Craft Fair: Kasut Manek / Beaded Shoes

"Manek" is the Malay words for "beads", and "Kasut" means "shoes". Kasut Manek were made and worn by Peranakan women as a part of their traditional costume in olden days. The tiny little "manek potong" are hand-sewed onto a piece of cloth and the finished hand-piece is then custom made to a pair of shoes, be it open-toe or fully covered type. There are also available in slipper type where they are made up of two strips sewn in a criss-cross or parallel manner across the feet.
I am now making one for my own, an open-toe type and it is about to finish. It is very tedious and can be strenuous on the eyes too as the beads are so tiny. I have spent weeks working on it and the process is so slow. I am sure it will be a beautiful pair of shoes, yes, an unique one for me that you can get it from the market.
If you want to get a glimpse of how to make a Kasut Manek, With Every Bead will satisfy your curiosity.

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Craft Fair: Handbags

Since I am doing handbags and purses, here are some of the handbags shown in the craft fair. The one I am making is bit different, though it is made of fabric but the opening is metal type (no no not zip). It is similar to "antique" purse that our grandma or mother used to keep coins where the frame is a solid "U" shape metal with 2 globes on it, to open the purse you just tweeze the glode apart, can you imagine? If not, then wait for my photos in the next few post :p

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Craft Fair: Baby Quilt Blanket

Aren't these 2 baby quilt blankets lovely? If I have the time, I would make one for my new born baby who is due to arrive very (yes, very very) soon. Don't they look warm and cozy!!!!

Wow, I have so many plans and future projects. I feel so excited about them that I feel as though I am "neglecting" of my baby who is still in my womb. Ha ha ha Hubby thought that I must be crazy to get too involved in handicraft and setting up a blog at this point of time. I told him this is what having a hobby is, you must love it before you can put such patience and effort on it. Moreover, handicraft is really a time consuming hobby, you can't produce a good work if you rush to finish it. Luckily he is a very supportive person which makes me feel so happy and secure :)

I am currently working on some purses and handbags project using sewable metal frames. Each of them takes me about 3 days to 2 weeks to complete. I will post them in the blog once I have enough material to show. It could be in month's time or more as I don't know how attached my baby will be (or vice versa). Well, just hope that I will have some of my own time to do what I like while take care of my baby.....

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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.

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Craft Fair: Knitting, Doll

This is cute.....I am going to make one in my next project. I have been knitting pullovers all the while (though I seldom wear them because of the hot and humid weather in Malaysia), I will post some photos later to show my works. This time I am going to make good use of my knitting skill on the doll, which I think will be a different kind of experience and satisfaction. It is totally different from knitting a pullovers, as it involves lots of stitching, add/extract of needles and some decorative facial features which requires an amount of handiness and versatility.
I was told that I need to use #3 knitting needles and double-strand of yarn, and the polyfill has to be compact enough to let the doll stand. Well, I will post my experience once I have finished one.

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Handicraft Fair

This is the flyer of a handicraft fair in Penang. I am glad that I went there as I have a chance to see other hobbyists's handicraft works. Most of them are from housewives and retired teachers. The works ranging from handmade dolls, handbags, smock dresses, emboirdery (sulaman) kebaya, beadworks, patchwork, cross stitch to quilting and many more.
Watch out for more pictures of the handicraft works from this fair in the next few post.

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Officially Kick-Off

Aug 2008, here I am .... starting a blog.... a blog about handicraft, which I have been wanting to do for years. I have been dreaming about doing this blog but just do not know where and how to start. My friend, a popular food blogger of RASA MALAYSIA fame and a very talented cook has inspired me. I hope to be able to do for handicraft what she has done with RASA MALAYSIA .

This blog is to showcase and share my interest in handicraft. Handicraft is my hobby since childhood, I have done cross-stitch, crochet, knitting, embroidery, sewing etc.... I have made many, from basic patterns to finished products; ranging from cushion covers, table covers, sweaters, dresses, bags, dolls and many more.

So, stay tuned. I will be posting more handicraft results in future, be it mine or from other hobbyists. I hope you will like them all!

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