Leah’s Cafe

Brought the two portable sewing machines to my previous sewing teacher’s workshop today, she said her students may be interested to buy them. In fact, I have another over-lock machine and a secondhand manual sewing machine that has been motorized (Jenome brand) to dispose too. Anyone interested?

Anyway, I am keeping the sewing patterns, sewing books and fashion magazines as I am hoping to pick up sewing again after we settle down in IL. Only need to dispose all the sewing machines as it’s impossible to lug them all the way there.

One of my hobbies is sewing and I am quite an addict to fabrics. There is something about the texture and the weave of different fabrics that intrigued me and I ended up collecting them faster than I can sew them into something.

With a cabinet full of fabrics, I dare not buy more, at least not until I use up some of the fabrics first. But that doesn’t stop me from drooling at this Robert Allen fabrics.:-)

Can you imagine how the final product made of this lustrous and sumptuous fabrics will look and feel like? Can you imagine the luster and supple feel of silk on your skin? Your sofa will never look the same with this designer decorative fabrics!

I have wanted to sew this slipcovers for the dining chairs for a long time. The plastic covers that came with the chairs were ripped off and there were some stains on the cushions from accidental spills. So I decided to wash the cushions and sew them some dresses to prevent them from getting dirty.

The sewing pattern of the slipcovers is from a sewing tutorial that I printed off the Internet many years ago. I did some modifications based on the materials and fabrics that I have on hand. I need to finish all the fabric stash I have before spending more money getting new stuffs

There are six chairs, I have sewn up four, so two more to go! :-)

Since I am closing the tutoring center for December, I would have one month long break. Apart from trying to clean up and unpack after the house moving, I hope to do something about the stash of fabrics.

I was looking through the sewing patterns that I have, trying to look for a pattern for a dress. Unfortunately, couldn’t find a flattering pattern that easy enough for a person who hasn’t sew for three years. Since I bought this sewing patterns three years ago when I was much slimmer, they won’t do any good now. The alternative would be sending this materials to a seamstress to get them sew up. :-)

The lighthouse is done few years back. This is one of the 8 lighthouses in the series, but I just completed one only. Scenery needs to be quite detailed and can be very tedious to do. I think this one took me almost 6 months to complete.

I have completed this long time ago, but didn’t frame it. Since I was framing the other piece of cross stitching, I have this one frame too. This is a simple picture, but it’s done on Aida cloth with smaller squares, almost like linen, so it was quite challenging.

The wordings are my favorite, from Isa 40:31, the NIV version says:

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

One of the biggest task I have completed last week is to finish off the UFO (unfinished off) cross stitching project that having lying around for at least three years.

I started the project long time ago. The wordings are based on the Scriptures in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. I know many people are quite familiar with a song that based on the same. The framing shop downtown did quite a good job, charges very reasonable too.

My little brother borrowed the table top oven from me during his holidays last year, to learn to bake cakes and cookies. He must have burned some of his baking because he returned the oven with some ugly yellow stains.

I don’t use this oven much, it’s used for heating up leftover pizza or things like that. So, it has been sitting at a corner of the kitchen, sticking like an eye sore. I have wanted to sew a cover for it but never got down to doing it.

Since I have more free time after I sold the tutoring business, I sew this cover.

Since the sewing machine is still in the store room, and I was too lazy to take it out, I sew this by hand.

It’s quite, just cut two pieces of rectangular, leaves 1/4 ” of seams all around, sew the two pieces up along the seams.:-)

The first piece is for the top and sides, it should measure (L+H+H) x W, second piece(the front panel) is H x L. L=length, H=height, W=width.

Over the weekend, I spent sometime organizing my fabric stash into the metal cabinet and deciding what to sew in the coming weeks. This materials have been lying around for 2-3 years. Ever since I started the tutoring center and the preschool 3 years ago, I hardly have time, or just too tired to sew. Now that I have sold the business, I want to pick up sewing again. Can you tell from the stash that I am quite a fabricholics?:-)

This materials are stored in a metal cabinet. It’s one of those metal cabinets that you usually see people use in the office for storing documents. It’s very good for storing fabrics. It keeps the moisture away, therefore this fabrics do not smell mushy or moldy after 2-3 years in the cabinet. I learned this storage idea from my sewing teacher, she has a few of this cabinets to store all her materials.