Small Handmade Gifts

Hello October!

In the past few weeks we have so much of rain which make the weather very pleasant! I took this Slow Motion video yesterday just for fun! 

The last two weeks I was busy with custom orders, Alhamdulillah. Also busy working on my Etsy Shops. Etsy is changing it's advertising policy and now the Etsy Promoted Ads and Google Ads are merged. This makes many sellers very disappointed, because suddenly our visits and views dropped drastically since August. Even my stores! With the new system, we don't have any control over the CPC and our daily budget is quickly spent! For bigger shops maybe they are not much affected but for smaller shops like mine, this changing really affect us. 

I'm still working on my Etsy shops to adjust with the new changes! and it takes up a LOT of time!! Meanwhile, here's a few things I finished.

I finished this Pink Floral Double Zip Pouch last week. I decided to go with grey polkadots as an accent fabric. Well, if nothing works, go for polkadots! :D 

Nowadays I love using metal zipper, since I learned how to sew with metal zipper without breaking your needle! It looks good also. I ordered more yardage for metal zips and still waiting. I hope I will get it after the Durga Puja Holiday.

I also made these cute pocket tissue holders. They make a great gift, right? I am using my Indian fabric scraps and simply love how they turned out. These tissue holders are available in my Etsy Shop as well as on my Webshop! 

Blue or Yellow

Small Floral Tissue Holder

I also made these cute  Tissue holder  and Mini Zipper Tissue Pouch

That's all for today. I still have a few orders to finish this week and also huge homework of working on my Etsy SEO. With Etsy changing, I think it's time for me to revise my prices on Etsy too. However you can also check out my WEBSHOP too. I ship internationally from my webshop too! 

I will list few links below in case you need.

Thank you for stopping by,

Have a nice day!

~ Elvira ~

Resources :

Double Zip Pattern

Tissue Zipper Pouch Pattern

Pocket Tissue Holder Tutorial

Etsy Ads /SEO Tutorial

Mini Family Trip

Hello,

Last week I went to Delhi for my passport renewal work. It was a nice mini trip with my small family. Of course the boys got more excited. The younger one was a little upset because he had to miss his high jump final round in the inter house competition at school. Anyway, he was later quite happy after he got a new running shoes. 

Here are a few photos from the trip: 

#1. Travel Organizers

Of course we never have enough pouches and wallets. The passport wallet was really handy to keep all my family passports and the necessary documents as live in a foreign land. 

My Travel Must-Have organizer:   small pencil pouch, shoe lipstick pouch,  tissue pouch and the small pouch to keep urgent medicines. 

The patchwork pouch for my phone and hotel keys as we go for breakfast. The red one was for my make up bag. 

Travel Must-Have 

2. Spices and Teas

The House of Tea in Central Mall Delhi Aerocity

Dry Fruits

Pink salt and spices

Arqa at Central Mall

For Tea lovers like me, it's difficult to choose :)

#3 The Delhi Road

Spotted near the Indonesian Embassy

Equal Rights 

Horn Please:)

quick fix 

Embroidered bags and clutches. My boys didn't let me go closer :(
They surely knew my weakness for anything ethnic ^^

We met my hubby's friend for Indian dinner at Karim's in Gurgaon. There were so many grand weddings going on while we were on our way to Karim's. The white horses, the singing and dancing et al really amazed me. I wish I could just take photos. I tried but one could not get decent photo while riding Indian taxi, right? 

We also went to visit hubby's aunt and had a great time chatting and catching up on family gossips. While coming back to the hotel (we stayed in Novotel in Aerocity), the uber driver was really bad. He drove very carelessly, if not dangerously :(

Novotel Green Garden 

two of my favorite things :D

Until Next Time, New Delhi

It was fun trip ( although sans fabric shopping), though the traffic was really bad. Even at almost midnight there was traffic jam!! Maybe next time we should try the Delhi Metro. 

Now all the dirty clothes are taken care of, it's time to get back to (sewing) work. 

Happy Sewing,

Mini Zipper Pouches

Hello again,

Yesterday I spent my day cutting interfacing scraps and how! I used my regular rotary cutter and cutting 2-3 layers of woven interfacing at one go. I must admit, it took up a lot of energy!

I ordered an electric cutter online last week and they said they will deliver it by 2nd of November. But at night, DH brought my electric cutter and I was so excited. Today morning I tried cutting several more interfacing, fabrics, and lining fabric. I LOVED it! I can cut 9 -10 layers of regular cotton and around 6 layers of woven interfacing at one go!! Howzzaat! 

 And out of excitement, I made these cute mini pouches today. 

 Two of the pouches are zipper tissue pouches and one coin pouch. 

You can find the mini zipper tissue pouch pattern HERE or go the Pattern Category in my blog. It's always fun to make things with cute and pretty fabrics, right?

Mickey Mouse Tissue Zipper Pouch 

I guess I made the right decision by ordering the electric cutter. It makes "batching" work so much easier. For me, cutting interfacing is the most tedious job of purse/wallet making. 

This pretty pink fabric was from my scrap bin. Last Friday I cleaned my scrap bins and threw out quite a bit, esp the smallest pieces, like the corner cuts of bags and big pouches I made earlier. I made this coin pouch using the same pattern, but without the tissue holder pieces. 

Floral Pink Card Holder

Sorting out scrap bins always feel like opening a treasure box. My DH always laughs at me, because I always end up keeping most of the scraps again, instead of throwing them out. But how can you throw a pretty fabric like this, right?

These are the Before and After Photo of my interfacing scraps. I sorted out the woven interfacing and still need to sort out the heavy interfacing ones. 

Scraps - Before

For now, I rolled them up according to the projects. Now I have enough interfacings to keep me busy for a couple of weeks. 

Scraps - After 

And here is the picture of my new toy.  

Photo is from google 

How do you do your "batching"? Do share in comments, I'd love to learn. I'm pretty bad with keeping things organized LOL. 

Until then,

Happy Sewing

Linky Party :
Bagmaker Tuesday
Handmade Monday 

and I'm featured in Handmade Monday! Yay!