About ncr

love sewing for my dollies, bags, clothes. i also like other crafting like crochet knit needle felting etc.

Making Bag: A Restart

Been making bags lately. Now, the second one. Never been thinking too much like this before. Perhaps because I made doll clothes so i started to get more detail in terms of technique and accessories. I also like trying some supplies I rarely use when I want to make bags as quick as possible. I think, the preparation takes more than the sewing itself. It’s ok actually but preparation means more risk exposed to my kids intervention. Hahaha. Goodness. But so far, the craft projects are safe.

I make a plan that after these few re-start projects, I will also restart selling my bags again. It will be (slightly…or not) different than before. I want to try so many things I haven’t. Things mean supplies. Hahaha… Wish me luck!

My Own Product Review

I’ve been thinking about changing my handmade product. First when thinking of producing it. I was thinking about ‘casual cute product’. It was kind of product that people might need when they have their first doll and want to style their doll cutely with casual unique clothes.

Now…

I’m thinking another thing. I’m busy with kids and can’t always have time to sew a lot. I was thinking to make special clothes  each time. I was thinking about this when saw other seamstress’ handmade. They were beautiful, unique, and made with a good skill. I then thought, my skill isn’t basic. Why don’t I make that kind of product as well. I don’t have to make such a lot and don’t have to feel oblique to make a lot of clothes. When making casual clothes, i always feel oblique to make more and it frustrates me because I can’t due to busy with household. After seeing some seamstress’ unique works, I think. My skill isn’t basic, too. I can make something that my non-basic skill afford it. May be I can’t make a lot and only one or two per release and can’t work fast but well, I can’t make a lot and work fast when making casual clothes. Thought I can make unique casual clothes but casual is casual. It’s either I’ll be upgrading my casual clothes into a more unique clothes or make something else that is unique.

I’m still cooking the idea. I want to decide what kind of clothes I want to make, how many, what the concept of clothes (upgraded casual clothes or totally different style).

Using Tricot On Doll Clothes Collar (part 2)

Without my realize, i was working on yosd size. (I thought this was msd size because the height was msd).

The collar looks really good. The tricot theory works well. Anyway, as long as you don’t keep checking the bottom collar like third picture, it won’t be seen bad. It is ok in doll clothes but not in human clothes. It’s another toleration when sewing doll clothes.

 

Using Tricot On Doll Clothes Collar

It’s been a mystery to me how companies can make good collar. There are solution for small size collars:

  1. fabrics.
    1. The fabric must be thin yet not too thin.
    2. Thin is not enough. The fabric must not ‘stiff’. If you think, chiffon is thin and good for doll, no. It’s not always like that.
  2. No use of interfacing.
    1. Interfacing can add thickness. Even if with thin interfacing, still.

With those theory, I still don’t feel satisfied with my doll collar.

One day, i bought esadol school suit/jacket. The collar is very nice and fall on the bodice well. I then started watching the collar. The bottom collar uses very thin kind of fabric. yet, it’s sticky. I didn’t know what it is and how come it was sticky to the top part of collar.

I’m working on a project with collar right now. I was thinking about esadol jacket. I then think, perhaps… TRICOT? (please google: tricot interfacing to get to know what it is). Could it be? I was not sure myself but I did cut tricot as the bottom part of collar instead of same fabric or thinner fabric.

I am processing it so I don’t know the result yet. Wanted to do it this evening but i was afraid, it might take more concentration than usual. I couldn’t do it if my boys are around. If I did a mistake or if the theory is wrong, I might doomed.

 

(Difficult) Washable Pen

I bought this pen from my seller friend. I thought, it was just like another washable pen I had. Apparently, it is NOT. I used the remover only once on this project and the stains were not disappeared. It was still there. Very hard to be removed. I then had a feeling that this will be very difficult to be removed even with another good stain remover or natural stain remover. Even i used the best detergent before remover to remove the stain. This detergent is one i’ve been using since may be i was in college.  It’s very-very good quality so far. I didn’t want to use another removers as I know it may degrade the color. I just want to use ONE technique at ONCE.  I then remember, a batik artist in my country used  regular spidol to draw the pattern. I asked, will the mark disappear? He said, yes, in the process, it will. He uploaded the picture of batik processing someday and I saw he used hot boiled water. I then used the technique. Instead, I boiled my project, I just poured the hot boiled water into a basin with regular detergent I always use. IT WORKED! Goodness!

It is better to use hot water once rather than using remover over and over. I had experience with using remover more than once on a project. It didn’t work and it ruins the color. Using the hot water, the color will yes, it will slightly degrade but I know my fabric is very good, high quality so  I was confident enough to use hot water. As long as not over and over again. Combining with good detergent really gives good impact to stain.

I want to take the picture of the pen that crafters must avoid but there’s no brand too as I only bought refill and I didn’t have the pen already TAT.

The pen tint is light blue. There’s no other tint color series from this ‘brand’. There are another pen from different brand (I think) with some colours series. That pen is ok. Only the pen with light blue (not marker. Light blue marker is ok).

Pattern on Fabric

My latest project is sewing a kid’s clothes (girl). For charity actually. When I was pinning the fabric, somehow, my mind was drawn into the pattern of the fabric. I then became very observing. I noticed that the pattern which i thought first is like ‘mirror’ (or ‘two direction’ pattern), it wasn’t. It was actually one direction pattern. So, when it’s cut, the seamstress will need more fabric to create a project (so the pattern is ‘correctly’ seen). This fabric is kind of unique as i really thought it’s two direction pattern fabric instead of one.

Other fabric that I noticed is polkadot fabric. It is NOT random or abstract. It is in fact a very arranged pattern. So, if one cut it not straight, it will look odd. It’s especially seen in small project.

Taobao Shopping Service

BEFORE YOU READ IT, PLEASE BE NOTIFIED THAT I AM NOT THE SHOPPING AGENT. I’M PROMOTING MY FRIEND’S GREAT AGENT SERVICE. PLEASE CONTACT MY FRIEND IF YOU WANT TO BUY FROM TAOBAO. (^_^)d

 

If you like shopping from www.taobao.com, I highly recommend you to use agent https://www.facebook.com/chinashoppingagent. She is my friend and she is not a new agent but just make fb for business. Her email is tbshopping@hotmail.com if you want to order.

What i like about her is:

  1. Very detail
  2. Very patient
  3. I don’t have to submit all my order at once. As long as the items aren’t arrived at her place, I can still add items.
  4. She rechecks and repacks everything. Not just like taping the boxes into one and send it to customer. She opens the box from sellers and check things inside (she took photo too!) and the repack everything. Very neat. This will reduce the shipping fee too (as bigger size of package might get volumetric fee)
  5. She is very organised. She is smart.
  6. If I don’t know what key to use to search in taobao, she would help me.
  7. She helps me communicating with the seller.
  8. Fast respond, too.
  9. It’s very simple to make an order. I mean, we just send the link and quantity (and what color or option we wants). She will make an excel document for us. She will recheck the price too. So, if you’re not sure about the price, let it blank. She’ll handle for you.
  10. Honest. Her calculation is clear and fair.

I’ve been using her service for years. I bought dolls, sewing stuff, and everything. It might be more than 1000usd since my first time of using her service.

Why taobao?

I know there’s english version of taobao but we must purchase in huge amount like 1000 pieces. I don’t need that much. So, I used her service to buy from taobao. Also, some items are only available in taobao.

Some stores like those in etsy or in fb also sell taobao items but I don’t know, I prefer to purchase from taobao using an agent as I can combine things i want (thus reduce shipping fee) and it’s cheaper, too.

 

Happy shopping!