leather work

I had been wanting to learn how to work with leather for a little while,

and finally got a chance to!

(well, this class will be done after two more classes)

so far, we made a belt, like below, and a handbag -work-in-progress. 

 learned cleaning, treating, dyeing and handstitching the leather, as well as the machine sewing of the leather.

my singer has no trouble sewing oil cloth, so I was pretty confident it will take leather with no hustle.

w.r.o.n.g.

she really didn't like sewing the leather.

I had a really thin soft pig swede, which may have something to do with it,

also none of the roller foot the teacher had didn't fit on my machine.

ugh.

I am going to find a roller foot that's made for her, so I can work more with leather in the future! 

meanwhile,

I finally got around to what I had been meaning to do for a quite sometime!

finally soled these slippers I knitted/felted last october.

I know I am a procrastinator, but I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing since I had no experience working with leather before.

 now, I know how-to, it was a piece-o-cake!

pleased with how it turned out, and it's great having a extra cushion/durability to these! 

this season's first knitting project

do you remember this post where I wrote about Happy Knit's anniversary party?

I started working on the slippers on that weekend, and it didn't take me too long to finish knitting all the parts.

 upon assembly, I came across the designer's blog for Bickford seam video tutorials.

then I did some research on 'felting' because I've never done it before, but it didn't look that hard.  however, our washing machine is an old front-loader, and it seemed having a hard time felting.  in addition to it is a front-loader having some trouble felting, compare with the top-loader, maybe the hottest set water wasn't hot enough?  hm :I                           well, that's done anyway and took them a few days to dry(I'm sure it would have been quicker outside!)

 made couple fabric covered buttons, and sewed all the parts together.                 taddaaaa :) 

actually they are technically NOT DONE yet,,,

the pattern called to put something, like puffy paint, on the bottom sole to give them more friction.

yet my housemate gave me a better piece of advised to sew leather on the sole to make them more durable and warmer.

I think it's a great idea and I'd love to try that.

that will be my first project with leather as well.

a simple, no stress project for a first timer!

I will tell you all about it once I get them done :)

stay tuned!

shoe addiction

one of my bad habits is 'collecting' shoes.

yes, I have a shoe addiction!!

in order not to 'collect' shoes, I try to get the ones I wear for sure.

(no high heels... they are just not so practical for me.)

regardless of my effort, my pile of shoes keeps growing, seemingly, every months.

there are some pairs I will never wear, or wear maybe once or twice a year.

I probably should get rid of them...

but oh well, what can I do?

lots of shoes make me so happy :)

here are a coupe of cuties added to the collection this week!

I found the purple bow shoes(left) at a local vintage store.

they were 18 bucks, but I had some store credits from consignment items, so they were free!

the black flats were thrifted today for $2.

they show the toe-lines(don't know what to call them... little bit top part of toes??),

and it kind of bugs me...

but hey for $2, I can give them a try! I am sure I'm going to wear them lots!!

... and shes for my daughter :)

the pink bear shoes were thrifted for 99c.

the other pair of shoes/boots were $9 each at a local kids consignment store.

how can you resist the little girly shoes?!

they all are super cute!!!

aaahhhh

yup,,, no wonder why the number of shoes in our household keeps going up!

yellow fever

yellow yellow yellow

the color yellow has been catching my eyes a lot lately.

don't know why.

I never used to like it so much...

I think it is a harder color to wear

because it has to be just in the right hue & tone of yellow.

image: nitrolicious image:Nadinoo

image: liebemarlenevintage

image: nitorolicious

image: thisyearsmodel Image: rockettmansion

awghhhhhh

I think I need something yellow to wear this summer!

Which color has been catching your eyes?