Cat Scarf

I had this textile idea for a while. 

It was first actualised on my couch covers. You might remember them.

On realising it on articles of clothing, I figured, a scarf would be best. 

And with all these rainy days we're having, what could be better?

With a 37" x 37" piece of silk voile, I roll-hemmed the edges before painting the borders with turquoise fabric paint.

 

Next, cat faces go on with a block printing technique I usually work with.

Some yellow diamonds follow after

Fine details are left to the end

Tea-stained later, to lend a quiet vintage tone

Then, voila!

We gots cat scarf.

With that, 2 new things are added to the shop today!

Go to see more of them!
And, isn't Lights silly with her tongue stuck out like this?

http://www.etsy.com/shop/graciechai

In sober anticipation

Decided to re-visit a previous design of my fox print. 

You might remember this from months ago:

Prints were too small and way too laborious for orders. Not in my favourite cut either.
So I up-ed the size of my little foxy faces and went with a sky blue fabric, rather than a cobalt for a lighter / breezier feel.

I normally start my designs by coming up with swatches.

If I like what I see, I go on ahead and start cutting up my dress patterns. 

If not, I go back to the drawing board to do more  shaving & fine-tuning to my stamps.

I also pre-wash my fabric, as colours stay on better with that.

Compared to all the other dresses I've made for sale, this one really is labour-intensive. 

Every detail to the fox (it's general face, ears, vest, eyes, nose), is individually hand-printed on.

This is a dress that definitely does not happen with a snap of a finger.

But, hand-printing (though not in a rush of things) can be very enjoyable, and very therapeutic. 

Plus, the end result of your sweatshop labour totally pays off.

Once my prints are finished, I let it air-dry and seal off with a hot iron after.

Now, is the part where I wiggle my fingers in glee:

I turn my canvas into a dress!

Someone once thanked me for making wearable art. That statement to me, is still just - wow. Absolutely floored.
I mostly make my clothes for me. I would never think for anybody else to like them too! 

In appreciation of God, who's put me in this position & thank you everyone for your support. 

It's been quite unbelievable where I am today. 

Fox dress will be up on Etsy once my issue with Paypal resolves ♡

Custom Moustache Dress

Last week, I worked on this little number.

A sleeved moustache dress, with a longer back skirting.

The girl really wanted some puff sleeves, which I obliged.

Had a really fun time making this dress for her :)

Still waiting for pictures of her in the dress, but I'm so glad she's pleased with it

This week I'm working on something else. Here's a sneak peek!

Pillow Commission

Been working on a commission this week for a client of Spur pop-up:

A 70x70cm pillow slip, with requests of illustrations of a man and woman on each side, plus a zipper closure.

(Tee-hee! Zipper makes a weird creepy smile)

Loads of fun to do :) 

Will be bringing it down to the shop Saturday -
Coincidently! It's also the last day of Spur! If you haven't, you should most definitely check the place out!

Hope you'll like it Jana!

Crochet My Heart

With all this research in shibori methods and technique, I have officially reignited my interest in Japanese culture since my high school days.

I'm considering re-taking Japanese lessons again. Being able to read katakana, hiragana and chinese (not in proper kanji), has been useful with all the Japanese books I just bought, but I lack understanding (I've a very small pool of Japanese vocabulary) in what I read, especially words in hiragana.

So yeah, maybe back to Bunka it is for me? Ponder, ponder, ponderous. But, priority first goes to a serger. My granny (who used to sew the most beautiful qi paos) says I can have hers (and she would actually teach me! Oh!), which has been sitting there in a corner of a room for a long time now. This is most excellent news, except for the fact that she says it might be a little faulty as it's so old now. I haven't gotten a chance to play with it yet, but I'm crossing my fingers that it isn't as bad as things could be, and that maybe a little servicing will help fix its' bugs.

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Well, here's some sewing I've been busy with in the past 2 weeks:

If you remember my fox dress, I kinda ended up, hm, not liking it.

So I decided to bring the length up and converted it into a top. This way, it makes it a lot more versatile, and I can pair it up with jeans/shorts/skirts.

The fox print also put me off lino printing for a bit, as it was such a labour intensive print.
I moved on to hand-painting instead.

The design was finished and dried in less than an hour, which was highly refreshing!

With it, I created an over-sized mid-sleeve dress.

Yet, the project I had most fun with, was the definitely the one where I experimented with itajime shibori!

With no scraps of wood around (actually I do, but I don't have a hacksaw) and buying wrenches, thinking they could work just as well as C-clamps (bad mistake), I ended up using lino and rubber bands..

All the while, I was thinking, this would definitely be another failed project. I mean, just look at that. You can't get anymore experimental that this.

 But, surprise above surprises, the method actually worked!

I'm extremely well-pleased with how the dress came out! 

I'm so excited with it that all I can think about is how I want to do more and make it better!

In His Time

The weekend was hectic, yet thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely, one of the best weekends I've had :)

Saturday - Jeff and Phillane's wedding! 

They had gone through so much in the 11 months of planning, and to see it finally happening, it's all too wonderful and I'm so glad for them. 

The new Siaws on the block!

I've been looking forward to this day since November of last year!
So excited I bought my outfit and thought of the gifts to make them months and months before (haha)!

Sewn and painted these pillowcases a while back, and finally, now that the wedding is past, I can post them here!

 Jian painted a couple of cups for them as well

Hope they'll like them!

But, I won't deny it. The best part about attending the wedding was the chance where Jian and I could dress up! Might be a bit embarrassing to say, but we don't really get the opportunity to dress this fancy.

(Silly papi, looking all smug with half his lids closed)

It was a beautiful God-centered wedding, and I'm so honoured to be a part of it.

We wish you both bliss and happiness. May God continue to bless your marriage and may you place your trust in Him always. He will carry you through :)

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Sunday, it was church, choir practice then a short nap before heading out to dinner with my Sunday School class. A nice time spent sharing and giving thanks, before Jian and I had to leave haphazardly to catch the last of The Lion King!

I'm so glad I've finally managed to persuade Jian to go catch it with me. It was so much more than I expected! The set, the props, the colours, the dancers! Everything was so alive! I have no words to describe the experience, except for fantastical!

It being the last show, the entire crew got up on stage after to say their thanks and goodbyes. You could feel a tinge of sadness for them having to leave after being here in Singapore for 8 months.

Jian: "Woah! Next time, for any musicals, we'll catch the last show! Then we'll always get an extra special bit to it!"

A terrific night, besides the fact that I had to deal with a pounding headache which pounced on me out of nowhere + kept walking into a rough estimate of some probably mid-30 year old caucasian wearing the same dress as I at the musical + walking about all over town after the show in the attempt of finding a cab but failing to + missing the last bus that went home from the esplanade, then catching another that went to Thomson instead, to make a what seemed like awful situation better, buying home some "tofu sweets", what one of Jian's Aussie mates call it (A.K.A tau huey), home.

Fox Dress, Plus A Couple of Events

Been working on this little dress for the past week now. Printing foxes is hard business!
As the orange fabric paint I bought is not opaque like my white, I had to do multiple layers, 2 orange coats on top of 2 white coats for the base.


 
 Plus a coat for the ears, a coat for the white of the face, and then dots for eyes and noses.  Definitely not as straight forward as my other projects! 
 
The neck of this dress is a lot wider as well compared to my other dresses, almost off-shoulder but not quite. I gave it rather skinny sleeves as well. This is the outcome of it! 

I've also added a minute detail at the near-bottom of the dress. Not quite sure if you can see it in the photo. Quite a subtle fold to give the dress a bit more personality. I'm rather contemplative if I sh/would put this up for sale. It's a lot of work, but let's see the response to it! 
Still, I would need an overlock. 
Or, I could just sew french seams...
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Friday, we headed down to Unleashed!This was the event where I helped silkscreen posters for.There were some really good enjoyable dances in there. Top 2 fave dances are most certainly the interpretive dance, "Unsettled", and the engaging slam poetry + a loveable prototypical battle of classic versus hip hop, "Sunday Avenue Crew". Ending the evening off,  Ty brought Jian and I to this sweet Japanese eatery down at Cuppage for some good o'fashioned tamago ramen and yaki gyoza for supper!
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 Saturday, we headed down to Uyii's launch. It's fantastic to see more local designers getting out there! A definitive change of scene in Singapore, and I'm liking where this is heading. No products shot of their line from me, but a few poor snaps of their studio!


A friend of theirs hand-drawn this mural and filled it in with black markers. How amazing does it look?
Also, that's the designer of Uyii's bags, Li Ping, munching on a cupcake by the left.


A couple of their other friends too, fashioned these furniture all on their own out of cardboard! The last time I was there, they were in the figuring-it-out-stage. Upon launch, all these were built! I'm thoroughly impressed!

Take a look at their side project too, Pipe Dreams. They aim to construct 100 whimsical cloud pillows through scraps of unwanted textiles. These cloud pillows really are a dream. Their craftsmanship is just stunning! I wish I had taken an individual snapshot of each cloud on display!
Still, the best element in the studio was this simple yet effective poster.



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& an update! If you've been wondering where my website has gone too, the previous domain has expired and this is the new/current one! :)

A compass pointing

A re-attempt at re-fashioning my Moustache Dress. Did away with the elastic waist, and thought of including pockets as well, but got lazy at the thought of constructing it.. Pockets would definitely make the dress more awesome, but I think, this will be the make.

Tomorrow, I'll see a woman about a job. This job could be good for me. I'm uncertain as to where all this will/could lead. (But in the least,) I am hoping by this, I'll have the extra cash I need to get myself an overlock machine/serger!

Stylish Dress Book, Pattern E

Having recently bought Yoshiko Tsukiori's Stylish Dress Book, I couldn't wait to try this pattern out!

I just love the easiness of this dress. It's a simple enough pattern to follow, and I managed to even practice certain sewing techniques I have learnt from my aunt. 

Started off with cutting out the patterns, then hand-printed the fabric with little horsies stamps I crafted.

 

Quite certainly, out of the entire project, this printing on business (besides tracing the sewing pattern out from the book) was the most tedious. 

After a night of sewing, the dress is complete!

  

Now if you don't mind some photobooth snapshots, this is how the dress looks worn.

 

I am really diggin' the loose fit. (Mom says: "What, you prepping for pregnancy?")

A very girly, fun, casual dress, which I can totally imagine myself in for picnics.




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Plus, I love these Japanese patterns so much, I got more sewing books!

Yay!