Happy Teacher's Days! handmade specials..

I have always find teacher a noble profession. It's a job that requires lots of patience, passion and dedication (without any of these one may goes insane).

I'm glad I had caring teachers in my tender years who had guided me tirelessly and coached me both in studies as well as sports. My primary school days were filled with exciting adventures & wonderful memory, a large part of it was thanks to my teachers.

Anyway, it's Teacher's Day and I thought the teachers deserve appreciation from their students for the great effort. C has shown so much improvement in her study; she looks forward to going to school every morning and reading her new book to me whenever I'm home, what more could a mom ask for? :)  On the other hand, E is so fond of his school teachers, especially the science and computer teachers (they are his absolute favorites!). 

So when I suggested to make some DIY gifts for the teachers, the duo excitedly agreed.

Instead of a card, we decorated a "Thank You Bag" using plain brown bags and sharpies (I got the brown bags from Daiso for RM5.90 for a pack of 5). We then filled them up with our hand-painted flower pots & a packet of sunflower seeds. You can read about the making of the DIY hand-painted flower pots here.

Wa-la.. Done!

I especially like this blue hair boy by E :)

He still has few more bags to make as his school's celebration is scheduled on a later date.

As we ran short of the terracotta pots, I've bought some cute mugs as additional gifts. Hope the teachers like them as much as the painted pots. :D

We still have a few more brown bags to decorate (and I shall update this post once they are ready), but as of now, we just want to shout-out-loud...

"Happy Teacher's Day!"

to all the great teachers out there, thank you for the hard work!

If you are parents, I would encourage you to spare sometime to prepare something for your little one's well-deserving teachers too. Let's spread the love around and they may boomerang back to you in the most unexpected way. ;-)

Cheers,

PH


Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{CNY Special} Cheongsum for my bunny...

It's been a yearly tradition that I will custom made Chinese New Year cloths for my little girl. This Rooster year, has no exception too.

2014

My first attempt with Cheongsum started 3 years ago when I was learning to sew with Google tutorials (yes, Google). Being a total novice, I had only made some baby dresses & accessories, yet was daring enough to try out making Cheongsum. It was obviously amateur work, you may see the grey polkadot Cheongsum here (diy baby cheongsam) or the chuckle and scallop Cheongsum here (mad about cheongsam)

2015

Then, a year later I became bold and was attempting few vintage dresses that I came across while window shopping, or browsing online. I made a total of 3 pieces with my self-made pattern and the square neck red polkadots remain one of my favorites till today. You can see them all 

here (spring dresses for my little bunny)

2016

Came last year, I decided to go hybrid. I made one piece of Cheongsum (with a cuteness overload pink kitty fabric!) and some English dresses which I have pretty much mastered by now (or so I love to think so :)). You may view the handmades here (cny special petite spring dresses) or just as shown below..

2017

Finally, this year. Despite I was tied up with work, I managed to push my lazy bones to produce 2 Cheongsum that i am pretty satisfied with, with high collar and long zipper to easy fitting. My little bunny absolutely loved her new CNY dresses and was proudly parading around. :))

The first Cheongsum. Love the lollipop and candy prints on this fabric. Bought them from US Joanne store years ago and finally put it to good use. This modern print gives an interesting twist to an otherwise ordinary Cheongsum pattern.

I added a candy button on the back of the dress for some extra cuteness. :)

Here's the second dress, using Michael Miller designer fabric combined with silver tutu skirt as bottom. I love using 100% designer cotton as they are soft & comfy even after many washes. I decided to use contrasting grey bias tape and I thought it turns out pretty nice, doesn't it? ;-)

The Accesorries 

Notice the colorful zipper? They give some fun feeling to the dresses. I found the knot buttons for RM10 for 3 pairs at the local sewing supplies store and have successfully used up 2 pairs. Thank goodness I have hoarded lots of fabric and have few yards of reds available. I still have some beautiful Sarah Jane and Micheal Miller fabrics that I am keeping for later use. They are just so adorable that I could not lay my scissors on them. I just took them out of the box, admire, then store them back again. Silly, I know.. But I could not help it. :P

Oh, and if you like to have some handmade buttons with matching fabric, you can buy the manual button maker from daiso for just RM5.30, comes in various sizes and refills.

The Design 

The Cheongsum design was inspired by this knit Cheongsum that Big Guy bought from the store. I used it as a base to trace the pattern and added 2" extra on the sides since I'm using non-stretchable cotton fabric. It is quite easy to make, really, took me about 4 hours to complete each of the dress and each requires about 1 yard of fabric and 1 pack of bias tape.

That's all folks. If you love sewing and is an amateur like me, I encourage you to keep trying and don't feel intimidated. Just start off first with some cheaper fabric and when you have gathered enough confidence (through enough trials),only then move on to your beautiful fabric collection.

All the 9 CNY dresses I've made for the my little C, which is your favorite? :)

Keep calm and keep sewing..

Love,

PH 

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Made by PH} Little Lemony Dress

C has been asking me for new dresses and persistently remind me every alternate days to make sure I do not forget.

"I want 2 dresses.. No, 3!"

"I want them in purple, yellow and blue... And pink too!"

"Please, Mommy, please... Where is my new dress?"

"Mommy, you said you will make the dress for me? What took you so long?"

Alright, alright.. I surrendered finally. So here it is, the new lemony dress for my little bubbly (and I know I still "owe" her a couples of dresses...) 

A happy dress for a happy girl. 

She absolutely loves it (and me too). Been dancing in it the entire morning, and the dress blends so well with the garden.. My lemon tree may be still little, but I have full ripe lemons dancing in my garden. Lol.

She loves tending to my plants... and I love watching her.

It's a really simple cutting and easy to wear on as no buttons involved. This is a pattern suitable for newbie in sewing.

I purchased this pattern, Glass Onion Top, months ago from Shwin Designs but had not find time to make it until today. The pattern is available in size 2T-8T (one of the easiest patterns ever, literally!) and I managed to complete the entire dress in 2 hour, from cutting to sewing (excluding ironing if you must know ;-). 

Now that the dress is completed and gardening chores all done, I can sit back and relax... Chilling with a cup of latte while watching the kiddos play in the garden. That's my kind of perfect weekend.

Happy weekend peeps!

Cheers,

PH

{CNY Special} Petite Spring Dresses & Cheongsum

It's Chinese New Year eve... I thought I won't have time to sew this year as I have started new job and time is always on shortage after E started formal schooling. Well, I was wrong. By spending 30 minutes aside every alternate nights, or as and whenever I can, I actually managed to make 3 new spring dresses for my girl.. I'm pretty happy with the outcome as these were all designed with heart and love..

Happy Kitty Dress in Pink

A modern Cheongsum with traditional knot button in sweet pink kitty fabric. It's a premium US designer fabric by Michael Miller that I bought 2 years ago, glad I've given it a new life and it's my little girl's favorite (she likes everything pink and kitty ;)

The Little Roses Dress

This dress is made with 2 fat quarters that was sold as a set. I've kept them in the shelve for the longest time as I could not decide what to make with it then, but when I saw it during the recent spring cleaning, inspiration just hit, hence the birth of this dress. C looks so so sweet in it and it reminds me of my rose garden.

The Little Denim Dress

This soft denim has lots of little stars, just like the clear blue skies full of starlights that we saw while driving along Nepal, New Zealand. I have enough left over if this fabric and intend to make a summer shirt for E... Well, when time allows.

It has a stretchable back that allows C to put it on and off easily. 

That's all the "Made by PH" series this CNY, genuinely designed and made by me and I just hope my little girl will appreciate all these mommy-made when she grows up one day. 

Happy Chinese New Year and happy holiday to all! 

Xoxo,

PH



Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Made by PH} It's a Big Boy's Wallet!

E is entering primary 1 starting 4 January, officially a big boy attending a big school. He will be making new friends, learning new stuff (7 subjects!) and learning to be truly independent - buying food on his own, adapting to social life in a large class (50 students!) and taking the school bus all by himself. He seem cool about it, but mommy somehow having butterfly in the stomach... 

I have took the past few months to slowly build his confidence and independence, and as an encouragement from me, I decided to make him something special that no one else has.

So I made this, a Big Boy's wallet, designed and made by mommy. 

Embroidered with a special "E".

Comes with multiple compartments for cards and notes.

With a zipped coin compartment too. 

Fit for a Lego, or two perhaps. :)

Small enough to fit into his school pants, but huge with mommy's love & blessing.

This is a rather spontaneous project (we are only 1 day away from school opening day!), somehow the design just appeared in my mind and I decided to make it with my favorite London Town thick cotton fabric. Took me about 2+ hours to complete and I'm pretty happy with the outcome (he too!), I surely hope this wallet will last him for the next few years in school.

Have a blast in your new school, little E!

Psss... This is actually the second wallet I made for E, he got his first little boy's wallet 2 years ago when I was teaching him about money value. You may check it out here, he still using it till these day but since it does not has a zipped compartment it's less ideal.

Xoxo,

PH



Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Make Your Own... Christmas Craft!

Christmas is one of our favorite holiday of the year, a peaceful and meaningful occasion that unites us with the loved ones. The kids love it the most too as that's the time they receive gifts (who does not like presents? *laugh*)

The duo and I setup the Christmas tree, lighted it up but we wanted to make our home really really Christmas-ty, so we started making more some Christmas craft. Here's how make your own Christmas decor with with absolutely no cost! 

Using plain papers, we've cut out lots of shapes - snowflakes, Christmas cottages, Christmas trees, and even volcanoes..

Then we made Christmas cards.

Make your own... Pop-Up Christmas Tree Card 

Next we made an ever Christmas wreath. Since it is made of fresh Christmas tree twigs, it smells so good and we decorate it with fresh flowers from our garden everyday.. 

Make Your Own...Evergreen Christmas Wreath!

Then we deployed these crafts all around  the house. By using blue tac stickers, the papers stick on easily without damaging the surface. The duo were so excited going around the house sticking on their Christmas cottages and trees... They we so proud as they showed daddy later at night.

 

Make Your Own... Popsicle Stick Tree!

You can either purchased a set of ready packed craft set (E received it as birthday pressie last year) or buy the Popsicle sticks from stationeries or bakery supplies stores. Then just glue, paint, stick!

What about some sparkly stars too? 

Make Your Own... Snowflakes! 

We followed these simple steps to fold the paper and just cut out any shapes of snowflakes we like, it was too challenging for C as the paper is rather thick to cut, so I let her design and I did the cutting for her.. You can practically design endless shapes, creativity is your only limit!

Make Your Own... Felt Christmas Tree!

Not to forget, our cute felt Christmas tree which functions as a child play too.

This Christmas tree was made with large button holes to let little ones learn to button on and off. It served its purpose well - both E and C practiced by themselves and can handle buttons well now, and it is such a pretty addition for the door :)

Not a crafty person? This is a super easy one that requires no crafting interest at all..

Just get a real small size Christmas tree from IKEA for only RM8.90, hang  some golden ornaments or balls and it is perfect addition for indoor or the garden.. Well, will have to change it to a beautiful pot thou. *smile*

That's all peeps, easy-peasy craft to brighten the home. 

Hope you have a wonderful time bonding with your little ones and celebrating with your loved ones..

Xoxo,

PH

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials/photos within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.