a few who fainted :( We went back down via Grindelwald, a more touristy swiss town compared to Lauterbrunnen with more hotels and restaurants but still very beautiful. We stayed in Wilderswil, a small town only a 4min train ride from Interlaken Ost and it was perfect, beautiful winding hiking paths and pretty chalets, I wished I could have stayed longer to walk on the mountains.

This area is the main tourist spot of Switzerland so be prepared for the over inflated prices, urghh. But so many awesome things are here, among those that I wished I had time to do :-

- Cruising on the Brienz Lake

- Taking the cable car at Murren

- Going up Schynige Platte

- Mountain climbing in the pretty alpine town of Wengen

InsyALLAH I will be here again :)

next stop : The Bernina Express