Hi,

    Back after nearly a month.... Time has flown by too very quickly.... nearly 4 weeks have whizzed past; but, the days have been long and tiring...... 

    We teachers have started on a new journey, or, rather, we have entered a new phase of life, professionally. Courtesy of lockdown due to Covid-19, classes have started, and how?? We are online, to reach our students, to keep in touch with them, to teach them.. we wake up early in the morning, and start the classes, then the minutes and hours just slip past, and the day ends, all without any rest or break... These are the days of all work and no play for the kids too... 

    It is now, after nearly a month of these scheduled online teaching sessions, that we are getting a breather... we have found the pace, and are getting comfortable. So, I thought of giving myself a break, a well - deserved one....

    My post today will be a few dresses I had designed/  upcycled some time ago. 

The first one is a two- piece night dress for my princess designed from a full length cotton night gown that has been lying in the cupboard for so long... The fabric is pure cotton, and so, would be very comfortable to wear, but the colour, I felt, is too dark for my taste. The little lady loved the colour, though. That was reason enough to upcycle it...

                                        

    The next one was a long kurta in its earlier avataar. This again is a ccotton piece, in off- white shade. Cut the sleeves off, and moved the seam inward all along the sides to fit my daughter. Didn't change the neck. The simple thread work in light brown thread makes it simple, yet elegant.. 

    This one here was a cotton Anarkali top I loved. But it got a tear along the back neck when it caught on a clothes hanger. I repaired it, but the damage was still very evident. So thought of making it a calf- length skirt for the girlie. It was a very very simple job. Just had to cut away the top portion of the dress and attach a band for the elastic. Nothing else was changed.

    And this pretty baby frock was stitched for the grand daughter of our domestic help. The cloth is cotton blouse material that comes along with cotton sarees. No buttons at the back; have attached fabric ties. 

That's  all for now. Be back soon.

Regards,

Chitra.

Hi there,

Today's  post is some more pieces of jewels...
              This is almost a continuation of the earlier post. In here will be the pieces I made for my sister, and one that was designed for my princess.

               This first photo has a simple flat glass bead in a golden colour headpin attached to fish hook ear wires. The other pair is actually antique gold triangular pendant bails or hangers. Just attached ear hooks to them in matching colours.

            This one here has two small, flat light brown glass beads in each piece, hung one below the other using separate eye pins. The earrings are hung on fish hooks again. These three pairs of earrings were made for my sister.

             This is the third one of the pendants of the same type I had purchased from Bangalore. (The other two were used for the jewels posted in the earlier post). Initially, I wanted to use two for a pair of earrings, but later I thought they were too big for that. So, used all three as pendants. In this piece, that I made for my dear girlie, are alternate white pearl and sandstone beads, with golden metal beads as spacers. From the pendant again are five hangings of a sandstone and a pearl each. There is an antique finish endchain for length, with a lobster clasp at the end.

So, that's for now. 

See you later.

Regards,

- Chitra.

Hi...

                            The time of the year I enjoy the most (kids too) is December. Not just because it is the time for Christmas break, but because that's when my sister and family come down for vacation... The kids have a great time, but me and my sis too get to spend some time together. Eventhough we have video chats and there is the routine catching up that we do regularly, nothing beats real presence..

                I love these days of December vacation also because then is when sis and I sit together with my stash of beads and rummage through it to see what all pieces to make for her.... She is just like my girlie... Both of them love jewellery, and I love making pieces for them.. Most of the times, their tastes differ.. So, here are two pieces I made with the same  pendants and beads, but with some small variation as per their individual tastes...

                   The one above is for my daughter. My sister didn't like the hangings on the pendant, so made one (given below) without those for her. The first one has shorter end chains than the one for my sis. The first one has tiny golden beads as spacers between the pearl beads.

                   I bought these simple pendants with an antique finish on a trip to Bangalore. I loved them for their simple design, so bought not one, not two, but three pieces.. The beads used are faux pearl round ones light golden brown in colour. Bith the chains have metal hooks at their ends.

     This one was made few years back with the same type of beads- faux pearl round ones light golden brown in colour. This set of neck piece and a pair of matching earrings were gifted to a cousin. In this, I had wire- wrapped each pearl with two seed beads at each end. 

       That's all for now. 

Bye. Take care.

Regards,

- Chitra.

Hi,

        " Jewellery has the power to be the one little thing that makes you feel unique."- Elizabeth Taylor.
           And, as they say, a girl can never have enough jewellery...

          There was this string of natural ruby as faceted rondelle beads that I bought from a jewellery house... Just a string of them.. this was when my little lady was, well, quite little.. Back then, I had plans to turn it into a proper gold necklace with matching earrings... Didn't work out then, and I just forgot about it... Just a couple of years back, when my mom found this in the locker, she asked why not put it to a good use, now that the little girl also would love to wear it... That was it... my girlie suggested that instead of going for a real gold piece, which then wouldn't be worn so casually, why not make two necklaces out of it... as she said- 'mom and me' necklaces...
       Searched a lot for good pendants to go with it, but found none.. Finally, it was during my trip to Chennai that I got some antique finish pendants, that I found good.
        Finalised two of those pendants for the pieces, and here is the end result- The first one was designed for my princess. The shorter piece among the two, there are smaller size ruby beads hanging from the pendant... Looked pretty on her when she wore it with traditional pavada blouse.

The second one is what I made for myself (though i have worn it just twice...) with a large pendant in traditional design.. This is a longer neck piece than the first one, and the ruby beads too are larger than those in the other piece. Goes well with saree as well as salwar kameez.

     In both these pieces, I have used antique finish golden beads and bead caps as spacers between the ruby rondelle beads. End chain in the shorter piece, and more smaller antique finish beads in the longer one add to the length.

          I am not very crazy as far as jewellery is concerned, but this one set is very special for me... this is the first 'mom and me' set I have made... and it felt very special when we wore it together to a temple.

Bye.
See you.
Regards,

- Chitra.

        

Hi,

            Today's post will be some more dresses... but these are for my little prince.
The pretty lady gets a lots of dresses designed, stitched, remodelled and altered for her, and that too quite frequently.. It is comparatively rare that the little guy gets such an attention.. Not intentional, but it sure is more interesting to design dresses for girls than for little boys...But that doesn't mean I haven't done any dresses for him at all...
            This was among the first ones that i stitched for him... His pants were once the sleeves of his dad's t- shirt.

       Once he grew a bit, there were a lot of t-shirts that were made into pants for him.. A friend of mine wanted to know how it is done. So, I took pictures of one such t- shirt upcycling...

        It is actually much easier to make dresses for little boys, than for girls... The work gets done in no time... You have no ruffles to be added, nor is there any need for embroidery or any such embellishment... So, in the same time that you would require to make a girl's dress, you can make multiple number of dresses for little boys. And, here I got ready a loadful of pants for my tiny tot.. all from t-shirts.. You need just around 10-15 minutes, and an elastic band for each of these.. And the bonus is the sweet kisses I got for these.. that's guaranteed...

Be back with more posts..
Bye. Take care.

Regards,
-Chitra.

Hello,

            Some years back, bought a long skirt in lime yellow, with black thread and antique gold colour zari in the borders. A t-shirt wouldn't match with it, nor would a plain black top. So, designed a sleeveless round neck top with antique gold colour material and added black piping to the neck and sleeves. Now that she has grown, she can no longer wear it. But it still is kept safe in her cupboard. Now that she has grown, she can no longer wear it. But it still is kept safe in her cupboard.

             Last year, during the summer vacation, I bought dark green silk material to stitch a pavada- blouse set for my daughter.. She didn't like it that both the pieces would be of the same colour... the blouse had to be of golden colour. I had a one- metre  bit with me, but my mom said it won't be sufficient for a long blouse. And, the young lady wouldn't compromise on the length of the blouse even a bit...    

             I pasted together some brown paper to the dimensions of the golden fabric I had, and cut out a pattern for the blouse using just that one metre of the clothing... Thought it would work, and it did...  There is a finely pleated band of the fabric along the length of the blouse at the centre, both in the front and at the back. That was the adjustment I had to make so as to make do with the material in hand.. After the work was completed, mom said the adjustment in fact added some beauty to the blouse that would have otherwise been plain... Added a bit of golden lace to the neck line, the sleeves and the bottom edge of the blouse.. 

            One work that is still pending is a matching set of necklace and earrings using air- dry clay.. That's a project I had planned to do this vacation, but couldn't buy clay... should do that some day soon....

Bye for now.

Regards,

-Chitra,

Hi

    Today's post will be some simple pieces of jewellery made with air- dry clay. It is easy to work with, and you needn't bake it..

            The first one was designed for my daughter, to match with a long silk frock in soft orange colour. Since she already had bangles and earrings to go with the dress, she didn't feel it exciting enough to go just to buy a neck piece. So I thought of making it myself. There was a problem with that, I discovered later....  there wasn't anything in my stash of beads that could be used. There was no option left other than to start with air- dry clay, which, luckily, I had an unopened pack of.... There was hardly time to come up with a good design and make it too... The beads and the pendant were all made in less than half an hour, and just the next day, they got the first coat of paint. I used orange and maroon acrylic colours with pearl finish and some golden paint for an added glitter. Added seed beads to give it some length, and attached a metallic hook at the back... That's it..

          These two short length pieces were custom made for my sister.. the pieces should go with traditional wear- both saree, and salwar kameez, and, shouldn't be too large... these were made to fit this description.. 

          One in dark green and gold combination, and the other in maroon and gold. In both, the clay beads are spaced with small golden metallic beads that add to the length, and also show off the clay beads separately. The green one has a pair of earring with it. In all the 3 pieces posted today, over two coats of acrylic paint, I applied a coat of clear nail polish... It gives some shine, and maintains the pieces in good condition for a longer time.

Thats it for today..

See you..

Regards,
Chitra.