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Custom Wedding Dress & Kimono Upcycled Clothes | オーダーメイドウェディングドレス&着物ドレス

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Scrap Heap Project: Completed 3 and Shop Update!

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Left: Gray stripes mini poncho dress, Right: Pale pink and lace poncho tunic

I haven’t forgotten about the scrap heap project! I completed two poncho tunics today. The last two tunics sold out, and I received some inquiries about them by some etsians, so I decided to make more of them, using my fabric stash. Plus, I think these breezy tunics are great as beach cover-ups! We live half an hour away from the beach, and I can’t wait to take a trip there soon. Sadly we are now in the middle of the rainy season and it’s been raining every day for the past week. I miss dry, crisp weather!

For those who sew, I made a tutorial for the poncho top here. I was happy to see Wendy from The Butterfly Balcony used my tutorial to make her own poncho dress. Instead of inserting elastic bands at waist, she made a button hole on the side to use it as a belt loop. See her version here🙂

Have a great weekend everyone!

Mommy’s Diary 8

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Week 8 of motherhood is here! Last week was hard, because I had to be out for work all week long. I missed hanging out with Kiko during the day. My mother and husband watched Kiko while I was out, so at least I felt safe, knowing that she was in the hands of people who love and care for her.

The first day of work, I did not have sufficient time to pump, so by the end of the day, my breasts were so full. Although I told my boss that I would need 10-15 minutes to pump here and there during the day, it was hard to find time to do so. We were going from meeting to meeting, and eating with clients in between leaving me with only 4-5 minutes to pump. By the end of the week, I felt that my milk production went down significantly. My body decided it wasn’t really necessary for it to produce milk I guess. On top of that, I was exhausted and stressed. I’ve read that exhaustion affects the milk production. I read this post about breastfeeding dilemma for working mothers, and I could relate to the writer of the post. Working moms out there, what do you think of this issue? Any advice?

Thankfully over the weekend, I had time to relax a bit and start on some new sewing projects that I had postponed because of work. I was asked by a friend of mine to make a Minnie mouse dress for her one year old daughter. She wanted it for an outing to Tokyo Disney Land. I gladly agreed to make it:) My friend said her daughter wore size 90, which means it is a size for a child who is 90 cm in height. I did not have any pattern for a size 90 girl, but I have a dress for Kiko which is size 100. So I took the dress, and cut out the red and white polkadot fabric based on the dress. I did not add seam allowance because I wanted to make the dress a bit smaller than the one I have.

There are 4 separate parts to this dress: front top, front skirt, back tops and back skirts.

I decided to add a little twist to this simple dress. I did this by inserting a white piping detail – you might already know how much I’m into piping now by my After the Carnival clothes! So I cut out some white bias strips..

And used some cords I bought from 100 yen shop.

Gathered the front and back skirt pieces…

Tada! Piping inserted!

The dress has a back button closure. I just imitated the size 100 dress I had.

I finished the arm hole with bias strips. And done!

I hope the dress fits her daughter well. I’m sending it with a little thank you note because she gave me a very nice shower gift:)

Another friend of mine came over on Saturday for a wedding dress fitting (Yes! I’m making a wedding dress for her!) so I showed her the Minnie mouse dress. Later she sent me this picture of a catalog, for a little girl’s Minnie mouse dress that costs 3700 yen (about 40 USD). Guess how much I spent for my version of the Minnie mouse dress?!  A whopping 600 yen for 1 meter of fabric! 🙂

Inspiration: Some DIY Ideas

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Today, I’m sharing some DIY ideas that I’ve been dying to try…

1. Image via Thread Sense. I love these sea form color scallop hem shorts…Unfortunately, they are sold out, but I think these shorts can be easily replicated by using some old trousers and Megan Nielsen’s scalloped hem tutorial. I’m on the look out for a pleated trousers at thrift stores for this project.

2. Image via some etsy vintage shop (I’m sorry I don’t remember where exactly this image is from..Please let me know if you have any idea so I can link it properly!) This is not fashion related, but I think how she displayed black and white photos in vintage white photo frames is just lovely.

3. Image via BurdaStyle, 70’s dress. If you’ve been reading my blog, I’m sure you know that I’m very into cut out details – I’m so inspired by this picture of a 70’s mod dress.  I particularly like the use of two different colors and the inclusion of buttons!

4. Image via Thread Sense. Isn’t this shirt so cool? Love the dolman sleeves, and the use of two different fabrics in the same color. Could be a good project using an old button down shirt of my husband:)

As a side note, I am trying to decide on a new bag as a gift to myself. I’m eyeing Foley + Corrina Mid City bag in gray, oryany seaweed handbag, oryany petal small bag,  Tory Burch Tallis Moonlight Satchel in nude or Rebecca Minkoff mab mini in gray… I barely spend money on clothes, since I either make them or thrift them, but I’m such a sucker for designer bags..Too many pretty bags! Which one do you think I should get?