Hand Stitch Practice

Hello, Fili here :)

I had a little problem with my sewing machine a few days ago: the thread was a little loose every time I sewed thick fabrics. I checked the sewing machine parts, cleaned it, changed the needle but the problem was still there. Probably it's because my sewing machine is already very old. After several times failed to top stitch a bias binding, I thought it's time to give it a rest and do a hand stitch instead. I still haven't mastered the technique to create a neat and flawless hand stitch, not to mention it takes me hours (two to four hours!) to do a hand stitch.

And this is the result of my hand stitch:

It looks better than before, isn't it? The valley and hill weren't as rough as before (see my previous hand stitch) and I must practice sewing faster.


That's it, see you later!

Fili&Lino

More Q&A with Fili&Lino

We got some questions from our latest instagram giveaway, and now we're trying to answer all the questions!

1. Are you going to have a tutorial on how to make your plushies/dolls?

Not at the moment. We have a huge list of custom order and Fili isn't really keen on having another plushies in her room.

2. What about your eito song fabric, have you made something from it?

So far only a three panel wallet.

3. How long does it takes for the trial and error before you launched your new model/products?

Depends on the product. Usually within hours for small products (pouches etc), 1-3 days for totes, and more than that for rucksack/backpack. The learning process itself is not stopping there. Usually every time we make the same product, we keep on learning something new on how to make the product much better and efficient.

4. If you find a model that you like somewhere, how do you figure the pattern? Do you buy it and open it?

Please bear in mind that we will never buy someone's product and open it to learn how to make it. Nope. Never. What we do is we just try to figure it out without even touch the model. If we found some model that we like from books or pinterest, we just try figure it ourselves. If we stuck, we try to find the tutorial somewhere online (google is our best friend, and so does pinterest). If we couldn't then we just think, do trial error. Besides, if you've been making bags/wallet/pouches for years, you'll learn that the basic are pretty similar, it's just the small modification here and there that makes it different.

5. What's your flagship product?

Not sure. The recycle? Wallet? Lunch bag? Probably recycle.

6. What makes you different from other crafters out there?

Hmm, we think we're pretty similar with other crafters: we do this because we like it. But we have special interest on the pattern and colours of the fabric. The tone, mix and matching, we put a lot of effort on that area. We are also very strict on deciding what kind of fabric that we're going to buy. We aim to have a more unique pattern. That's why it's pretty hard to find shabby chic/flower fabrics in our products. Probably something fun, quirky sometimes, but not too flashy or too much? We already tried printing our own fabric and the response is pretty good. Hopefully we can have more original print fabric in the near future.

Hope this answers! Feel free to drop any questions on our instagram, facebook, e-mail, and twitter!

Fili&Lino