What I bought
Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to show you everything I bought in China, just the crafty stuff :)
Here are, first of all, the fabrics that were mentioned in the previous post:
Embroidered black silk for a skirt, gold silk for a dress, wool-cashmere mix for a dress and linen for a skirt (and now that I've listed them here, I'll actually have to do them).
In general, China is not the best country for a crafter looking for supplies to go to. There certainly are plenty of crafted objects to buy, but not a lot when it comes to the supply side. I did get a glimpse of a general craft store and visited a yarn store, both in Shanghai (but didn't buy anything as all were Italian yarns and most were what I could get from shops here). The cloth market really is the only place that I was thrilled with. The lack of craftiness is evident also in the book stores. Even the places with several large floors only had a shelve or two of craft books. Most of those were knitting books which I didn't get as a) they were all in Chinese, b) the patterns were not that great and c) they were so similar to what we get in the magazines and books over here. I almost got a book with crochet patterns (again, not Asian), but then decided not to as I really don't have the time to do any crochet. However, despite all of this, I did get home with four books in my bag:
The DIY Chinese knots book looks great. It's all in Chinese, but it has step-by-step pictures on how to make the knots.
The small Homespun Pleasures on the lower right hand side has small and cute, mainly western ispired designs, but it did have a few Asian things in it too, like these Chinese blouse key pouches. And the big plus with this book was that it had both Chinese and English instructions.
The Embroidery Patterns book on the left has plenty of patterns featuring western style cottages and villages, but also has some Chinese looking landscapes, like this one:
My absolute favourite is the one on top. It has the cutest ever things to do for a child. It has dresses (like the one on the cover) and other pieces of clothing, toys and pouches for storing things and these adorable finger puppets:
Again, it's all in Chinese, but it has the patterns and step-by-step photographs, so in theory it would be possible to make things from it. And I think I will, even if I don't yet have a child to make them to :)
Oh, and the individual pages were photographed on top of our "new" chest of drawers (remember this). It was a lot of work, but we love it now:
Here are, first of all, the fabrics that were mentioned in the previous post:
Embroidered black silk for a skirt, gold silk for a dress, wool-cashmere mix for a dress and linen for a skirt (and now that I've listed them here, I'll actually have to do them).
In general, China is not the best country for a crafter looking for supplies to go to. There certainly are plenty of crafted objects to buy, but not a lot when it comes to the supply side. I did get a glimpse of a general craft store and visited a yarn store, both in Shanghai (but didn't buy anything as all were Italian yarns and most were what I could get from shops here). The cloth market really is the only place that I was thrilled with. The lack of craftiness is evident also in the book stores. Even the places with several large floors only had a shelve or two of craft books. Most of those were knitting books which I didn't get as a) they were all in Chinese, b) the patterns were not that great and c) they were so similar to what we get in the magazines and books over here. I almost got a book with crochet patterns (again, not Asian), but then decided not to as I really don't have the time to do any crochet. However, despite all of this, I did get home with four books in my bag:
The DIY Chinese knots book looks great. It's all in Chinese, but it has step-by-step pictures on how to make the knots.
The small Homespun Pleasures on the lower right hand side has small and cute, mainly western ispired designs, but it did have a few Asian things in it too, like these Chinese blouse key pouches. And the big plus with this book was that it had both Chinese and English instructions.
The Embroidery Patterns book on the left has plenty of patterns featuring western style cottages and villages, but also has some Chinese looking landscapes, like this one:
My absolute favourite is the one on top. It has the cutest ever things to do for a child. It has dresses (like the one on the cover) and other pieces of clothing, toys and pouches for storing things and these adorable finger puppets:
Again, it's all in Chinese, but it has the patterns and step-by-step photographs, so in theory it would be possible to make things from it. And I think I will, even if I don't yet have a child to make them to :)
Oh, and the individual pages were photographed on top of our "new" chest of drawers (remember this). It was a lot of work, but we love it now:
posted by Toukan äiti at 1:13 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, you got some great stuff, Lina! I missed that you had posted on Monday so I'm sorry I didn't comment on your fantastic photos then. They look great!! I'm so glad to hear you had such a fabulous time.
Thank you so much for the postcard, too! It arrived Monday.
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