Abstract

Turned the 6 year old's abstract art into a bag. Acrylic paint, squeegee and cotton canvas.

Back to bags

My old friend N's sister ordered 5 totes to take back to the States where she lives now. I maximized the batik she had bought and made 9 pieces! That's a lot considering I haven't been making any for a long while now. I kinda stopped after my sewing machine died on me and I had to wait to get it repaired. Then the teen's camera went kaput and I couldn't take any pictures. Lucky me, my parents got her a new one for her birthday and now I might just be back in business.

After finishing with N's sister's order, I made 14 more that I hope will go on sale at Galeri Petronas, KLCC. Here are some of them...

The two on the right have zippers.

Origami bags!

Thanks N and A for getting me off my ass and back to the sewing machine :)

Labels

I thought I should mention I also make my own labels for the bags. I had a TiMi stamp made at a nearby stationery shop and for the ink I use rubber dye to stamp onto cotton tape.

Here I am testing out my stamping skills.

Below are some of the labels stamped and cut. Unfortunately, there's a lot of wastage because I still have a hard time getting them centered, straight and clear but I so prefer making my own labels than having them professionally made. It carries through the whole handmade aesthetics that I am going for.

After stamping, I cut them up and sew the edges. I tried sewing the labels straight onto the bags and pouches but I found it really hard having to turn the edges in and keep them in place as I sewed.

So, for now I have to do the edges first and individually stitch the labels on by hand. Phew! I have to be honest, I don't know how long I can keep doing this. 

Vintage Batik Bags

I've been crazy busy making bags for the Putrajaya International Islamic Arts & Culture Festival (PIIACF) which will be held from this Thursday to Sunday, 30th October - 2nd November.

Here are a few that I've made from these vintage batik.

Zipper and gusset for this bag.

A pleat and a pair of short straps for this one.

Three panels of fabric sewn together to make the front.

And one piece for the back.

Will show more soon :)

Straps

Every bag is made from scratch right down to the straps. I start with cutting two strips of batik and two strips of interior fabric for each bag. Then I iron them before I mark the width and length using a template made of backing board. After that it's time to sew.

I then turn each over using the handle of a long paint brush. And finally it's back to ironing each strap. It's a loong process. Sometimes I look proudly at my heap of straps only to realize they are enough for just four of five bags. Not so great when I have to make eighteen! 

Commission

Last week my brother commissioned me to make a bag, a wrislet and a mini pouch which he needs by tomorrow. Luckily for me I managed to finish them today without any major mishap.

I used my foam stamps for the red on white pattern.

More stamped pattern on the other side.

Instead of making my usual tote, I added a pleat, a single long strap and gusset.

All boxed up and waiting for pick-up!

Batik Sarong Terengganu Project - Part 2: Bags and KLPac

It's been a crazy few days. Right now it's 10.08 am local time and I am supposed to be at the Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival, KL Pac with some bags I have made from the batik. I'm not there. Obviously. Yikes! The Batik Sarong Terengganu Project team have been there since 8.30 this morning setting up their booth - Teja Batik Workshop. They will be conducting a batik demonstration and other activities, so come on over if you are free. They will be there today and tomorrow.

It was so hard choosing which ones to cut up first. They look so good just hanging on the walls.

I started with the red polka dot piece that is now a half done bag on the right.

All cut up with interfacing ironed on. Waaaa!

Front.

The only bag I managed to get done! At 16.5" X 14.5" it's the largest bag I've made so far and the first with pockets.

Back.

See ya at the Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival, KL Pac!

Matic Bazaar

Our area has been part of the water rationing exercise since March. How this works is - we only get water every two days which means we don't get water the following two days after that which means no silkscreen printing for a while :(

On the bright side it has been raining almost every evening for the past couple of weeks starting with the few days before the weekend me and my regular bazaar buddies, Lynn and Luukaleather, participated in the 360 Bazaar Kuala Lumpur at Lanai Matic. The weather was wonderful - cool with overcast sky. No hot sun beating down on us. In the evening it got a bit wet but luckily it wasn't a full on downpour!

My batik bags in new colours.

My pouches.

The Tween painted the pretty display labels. She has way better colour sense than me! 

And of course, adorable handmade sock pets, foldable clutches by Lynn and leather accessories by Luukaleather.

Thanks J, L and S for helping us immeasurably with the booth!

Terima kasih also to the wonderful 5 gadis next to us for babysitting the Toddler the whole day! 

And a Special Thank You to all who came by to support handmade. May we meet again!

I guess you could say I had a great time :)

Before the pillows...

At The Bearded Lady I had four See No Evil pillows for sale. I wanted to make bags first but I only got as far as the prototype made from this sketch a few months ago back when it was still 2013. 

It took us 9 times to finally get the screen burnt just right. Here is one of the first few prints we did. The top half of the banana tree bled out a fair bit. My guess is I put too much pressure when I was pulling the squeegee.

The Toddler couldn't resist touching the bag when we were printing and smudged it a bit. Here she is trying to get her hands on it again! :)

There's a red blob on the woman's sleeve because I was about to start painting when I realized I should take a before photo first.

For the other side of the bag, I printed three words from the Japanese proverb of the Three Wise Monkeys "See No Evil. Hear No Evil. Speak No Evil" and crossed them out in red.

The words are in Malay but written in Jawi which is an Arabic alphabet.. 

The top is lihat = see. The middle is dengar = hear and the bottom is kata = speak.

Here I am painting in the details on another print we did. Just to give you an idea of the process.

At last, after all the sweat and near-tears here is the final version of the bag with painted details in red. I also made a tote version. Will share a picture with you soon.

Cheers! :)

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who came by The Bearded Lady yesterday. I had a fantastic time catching up with my old friends R.W and C.C who came to visit and support handmade. It's been ages since we sat down for a chat. Years actually! 

A special thank you to The Bearded Lady for inviting Timitimitonga to set up shop for the day. Spent the time munching off their menu! The Nasi Lemak was lip-smacking delicious, cooked specially for the event by Aniz's mother. Me and the Tween ordered it twice. Also loved TBL's Croissant Sumbat which we will have to go again for more.

Now for some pictures...

Oi! bags and wristlets.

More bags and wristlets. 

Thanks R for the wonderful arrangement.

And... the See No Evil pillows also arranged for better photo-op by multi-hyphenated writer extraordinaire R :)

On the other side of the pillows I printed three words from the Japanese proverb of the Three Wise Monkeys "See No Evil. Hear No Evil. Speak No Evil" and crossed them out in red.

The words are in Malay but written in Jawi which is an Arabic alphabet. 

The top is lihat = see. The middle is dengar = hear and the bottom is kata = speak. 

More handmade by my very talented friends Lynn and Luukaleather. So glad I had some company :)

Sneak peek

Here's a sneak peek at some of the stuff I've been making for Timitimitonga sale happening tomorrow, Saturday, 15th February 2014 at The Bearded Lady. That blue bag is a prototype for the Oi! Limited Edition Valentine's Bag I hope to have available tomorrow. White and black silkscreen with hand embroidered French-knots all round the heart. Also for sale will be four silk screened See No Evil pillows with hand painted details in red.There are words silk screened on the back. But you'll have to come check them out tomorrow to find out what they are.

See ya! :)

Blue Valentine

No Ryan Gosling here, but there will be limited edition Oi! post-Valentine bags for sale at The Bearded Lady cafe this Saturday, 15th February 2014. Fingers crossed :)

A gift

Every time I meet my old friend A.W she will have a huge bag or two brimming with the prettiest clothes all ready for me to take home to the Toddler. So, I thought this bag would be a nice thank you gift for her. I used Japanese linen in black for the straps and bottom bit. The batik is Indonesian. I love the bold, simple design of the flowers and minimal colour palette. And I added interfacing to give the bag more shape. 

I really like it :) What do you think?

Shop Debut Giveaway!

 My Etsy shop timitimitonga is now OPEN! :)

Actually, it has been open since the first day of the new year (EST) but I didn't want to announce it till I had a giveaway to thank all of you for visiting my blog.

To participate, just leave your name and where you're from in the comment section below.

You have until 11pm on Wednesday, January 15 (EST) and the winner will be 
announced on Friday, January 17 (EST). 

The winner will receive one batik tote and one matching coin purse as pictured above.

Oh. And just one comment per person please.

 Good luck!

Cheers from Malaysia :)

* Read more about my process here


*** Comments are now closed.
Thank you so much for participating :)
Winner will be announced on Friday. Don't forget to visit!

Batik bags!

I've actually been quite busy these past few weeks. For the longest time I've wanted to open an Etsy shop selling my silkscreened pouches and bags but that plan has been put on hold for the time being.

Instead of waiting around till we figure things out with the silkscreens, I decided to make bags from my collection of Batik.

Here are some that I will have listed in my Etsy shop soon!

I am soo excited and nervous and happy all at the same time.

My favourite :) 

I managed to make only three bags from this Batik piece and I will be keeping one for myself :)

I had to figure a way to photograph the bags where there's some light. An unused curtain railing, the window grill and bookshelf did the trick.

Work station

This is where I work - on the floor by my desk, cutting and ironing interfacing onto fabric where the Toddler is sitting. It's back breaking and my legs ache when I finally stand up but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

BTW don't worry. The iron's not on :)

Fabric shopping!

Japanese cotton

I took my mom fabric shopping again. The last time we went, I bought some cotton linen, these two batik and burst my budget. This time, I bought Japanese cotton, English cotton and burst my budget :)

English cotton

This is my star find. I love the border and mint green background. I think it will look great as a tablecloth, a skirt, baju kurung and even bags if only it were thicker.

Bag #4

I made this bag right after I finished this one but I don't quite like the brown material I'm using right now. It's actually upholstery fabric. I do like the texture but the colour doesn't quite go with everything else and the fabric doesn't hold shape well.

I cut out the flowers and bamboo from batik scraps and sewed them on collage style. The lady is wearing scraps of lace and some other pieces of fabric I found in my stash.