tutorial: bootleg gumdrop pillow

i've been sweating this pillow for a long time, but i could never figure out how to make it. i surfed all over the internet for the bootleg version. i even borrowed amy butler's books from the library, but i couldn't find the right pattern for this pillow. just when i was about to give in and buy the pattern for the pillow...which only cost $11.99 anyway, i found a DIY tutorial for a "Moroccan pouf" online. i think it's kinda funny that it doesn't mention Amy Butler at all, when it's almost exactly her pattern, just a couple inches different in size.

When i saw it, it looked so similar to Amy Butler's pouf, that I asked G to reverse engineer and figure out how to change the free bootleg pattern to be more the right size of the amy butler version. that way it looks even more like the original one that i liked in the first place.

BTW, i did support amy butler herself by buying her fabric. a lot of the babys room is going to be done using her fabrics. but the reason i didn't want to buy the pattern is both me & G don't like paying money for ideas. Ideas should be free and we should share them freely!

Here is our process step by step.

First, cut out 8 pieces of fabric in this shape. The design we chose had some regular features, so we tried to make each piece identical. we could have been a little more random, but I wanted the uniform look.

Sew them together like this in pairs, also sew the diagonal edges together but not all the way to leave space to stuff it later. Then sew the pairs together until you have the outer casing of the pillow.

See?

Then start stuffing with whatever kind of stuffing you got. I used polyester fiberfil, although amy butler suggests using some natural stuffing that would cost $100 just for the filling!

It's a convenient time capsule too. We're going to let our kids open it when they turn 21. So we also put in a bottle of gin...

...a Bruce Lee DVD in honor of their dad's favorite guy...

...and a Justin Timberlake bobblehead given to me by Auntie kay.

Next, make a cover for that hole. It could be any shape, we chose something like an octagon.

We're going to make another one for the nursery.

Yuri

Before my travel to the Pacifics, G and I embarked on a new project together. We hand painted Yuri Kochiyama in her younger days. If you don't know who Yuri is, she became a civil rights activist in the 60's. She and her husband Bill were in the internment camps in WWII, and later got active with the Harlem Parents Committee, and later Malcolm X died as she cradled his head. She is almost 90 years old and still active, writing letters to political prisoners.

She is the most prominent Asian American civil rights activist ever. The style of the painting is that we didn't use any brushes - it's all made by dipping our hands in paint and putting it on the canvas. We wanted to ask other friends to participate by putting their hands on the painting too because it's a tribute - in the same way her hands laid the foundation for our work, our hands can honor her contributions.

We were partly inspired by the work of modern american artist,Chuck Close, who recreated photos with paint, by concentrating on tiny pieces - one dot at a time. But instead of using fingertips, we used our whole hands.

But most of all, it means a lot to us because me & G met when we were at UMass. Chuck Close used to teach there. The Asian American center there is called the Yuri Kochiyama Cultural Center. I think most of us who put our hands on the painting, we learned who Yuri was when we were in college, when we developed our Asian American political identity. It all comes together, and this project was the perfect thing for us to do together!

With me & G as the lead artists, we've had contributions from: VyVy Trinh, Theresa Vu, Chengyang Lor, Mike Keo, Wameng Lor, Theresa Hwang, Sophea Khem, Eugene Shih, Chun Fai Chan, Chintra Pich, Lyna Sun, Christophe Lim, Pywat Tan, Mealear Tan, and Morodoc Tan.

On May 19, Yuri turns 88 years old: that's the day we bring this project to a close.

diy menu

this is another project from a while back.

G and I work as creative co-directors for my brothers thai restaurant. last year, we repainted the whole interior with the help of my cousin kunthea in one night using three colors. customers who came in friday or saturday, then came back in on monday were shocked! but we forgot to take pictures of how bad it looked before we painted!

so anyway, this post isn't about that, it's about a more recent project: the menus.

my brother soden who is the owner of the restaurant was going to order new menus because his old ones were so shitty. but it costed like $700 for 25 menus! i thought i heard it wrong, but i confirmed with him that this is actually the cost! so being the frugal person i am, i volunteered the tek-li factory to produce new menus - and he would only have to pay for materials. no labor, what a deal!

I knew I wanted to work with bamboo. it has that raw organic feeling that them folks like. That's just the demographics of our customers.

we found some bamboo place mats, and used them as covers for the menus. but the place mats were too floppy, so i went to broadleaf studios, owned by theresa and sophea for some advice. When I got there, I met with both consultants. They helped solidify a concept. Not only did they helped find a solution to make the place mats stiff by using chipboard, but also recommended using photo corners so that the menu could be easily updated. Thanks Theresa and Sophea for all your help!!

Even though most of the materials were inexpensive, i did not cut corners on paper. I bought exotic paper from the Paper Source for the inside covers. I used different papers so that customers could feel that they're handmade and not all the same.

Giles did the most important piece: he wrote the introduction and rewrote the menu, and formatted it all.

it took a really long time to get them done. but we made 40 menus for less than $300. Our customers thought they were dope! Some even wanted to keep the menu after placing an order so that they can take time to read through. It's good to know that our hard work was appreciated.

DIY dress to apron

one really DIY project i like to do is buying a cheap dress with an interesting pattern and turning it into an apron. funky aprons at anthropologie cost about $30! so why not buy a dress from the clearance rack at forever 21 for $7 and just cut it up?

anthrolopolgie's apron mostly just looks like a cut up dress anyway. they want it to look like it's recycled, but you don't pay a recycled price! all their stuff has that look - as though it's repurposed stuff you find in a thrift shop...which makes it real easy for me to rip off their ideas! LOL!

i think i made this one about a year ago, but iwas going through my old photos and found this - and i wanted to share because i think my model is cute.

Preston Bailey fo cheap!

Happy Holiday everyone!

as a kid, my refugee family never had a real christmas tree during the season. we only had a dinky fake one, and i always dreamed of having a lavish beautiful real tree in my home with ornaments and lights and the wonderful fresh scent all through the house.

but the grinch named G never had a real tree either, and he STILL doesn't want one! he says he doesn't agree with killing a living thing for decoration. last year i disagreed, but this year, i just used it as an opportunity to be creative!

now you all know i like to window shop, but even more i like to sidewalk shop! that means i walk around the neighborhood for old furniture people have thrown away, and that i can freshen up and use again. this time, me and the Grinch walked around the trees in back of our building and picked up a bunch of fallen branches and brought them home.

we spray painted them white, cut them in the appropriate places, and then put them in a tall vase that we used as decoration at our wedding. i cut up some wack garland and turned them into cute little ornaments - AND i put a bird in her nest on one of the branches, because birds have been the theme this year!

i was going after a whimsical look like Preston Bailey - and the result is our own "found" holiday tree that cost us the price of just one spray paint can. AND grinchy G didn't complain about killing a living thing. i'm happy we went through this trouble, because it makes it more special than if we just bought a tree from home depot. we get to have the holiday spirit, but with our own flava!

Rockin' & Crochetin'

In a week or so This weekend, my BFF Kay is going to be giving gave birth to her first child! So last month, her girlfriends threw her a shower, but since she lives in LA, I wasn't able to attend.

But I knew I wanted to make her and her baby something as a keepsake, so I took a month to crochet a present for the little one.


I used organic cotton yarn, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't too heavy since she lives on the west coast. and since i wanted the best of the best, i went to the bead store and picked up real pearls! I even looked up the average size of a newborn baby's head and feet to make sure what I crocheted wasn't going to be too big or too small.

After the finished product, i still couldn't believe they would actually fit because they look like the size of doll's clothes!

in addition to the bib, hat, and ballet slippers, i made a pair of mary jane booties too:


i also wanted to give something to the grown ups at the party too. the original idea was to wrap empty toilet paper rolls in pretty paper and put candy inside. cute right? But G brought up that the shower guests are from California and might get grossed out knowing where their party favors had been! so i decided to make a CD full of awesome music instead.

with G's help, i came up with a playlist that I hope is enjoyable for a baby, but I also hope is fun for the parents! Making the CDs and their cases was pretty intense, but it was really worth it because i was so pleased with how they looked when they were done!

here's me hard at work:


and here's the finished product - "Rockin' the Nursery"



The songs on the CD are:

1. The Most Beautiful girl in the World- Prince
2. Playground- Another Bad Creation
3. If you can't say love- Visionaries
4. ABC- Jackson 5
5. Banana Panakes- Jack Johnson
6. Girls just wanna have fun- Cindy Lauper
7. 5 on a joyride- Cody Chestnutt
8. Say After me- Bic Runga
9. Buddy Holly- Weezer
10. Jump-van halen
11. The Sun-Ghostface Killah
12. 99 red balloons-Nena
13. Sweet Caroline- Neil Diamond
14. Day Dream Believer- The Monkees
15. Angers- Robbie Williams
16. Little Star- Madonna