My First "Rosette" Attempt

I'm all giddy with happiness because after an entire weekend of feeling inspired, I was able to finish my first fabric flower applique last night. It took all of 2 hours to complete but I'm just happy it resembled a flower in the end.

Yes 2 hours. You see, I can't sew. I still remember a little of what they taught us in Home Economics class back in high school so I can stitch by hand a little. But I can't really create something out of fabric... even the really "simple" ones my mom kept telling was so simple it will only take a few minutes. Some things just aren't simple for me, mom. You know, stuff like sewing straight using a sewing machine? Never happened for me in spite of 4 years in high school trying.

Anyway, here's what I had before I started:

This dress was a gift for Andrea from my aunt. I love it! I don't think the photo did it much justice but it's eyelet lace in a muted green color with matching tights (the tights will be another project... I think).

Here's a picture of her wearing it:

The monochromatic look can get a little dull though, and after reading several craft blogs since last week, I decided this will be my first project. I will embellish with pink rosettes on the right shoulder to give it a little flash of color.

STEP 1: I started looking for materials I had on hand. The itch to start something came to me at 10PM last night so I didn't have many choices. Luckily, I found this pink sheer fabric printed with white leaves which I bought 4 years ago.

Back then, I only needed a small strip to cover the low neckline of a shirt I had but since I can't get scrap fabric, I had to buy a yard of it. (We will talk about other fabrics I bought in the past but never used... I actually have a lot of craft materials I bought and uh... never seldom use, but that story will be for another day).

STEP 2: Cut a 2 inch strip from the fabric. I had no idea how long I needed so I cut a 2 inch strip from the entire length. I figured, if I made a mistake, I have room to cut.

My fabric is the type that frays a lot... so I also had to cut of the frayed edges.

STEP 3: My mind went blank. After reading several blogs on how to make fabric flowers, I realized I never really "read" them. I only looked at the pictures. Aaarrggh!!

My plan was to put 3 rosettes here:

I tried to free hand it. I later found out, it was ambitious for someone who doesn't know anything about what she's doing. So I folded my 2-inch strip into 2 halves... you should end up with a 1-inch strip. And then, here's what took me an hour... I twisted, turned, pinned, scrunched up the fabric to make it look like a rose. FAIL.

I decided to sew directly on the fabric. I pinned one end of my 1-inch strip to the center of the neckline. Since it was already around 11PM at the time, I didn't think I can do 3 rosettes. I will have to settle for one, in the center. Open side of the fold is facing down.

STEP 3: I created small folds (pleats?) trying to create a circular shape. I put pins in each pleat so keep them in place (sorry, no photo... I was already too stressed about the entire thing at the time). After I completed the first circle, I stitched each pleat in shape. I stitched by hand and I have no idea what kind of stitch I used 0_o

STEP 4: Continue making small folds, creating a smaller circle than the first one and repeat previous steps to complete the smaller circle.

STEP 5: Twist the remaining fabric and "swirl" into a rose shape in the middle. Cut off remaining fabric if there are any (I had to cut off around 6 inches of excess fabric strip from mine). Make sure to tuck and fold all edges under. And then stitch with no rhyme or reason. As long as you can secure the center and tuck in all edges that should be fine.

Here's what I ended up with:


Yaaay!! It actually looks like a flower, doesn't it??? Let's take a closer look:

I used white thread to stitch. If you look closely, I think you can see my stitches, the frays. My initial fold from the 2-inch to 1-inch wasn't perfect so I compensated by stitching way above the open edges and then cross my fingers that the fray won't reach the stitches and unravel the whole thing.

STEP 6. I wanted to cover the middle to hide some of my ugly stitches. I initially wanted to do this:

But that flower bead is a little heavy and bulky. And it's glass... it might not survive in the wash. So I tore off a rosette glued to a gift box I had and sewed that in the middle (I didn't have glue within reach and it was nearing 12 midnight by this time... I didn't want to go looking for one). Then I sewed small pearl beads on one side to... hide frayed edges accessorize? I have no idea how the finished product will fare in a washing machine, even if I use a laundry net, but I thought that if the flower fell apart... I can just remove the stitches and Andrea will still have her plain lace dress.

This is my final product:


Closer look at my flower:


*insert BIG smile here*

I hope to make a proper tutorial some day, when I consider myself good enough. But for now, I'm thinking of how to add matching accent to the leggings (though in reality, I just want to get Andrea pale pink tights from the mall to match the flower... let's see how it goes).

Getting Andrea's Pal Violet Clean

We got Andrea a My Pal Violet toy from Leapfrog when she turned 6 months old. Price was a little steep but it was a good purchase... the best toy we got for Andrea so far.

Several reasons why I love Violet:

• You can personalize it to say and sing your baby's name (IF... big IF... your child's name is in their database);
• You can personalize it to mention your baby's favorite food, color and animal;
• You can personalize the songs and choose up to 5 day time songs and 5 lullabies;
• It can play lullabies for 10 minutes max... this feature, both Andrea and I really love;
• Violet is super cute and comes in the color violet which little girls seem to like by default;
• Andrea just loves her, especially around the time she turned 8 months. She's be giggly happy when Violet starts "singing" and there was time she can only sleep after we're played Violet's lullabies for a few minutes.

This toy is a sanity-saver for me.

One thing I don't like about this is, it's so difficult to keep clean. My part of the world is humid and dusty. And humidity + dust = grime (???). Anyway, we keep Violet on our bed and it never leaves the bedroom... but after a few months, she wasn't as creamy clean as the new ones we see at the mall. And we couldn't wash her because the instructions said to use only a damp cloth to clean. That damp cloth didn't help Violet's hygiene much.

So a few nights ago, more than 6 months after we got her, I couldn't bear Violet's grimy appearance anymore. Here's what I did to clean her:

1. I used a wet wash cloth and put some of Andrea's baby bath gel on one corner and rubbed the washcloth until I got a nice soapy lather.
2. Using the wet (NOTE: wet, not damp... but not too wet where you get water dripping out of the washcloth... it should be wet, but not dripping) washcloth with the bath gel lather, rub it on Violet's fur. Be careful that one area does not get too wet as to let water seep too much into Violet. Not sure how the mechanism inside is set up, if it's protected from a little dampness or not.
3. To remove the bath gel lather from Violet's fur, used the section of the washcloth without bath gel to wipe it off.

Our Violet's fur came out brighter and creamy clean again after this process and more important... she still works! ;)

Christmas starts in November

I once heard that the Philippines has the longest celebration for Christmas. Some people start preparations when the "-ber" months arrive. For me, it sort of starts in November.

As a child, I remember that it was my mom's tradition to start putting up the Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations on November 1 (Looking back, I think my mom's reasons were practical... it was a non-working holiday, she doesn't have work... I used to think that's just how it was supposed to be). This practice went on until we got older and I started to be responsible for putting up the Christmas tree at our house. But when I moved out and had my own household, I forgot the tradition. I usually put up the Christmas tree when I feel like it. Last year, while Metro Manila and nearby areas were being ravaged by Typhoon Ondoy, I was obliviously putting up my Christmas tree. That was September.

This year is a little different. I have a little girl now and I want her to have the same magical experience I had as a child during Christmas time: Christmas tree, Christmas socks, "Santa", church service on Christmas eve, waking up midnight of Christmas eve to check what "Santa" left for me on my Christmas sock, to open gifts together and to have Noche Buena. I thought all families celebrated Christmas this way because it was the only way I have ever known. I want Andrea to have that too... and more, if possible.

So to start, we put up our Christmas tree on October 31 - November 1. Andrea sort of helped :)


And this is our tree after we were done:

I got lucky this year. My mom bought a new fiber-optic Christmas tree and decided not to decorate too much. I got to "borrow" (indefinitely, hehe) her ornaments. Most of the nice stuff on my tree are hers: the gold twigs, the ribbon, the gold filigree leaves, the gold pine cones. MG and I knew nothing much about Christmas trees when we got ours... we got a really big one, and later found out it costs a lot to decorate a big tree. Thanks to the additions from my mom, our tree this year looks... well... full :)

And since this is all for Andrea... she is allowed to play with the tree... pick Christmas balls, pull the ribbon, pull the leaves. Even if it means I have to stay up extra hours at night to put it back together again so it will look nice again when she sees it in the morning.