CHEZVIES

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Last week recap

Last week has been pretty busy for me. I finished a few order, working on a new stuff and also working on my website.

1. This Sunbonnet Sue wallet is now done and delivered to Tamil Nadu. It's been a while since I made Nuno wallet. I was looking at my Nuno wallet WIPS yesterday and I really need to start making more!

Here's the behind the seams video!

2. Trying out a couple more of DIY packaging for the keychains. I got the ideas from Instagram reels and Youtube Shorts. I think I like the one on the right with the part of the keychain exposed in the middle. What do you think?

Check my previous post on how to make the faux leather keychain!

Handmade Keychains

3. I finally bought Eco Tank inkjet printer and also bought HTV paper. Now I can make my own Iron on label and also do personalization for wallet. Here's the first one! I kinda like this result.

I was thinking to buy Cricut but it's a bit too high for my budget right now. This Epson printer works perfectly for me for now. Can't wait to do more personalization!

Personalized Family Passport Wallet

4. Sending out a few fabrics orders too!

Hand woven shot cotton fabrics

Floral Hand Block Print Fabrics

More block printed fabrics

5. A few random stuff!

Don't throw the selvage, use it as ribbon substitute for hanging tag! I kind a love it :)

Trying out new Indonesian Caramel Cake recipe I saw on Instagram! It turned out well and hubby loved it!

Had a meeting with Indonesian ambassador when she visited my city. She wanted to meet a few Indonesian who lives here (there are only 3 of us!!) and received lovely souvenirs from Indonesia! We had a lovely dinner and catching up on several news and issues. I am feeling very grateful.

That's all for today, thank you so much for stopping by!

Have a nice day,

Elvira

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Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Crafting Faux Leather Keychains: Simple & Fun Tutorial!

Green embroidered trim keychain

Hello,

I've been a little bit under the weather in the past week. February weather is chilly and dry in here. This is the time when you feel warm and cold at the same time!

I made a few keychains for orders a few weeks ago and took photos and videos as I go along. So this time let's learn making keychain using faux leather!

If you're in India, you can purchase high quality faux leather from furnishing shop. There a few online too but in local shop, you might be able to purchase their sample pieces at a reduced price.

Materials:

- Faux Leather 2" x 12"

- Embroidered lace 1" x 12"

- Key fob - 1" wide

- Pliers

- Fabric glue (optional)

- Size 16 needle

- Teflon foot

Let's start:

1. Cut the faux leather and lace according to the measurement mentioned above. For keychain I would recommend a high grade sofa leather, because it's more durable! I have tried using cheaper one and not happy with the result.

2. Mark and draw a line at the center of the faux leather. Then fold the edges to the center and pin using wonder clips. DO NOT use pin. You can use alligator hair pins or paper clips too.

3. Using a teflon foot, sew along the edges of the faux leather with 1/8" seam allowance from the center.

It should look like this when finished and the width should be 1" wide.

4. Now carefully place the embroidered lace in the sewn faux leather panel. The lace should be placed on the side where the raw edges are sewn. Secure with wonder clips and top stitch carefully along the sides.

The front side

The back side should look like this.

5. Put the short end together and sew with seam allowance of 1/8". Back stitch at the beginning and end. Then apply fabric glue (optional). I like to use the glue to add additional strength and it also work great to prevent the lace edge from reveling.

6. Install the key fob carefully and use key fob pliers to finish it. If you don't have key fob pliers, you can use any wide mouth pliers and cover the key fob with thickish fabric (flannel or scrap batting worked best!). I have key fob pliers but the rubber came off :D.

Yay! Your keychain now is done and ready to use.

Here are some keychains I recently made! They look so fancy, right? These keychains are available in my WEBSITE as well as in my ETSY SHOP.

Faux leather keychain with embroidered lace

You can watch the short video tutorial on my YouTube Channel below:

I hope you enjoy the tutorial, until next time - Happy Crafting!

Elvira

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Sunday, February 9, 2025

A Few Passport Wallets

Disney Passport Wallet

I just finished making this the cute Mickey Mouse family passport wallet. It's been on my WIP boxes for months waiting to be sewn and finally it's now ready and listed in the shop! The fabric is licensed Disney fabric I bought from my trip to Japan a couple of years ago. I bought a few Disney fabrics and my regret is I only bought half yard each! LOL. Come to think of it, I think I better start cutting and making something with those fabrics!

Cute Family Travel Wallet

BUY THE PATTERN

I am trying to building my ready-to-ship stocks in the shop, especially for bigger and more complicated projects. I cut and prepped so many wallets and keep them in separate bins. And when I am done with my custom orders, I pick up one project and finish it.

When I'm working on a custom order, I usually cut a few more of the same project. Sometimes, I cut 2 or even a dozen more, depending on how complex the project is. By cutting out extra projects, I will always have ready-to-sew projects available to quickly sew when I don't have a custom order.

Making wallets is time-consuming. However, if I prepare several projects at once, I can save a lot of time, energy, and money. I use a sublimation heat press to iron the interfacing, which makes preparing multiple projects efficient and practical. Cutting fabrics, interfacing, and ironing is sometimes a full-day job. My heat press was definitely worth the investment!

Here are a few passport wallets I made recently:

Musical theme passport holder I recently sent to Canada. I hope it will reach in good time. I am worried because of Canada Postal service frequently have disruption.

Musical theme family passport wallet

Lots of space for all travel documents

MORE FAMILY PASSPORTS HOLDER

These Safari Wallets was order from a friend here in India. She wanted to gift them to her son and her friend who is a travel buff! She chose the same fabrics but with different combo. I still have enough fabric to make more wallets, so I put them up for custom order in the shop now.

Travel Passport Wallets

Spacious Travel Wallet

MORE SAFARI TRAVEL WALLETS

The Safari Passport Wallet is perfect for solo travelers. It's compact and can hold a lot of stuff. I personally love this when I travel solo. It has a lot of space for passports, cards, money, ID card, pen holder, and extra spaces for other travel documents.

That's all for today, thank you for stopping by!

Happy Sunday,

Elvira

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Here's the link to the patterns.

Use coupon CVG 20 to get 20% OFF

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

So many pouches

Trapeze Zipper Pouches

This week is all about pouches! Not your regular zipper pouches but the FUN nested pouches, the kind that you cannot make just one. At least for me!

It's been a while since I make this trapeze zipper pouches. I usually make only one size, but this time I made more.

First is the black and white set, it was a custom order and I decided to make 2 full set. The customer asked for only 3 sizes. For the whole 4 sets, I only need 1/3 yard of each exterior fabric, lining fabric, interfacing and batting. I used cotton batting here and of course zipper of your choice. I used metal zipper to give a rustic look.

Trapeze Zipper Pouch

Then I decided to make another set in this pretty leaf fabric. It's a digital cotton fabric I got from local shop a few months ago. I only bought 1 yard, maybe I will ask them if they still have a few yards in stock. I really love it.

Trapeze Pouch

DOWNLOAD THE PATTERN

I really like using these trapeze zipper pouches to store things like pencils, crochet hooks, reading glasses, and wrist watches. I think they’re super versatile and you can do so much with them. As much as I love my bags, I've also made them as gifts for friends and family. If you're looking for a quick and easy sewing project, I highly recommend making these. The pattern includes 2 video tutorials for making quilted pouch and faux leather pouch.

And look, I got new heat transfer label!! I've been looking for this kind of label. You can find all sorts of fancy labels, even in small quantities these days. Sometimes they’re expensive, but if you’re like me, then anything is better than nothing! I ordered some multicolor ones and I think I'll get black and white later on. They stick great, and all I have to do is iron them. A decade ago I have to order from Indonesia for my labels in a small quantity. I even tried making my own label like in HERE and HERE (this is like 15 years ago!!)

New Label!! What do you think?

These handmade pouches are now available in my Etsy Shop and also my Webshop.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Happy Sewing!

Elvira

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Saturday, February 1, 2025

Quilted pencil pouches and more

Custom made quilted pencil bags

Finally these pencil pouches are done and delivered! I love to gift handmade stuff to family and friends. Few weeks ago I gifted a quilted pencil pouch to my friend's daughter and she called up a few days later placing order for 5 pencil pouches. Apparently her daughter's friends wanted one too. Alhamdulillah!

She leaves it up to me for the fabric choice, so I went ahead and made 7 pouches. Actually I started with 8 pouches but I cut one a little but wonky so I cut and made a small coin pouch with it!

These pencil cases measured about 8" W x 4" H. It's perfect size for pencils and other stuff too, like crochet hooks and spectacles! It's multi purpose. It's fun and easy projects to make. I made a work flow video HERE when I was making the previous pencil pouches.

To make this pencil quilted pouch, here's what you need:

Exterior fabric - 9" x 5" - cut 2

Lining Fabric - 8.5" x 4.5" - cut 2

Batting - 9" x 5" - cut 2

Lightweight fusible interfacing 9" x 5" (only if you are using lightweight fabrics- optional)

9" long all purpose (size 3) zipper.

If you want to make Non quilted version, you can skip the batting and use all purpose fusible woven interfacing instead.

For the construction, please refer to THIS VIDEO of making coin purse. Well, quilted pouch takes a little bit of time to make but I find the result is better.

Quilted Zipper Pouches

I will put these zipper pouches in my Website as well as Etsy for custom order. These pouches make a great birthday party favors too, don't you think?