A quickie with Madame Nightshade (review)

Not much time lately to make new things... although i did find this totally awesome embroidery design. So here is a quickie.

Paris
Madame Nightshade's Beauty Emporium
Purveyor of extra fine beauty tonics & lotions
Est. 1889

This design can probably be considered the advertising shopping bag in the style of of late 19th century apothecaries - quite gothic.

This is an 'in-the-hoop' design which seems to mean that the embroidery design incorporates the 'sewing' together part of the item, and in this case, this becomes a drawstring pouch.
It absolutely made no sense to me at all o_O?
i even read the tutorial related to this particular design something like 10 times... and it still made no sense.

i resigned myself to just using the design without the 'in-the-hoop' part.
i stitched out the design and manually put the bag together... oh my, what a rebel =P

Voila!

Re-using ribbon taken off packaging (too much online shopping... and would be such a waste to just throw out)

Back - not much of a view here...

After putting this together manually, i re-visited the tutorial.
Now it makes total sense!
The method taught in putting the bag together was unusual. The way the drawstring is threaded in and tied was, in my opinion, completely unco!
It wasn't a 'real' drawstring pouch. Their ribbon effectively only drew together the front of the pouch (the back is still open) and would not stay cinched unless you tied the ends.
That is a terrible closure.
 Proper drawstring pouches allow you to pull two string outwards and cinches both the front and back of the pouch and will stay securely cinched.

I guess the manual sewing was required after all.

Average 45 Matches - Rebooted

Where there is a will, there is a way!

Previously i was not pleased with how the Sharpie Stained markers bled as it touched the fabric which kinda spoiled the look of the detailed image of my vintage match box design.

Well what the heck, might as well make use of my expensive toy - the embroidery machine.
After much time in front of the screen re-producing my design in photoshop and getting it digitized, im much more pleased with the (now costly) design on fabric =D

This time around, silver hardware with removable chain handle - so it can be used as a clutch without any strap, a hand held with a short chain strap, a shoulder bag or cross body with a longer strap.

Squeeeee!

Slidey, slidey, like a proper match

Push, don't pull...

Available at my etsy shop.
Since i'm still new to this, i'm open to feedback on my listings. Anything, let me know!

Happy Lunar New Year

Here is a red packet for your viewing pleasure with maneki neko for good blessings for the year of the sheep.

Gong hei fatt choy!

Flexin' with Wa! Pucca

Sunglasses manufacturers are so lazy!
They produce a one size fits all hardcase for all the different sunglasses models released under the one label. So long as the sunnies can go in, job done.
Case in point -->

The sunnies take up less that half the space in the hardcase.
These gigantic boxes take up alot of bag real estate!

Necessity is the mother of invention... well in this case, im not inventing anything, just making something :P
These sunnies are very slim, even the folded arms arent bulky - so a flex frame (padded) pouch would do the job. These ones are 8cm wide flex frames.

Not only would i get a new slimline case for the sunnies, i can kill two birds with one stone and try out a cute new machine embroidery design i just purchased (from a russian website; risky?!) - Pucca being chased by butterflies!

Pucca is freaking adorable!

lol even though my stitching was straight, when flipped out, it looks wonky?!
Its the fabric and batting, i swear!

cutie!

wrinkly contrast back

Contrast emerald green silk satin lining (leftovers from the construction of a top)

For more Pucca cuteness overload, visit the 'Wa! Pucca' playground in Daegu, South Korea.
What is it? Its a Pucca themed indoor playground for little kids,... and big kids :) and its awesome!

Around the world series of Pucca play rooms

Awwww!

New Toy: Brother DreamMaker Review

Crafting is expensive (especially in Aus!), and crafting toys even more so.

Finally got my hands on a Brother DreamMaker a.k.a. Innovis XE VE2200. Just released in Aus in October. So slow, about a year after USA/UK :X

This is my first embroidery machine.
I was originally considering the low-end Brother NV780D as a starter machine but i was totally sold on all the bells and whistles the DreamMaker came with.
I mean, what would i do with the starter machine when i was ready to move up? Or what if the lower machine, with its lack of features, destroys my dream of a great embroidery machine putting me off it forever? lol
But most importantly, the DreamMaker has a large large embroidery area! 18cm x 30cm! This was my first priority. Size matters!

The specs of the machine can be found on the internets so lets get to the all important embroidery.

I chose a practical built in design as the first run.
7 thread changes and 30 mins of stitching - fairly large piece for a starter (crazy!).

The design shown in the booklet.

The piece was embroidered on sheer silk organza with a washaway stabiliser.

The final result still in the large hoop:

 With flash:

It looks great from a distance but if you're pendantic or you pay particular attention to the fine details, its not perfect.
Close up of the top:
The top scallop shape doesnt quite meet the right border line nicely on the right side. It is slightly shifted abit far right. Whereas the scallop meets the left border perfectly.

Close up of the left bottom:
The original design in the booklet shows that there should be a small thin dashed line down the left side, however the machine starts off with the dash at the base but it stitches over that space as it moves up the design.

 The very neat back of the embroidery:

Close up of top corner:
There looks to be a small aneurysm of pink thread on the top of the butterfly wing, dont know what happened there - the front is not affected but there is a blob of thread.

The final product - all stitched up with a light cream cotton liner (as the back of the embroidery is quite hard and abit scratchy).
Do you know what it is yet? :P

Its a soft glasses case... for times when you really dont want to carry the ginormous hard case the sunnies come with.

Overall, a great machine. Not perfect, but cant expect it to be, its still excellent and im still in awe of it. :P
Its fairly quiet for a sewing machine, and its so easy to use.
Even when the thread broke twice (first time, i was careless in threading the top thread when i was changing colours and second time, the machine shredded the thread), it was very easy to resume where it stopped without any indication that anything went wrong.

The shredded thread!

That was my biggest fear - not being able to resume the embroidery properly and ruin the piece, or it obvious was joined somewhere!

Also, something totally superfluous and not important, its makes japanese sounds (reminds me of the tones used in the different japanese trains) whenever it wants attention. Totally cute... as cute as a machine can possibly be.


i have big dreams for this machine lol lets hope it lives up to its name!