My Precious Moments

Mist Alpaca yarn is a first kind of proper yarn that I bought since engaging with knitting. I tried a couple cheap/recycled yarns from Green Shed before I felt confident to get an expensive yarn to knit, which is the chunky Mist Alpaca yarn made in Peru. The yarn is hand dyed, very soft and no itch at all. After knitting my first scarf with this yarn, I ended up with buying four more skeins to make scarves and a headband for friends in Adelaide and Brisbane.  For my first scarf, I used a very simple pattern from We Are Knitter book called Urban Snood. It is made of just repeating knit and purl stitches until reaching at 60 cm length. To be honest, I might not make more scarves as I just do not want to keep too many accessories in my wardrobe. Therefore, my next big project you might see would be a sweater. Thank you for reading,   Thao

Yes I am dusting off my blogs. The society has been changing up side down since the early of this year. Some people lost   their income, businesses and their family members while the others are fighting hard to survive through it. I got a good amount of sewed and knitted items that I cant wait to show you in the coming blogs. Stay stunned.   Take care and bye for now,   Thao

“All I want for Christmas is a JUMPSUIT”. Yes, I wanted a jumpsuit since I started learning sewing. At that time, making that kind of garment was such an advanced job for me. I thought I would make my own jumpsuit when I was ready one day, and that day finally came. I deliberately bought three metres of the shell chambray fabric from The Drapery last year just to make a jumpsuit. Then, I shopped around thrift stores to get very easy jumpsuit patterns. I found the McCall’s Pattern 2185, published from the 60s. The pattern is described as a pantdress a v-shaped neck in front with a belt. My only modification is adding kimono sleeves for the garment. As you know, I love having sleeves on whatever I wear.   The process was not very smooth at all, as I added the pockets in a wrong direction. Then, I messed up the front and the back parts so when I could not assemble them in the end. After inserting a zipper in the back, the final look was completed. It is so comfor

I finished this garment back in last December but I did not have time to write about it until now. I used the leftover olive linen fabric from the Bi-Colour Linen top to make this. I always wanted to have a pair of culottes for such a long time because the style is so relaxing and feminine. The pattern was easy and straightforward. The only problem I had is gathering the body with the waistband. I have to confess that I rushed to finish so the pleats on the two sides did not match after attaching the waistband. I had to redo that part again to make it look better. The other day, when I watched a random video on YouTube, the woman in the clip showed a trick to soften linen fabric. Then I thought about my Culottes and tested it straightaway. I soaked 3 teaspoons of baking soda in a small bucket of water and left my linen pants there overnight. Yes, this is actually softer. I cannot wait to wear it with the Bi-Colour top for my Vietnam trip next month. Goodbye for now,

Happy new decade, friends. The weather in Canberra is not getting better at all, there is still very smoky, as the bushfire seems coming closer. I hope everyone will be in a safe place. Last year was a very pleasant year for me. I spent a lot of time for myself like piano practising, public speaking training, and sewing and starting this blog. Those things definitely have brought me heaps of fun and improved my concentration level. Sewing and playing music makes me feel so calm, which I never thought that I could enjoy them in my early twenties. My goals for this year are maintaining the activities that I have been working on since last year. I want to improve my reading habit too, maybe around three to four pages every night. I might need to put away the phone while I am reading as this does distract me very much. I will start learning a new skill: knitting, which delayed last year. My boyfriend bought me a book called “We Are Knitters” for my birthday present, so I should try so

Back in September this year, The Fabric Store launched an exclusive linen range with many gorgeous colours. I immediately ordered two fabric lengths in Honeysuckle and Olives colours.    They would brighten up my Asian, warm undertone complexion. My first thoughts were to make an olives pants and a pink dress with them. However, things changed since I picked up the 1190 Style pattern in a charity shop in Gungahlin. This is an easy made pattern created from just only 4 pieces with kimono sleeves. Tops with kimono sleeves is always my favourite as it gives a good balance to my wide shoulders. I looked at the pattern and thought I should combine the two linen colours into this garment. The olive pieces would be for front and back neck bodices, whereas the honeysuckle pink would be perfect for the body.   I applied the French seam technique for all the part. It gave a very neat look and I would love to use it more for next garments. The tricky part for me was inserting