Announcement

(Source: Canon Creative Park)

I will be having a major system upgrading taking place these few days. Yes, I am migrating my blog to another platform for better performance which in turn will make the surfing easier and more effecient. I made this because of you, my owesome readers.

In other words, I won't be posting during this period of time until I finished fine-tuning my new layout and get to work on the new platform.

If you notice my blog looks funny with misaligned header/side bar, or broken links, that means I am still working hard to tweak and tune it.

I will be back soon, till then, please enjoy reading my exisitng posts and tutorials.

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Recycle Tutorial - Making Of T-Shirt Yarn

Another tutorial to help save our Mother Earth by turning unwanted items into something useful. This is the yarn ball I made out of an old T-shirt which I have been wearing for 10 years day-in day-out, wash-in wash-out. It finally broke down and tore at the collar and sleeves. Waste not, want not, I decided to recycle it.

In this tutorial, you will need:

1. T-shirt (those without side-seam)
2. A pair of sharp scissors

Place the T-shirt flat on the floor or working table.
We only need the bottom-halve portion of the T-shirt. Cut horizontally from sleeve to sleeve as shown above. Cut away the end border of the T-shirt too. This useful" portion must be plain and free from printing, embroidery and any joints or seams. Any motifs will be too hard for the T-shirt to turn into tubular yarn.

Fold the T-shirt from side to side, leaving an inch allowance as shown.

Cut into strips as shown, remember not to cut the 1 inch allowance. Leave it there as we are going to use this to form a continuous strip.
The width of the strip will determine the thickness of your yarn, but the minimum is 15mm, anything less than this, the process will fail. The width shown here is 15mm.

Finish cutting the T-shirt from top to bottom evenly.
Unfold the 1 inch allowance and it will look as shown below.
The next process is to make a slant cut from strip 1 to strip 2, strip 2 to strip 3 and so on in order to create a continuous strip for the whole T-shirt.
I purposely leave the first strip uncut until I have finished all. No catch, just my preference to show you better how the slanting looks like.
Now, I have a loooooooong strip of continuous T-shirt yarn waiting for the next process.
Next is to turn the strip into a tubular yarn. All you need to do is tug the strip as shown below. Rememeber I told you that the minimum width of the strip is 15mm? The secret is.... if you have anything narrower than this, it will break once you pull.
See, the strip will curl and form a tubular shape after the tug. This process will lengthen the yarn too, which is good, so you have more yarn to work on your project.

....tug....

....tug....

....tug....

The strip has now turned into tubular yarn, from Fettuccine to Spaghetti ***wink***. You can roll your yarn into ball and it is ready for your next project.

HAPPY YARNING!!!

A preview of what is coming up next!!!!

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Amigurumi - Owl

The crochet hook is stuck on my hands. I crocheted this cute owl and made it into a key chain. This craft/art is called Amigurumi, which is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting stuffed animals or other creatures. Again, to be friendly to Mother Earth, I used my left over yarns since this tiny creature doesn't require lots of yarn. This is the first one I made by following Roxycraft's "Woody The Owl" pattern, (it's free, go and get it here!).

It is quite easy to follow but I found that the instructions aren't very complete. A novice Amigurumi practitioner like me had lots of question marks floating around my head at certain steps like the placement of the eyes, the nose, the wings and the feet. Since I experimented with it, I am able to give more detailed instruction. I made 2 of them to compare and I am going to tell you where the ideal location is :)

1. EYES - The stem at the back of the eye should poke through between row 10 and 11, 8 stitches apart. Glue it or screw it, depend which type of eyes you have. I used the glued one, it is cheaper than the screwed one.
2. NOSE - It says "stitch to face with top edge 1 row above the eyes", it means top edge of the eye.
3. WINGS - It didn't say should I use right side with the flap curl-out or wrong side with the flap curl-in, so I used both to test out and I like the wrong side with the flap curl-in (as shown below). Sew it on on the position between row 7 & 8 and 3 stitches counting from the stem of the eye. Remember to tilt the wings so that the tip is at a slight angle pointing to the front of the owl.
4. FEET / CLAWS - It didn't say anything about it in the pattern but it was there, so I am going to tell you where. Start sewing the centre claw at row 14 and 2 stitches counting from the tip of the nose. Sew it down vertically to row 16. Make another 2 diagonal left and right claws 1 stitch away from the center. Do the same to the other foot.

This is the second one I made after testing out the first one. Both of them look a bit different and it is because of the difference in those positionings I mentioned above.

Try it out, this owl is just too lovely to resist :) If you have any questions, feel free to ask me, I would love to explain to you.

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Crochetted Daisy Coin Purse

Just can't get enough of making this sweet daisies. The crochet hooks are like a magnet pulling my hands!!! I made this purse to match the tote bag but this time I used single strand yarn. By using single strand the daisy is smaller and about half the size of the one on the tote.

My mind is going to explode! I have the desire to write down the pattern of the basic purse. I have never done any pattern authoring before, this is my first trial. Please just be patient with me, I will need time to write, test to come up with a foolproof one to ensure that the pattern won't bring you to never, never-land :p

I am not going to write the daisy pattern at this point of time, it is too difficult for me to write as I am just a beginner. It is complicated because it needs extra yarn at the outline to form the petals. You can always replace it with something else, like brooch for example, any brooch you like, just hook it on :)

By the way, the ball clasp frame I used is 8.5cm wide black-gold plated, sewable type. I like sewable frames, they tend to be more lasting then those glue adhered ---- they can withstand hand wash when they get dirty. Not only this, you can reuse it to make into another purse for whatever reason; get bored with the original purse, purse torn beyond usage. All you need to do is just remove it from the existing purse and sew on a new one :) Another recycling exercise! You can refer to my tutorial on "sewing a frame clutch purse" on how to sew the frame, you will find it at the end of the post as sewing the frame is always the last procedure.

This purse measured : 10cm W x 9.5cm H, about the same size as my previous stripe coin purse. Enough to put a lipstick, a small mirror, some credit cards and some cash.

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My First Apron - A Gift To A Fellow Blogger

I made my first apron specially for my best friend Bee Yinn of Rasa Malaysia, who is also the owner/writer/chef/photographer of the famous food blog for Asian Recipes and Cooking. I always wanted to make something for her as thank you gift for inspiring me to blogabout my hobby! Without her encouragement, there wouldn't be Craft Passion. This saga began last year when she came back for holidays from California, she encouraged me to create a blog, knowing that I am passionate about handicraft, so that I can post up my craftworks to let the world see my creations.
I specially designed this apron for her after I saw the recent interview by a local newspaper Kwang Wah Daily about her food blog. I think she really needed an nice apron for the press exposure :)

I used a tea-towel-like fabric as the base material of the apron and ran a batik lining around it to create a Malaysian feel. I bought this handprinted batik fabric from Terengganu, a state on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This apron is reversible, with Rasa Malaysia appliques on one side and plain appearance on the other side.

Besides using it as an apron, she can also fold it and use it as a table mat for her food photography.

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It's A Pear, It's A Purse, It's A Pear-Shaped Purse

I finally finished this project - a pear-shaped frame clutch purse. If you have been following my blog, you probably know that I got this pear fabric from Lollychops. She sent me this fabric to make a frame clutch purse out of it. I made it and used up all the fabric!!!! I love this fabric and I am going to check with Lollychops if Spoonflower still have it :)
From paper modelling to sewing up and completing it took me 4 nights to accomplish. At the beginning, I designed a paper pattern with a big bottom just like the pear shown in the fabric but it looked very weird. Not only did it look funny but the lumpy bottom really made the purse unable to support itself to stand up straight. So, I trimmed it down to a "well-balanced" form and it looks perfectly normal now :). I also added a stem and a leave to mimic the pear look.
The purse measures a size 11.5cmW x 15cm H, enough to accomodate some cash, cosmatics and even a small mobile phone.

As usual, my beautifully hand emroidered label is in there :))
Only one??? No no no, I made another one, a simple one from the left-over fabric. This one is a quick one, within a day to produce.

Which one do you like the most? A real-looking pear purse or the simple one?

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Billboard Mania!!!

(Billboard showing my Daisy Tote)

I was having fun with PhotoFunia to create these special imaging effects on my craftwork :) How nice if this is for real to have them on the large billboard to let the world see what I have created. What a greedy mind I have ha ha ha!!!!

(Window Display showing my Chi Chai Monchan Purse)

Well, we all have dreams, we work towards achieving them. Mine is that to let the world sees and appreciates my craftwork, so I am working very hard towards it. Hoping that this day will come soon :)

(Ads showing my Recycled Tote)

Have fun with PhotoFunia and create your dream today!
Coming up next: Pear-shaped frame clutch purse and many more.....

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