If you recall, we gave away our one-of-a-kind idk tote bag filled with all kinds of idk goodies at this year’s Kawaii Kon. All you had to do was to make a random comment on our facebook to enter. At the end of the Kon, we picked one person at random and announced the winner on facebook.

The lucky winner was Kellie T! Unfortunately, she left Kawaii Kon before hearing the good news. And then, the next day, she left Hawaii to return to her home in England. But Kellie’s mom was kind enough to pick up the tote bag from us and ship it to her daughter in England!

Now Kellie can enjoy her idk tote bag in England!

Even Harey Friend, black cat is enjoying his new home. Thanks for sharing these awesome pictures with us, Kellie!

All week Karl and I were brainstorming what to do with the fabric. I decided to try to make another coin purse. But idk. It looked too ordinary, not enough personality.

Then I happened to see a magazine on softies at Borders (sad Borders is closing) and it had all kinds of cuddly creatures in it. The magazine inspired me to create softies with the fabric. So that night I stayed up late and my first one-of-a-kind owl was born.

We’re happily calling them “Pueo Pals: idk when to sleep” because these nocturnes will keep you company no matter how late it is.

Every pueo is hand-crafted with Japanese fabric, muslin, & polyester fill. The white eyes and orange beaks are upcycled from idk t-shirt misprints. Because of the button parts, the pueos are not suitable for young children or pets.

Pueo Pals will be debuting at Made in Hawaii on Aug. 19th, 20th, & 21st.

Thanks Aunty.

Remember the Japanese fabric I ordered from a mainland store a couple weeks ago? Well, here it is accented in two bags that I made. I love the artwork in the fabric. So cute.

Close up on hand-stitching.

I’ve always liked the look of hand-stitching so I try to incorporate it whenever I can. I’ve poked my finger with needle at least 5 times. Ouch!

All our bags are lined with misprinted t-shirts. That makes the inside super soft for your contents – cellphones, iPods, and iPads. Also it’s a great way to reuse our misprints!

coin purse

I tried making a little coin purse to match the bag. It looks cute but it was a pain to make. I hate zippers! The metal zipper broke the needle in my new serger and it took me half an hour of reading the manual to replace it. So no more coin purses (for now).

Bucket Bag

I woke up one morning with an idea to redesign the bags and I came up with this bucket bag. I think it’s cute. But this one came out too small so I had to adjust the measurements a little.

Bucket Bags

The brown one is the bigger one but it’s a little too tall. So I still have to work on it. But I like how it looks. The brown striped fabric with buttons on the bottom is actually from men’s long sleeve shirt I found at a garage sale.

I got it because of the texture. It worked out really nicely on the bag. For some reason, it gives it an Asian look. The handles came from the sleeve. This was really an upcycled project!

Besides bags, I’ve also been working on some other projects too.

iPad sleeve

I made this iPad sleeve for Pattie, Karl’s sister when I found out she got an iPad recently. This one is padded and made with our Rocket Science design (one of Pattie’s favorites).

Also I am working on altering our men’s t-shirts and turning them into casual women’s shirts by cutting off the neck and bottom and taking in the sides. I practiced on one of our older designs.

It’s still in the “experimental” stage. But believe me, these shirts are a lot cooler in the summer time.

Getting hungry, so I’m off to eat sushi! Maybe it won’t be crowded today since it’s a hot dog and hamburger holiday weekend.

Happy 3-day weekend!

Still trying to learn how to use the serger properly. Glad it came with a DVD because the manual is not that helpful.

Next on my mind was to design a sleeve for my new iPad2. The Apple iPad2 cover only protects the front. The back of the iPad is totally exposed to scratches. So I made this cute sleeve that the iPad can easily slide into.

Fits perfectly into my purse without having to worry about my keys damaging the back.

The inside of the sleeve is lined with one of our idk misprints. So it’s recycled material and super soft for the iPad.

This was a quick sewing project and I got to use my new serger. Turned out pretty nice too.

This is what a freshly sewn and serged bag looks like on the inside. We know not everyone is going serge crazy out there  but we’re just bubbling with joy.

And this is what the final product looks like. We’re expecting a shipment of really adorable fabric coming in soon so lots of happy sewing is gonna be happening in our mauka sweat shop. Feel free to critique our work so it’ll help us to keep getting better as we serge ahead.