Sewing patterns online

I’ve been receiving a lot of questions on where to buy patterns here in Manila/Philippines.  Unfortunately, there really aren’t any stores/shops that carry the actual paper patterns (which are so much fun and so exciting to open).

A good alternative though if you’re keen on getting new designs is to purchase online through Sewingpatterns.com.  You just have to create a user name and log-in and you can purchase using your credit card.  My experience has been pretty good (no shipping required obviously), although you will need to keep the following things in mind:

1. Make sure you test print that you’re printing to scale.  There will be a test page and you have to make sure that the size you’re printing is accurate or the whole pattern will be totally ruined.
2. You will need to have LOTS of paper and tape on hand and a BIG space to put everything together.  My entire living room floor gets filled up when I’m taping the printed pattern together before cutting it out!  Turn off your electric/ceiling fans (Don’t do what I did and get stuck chasing papers around and having a hell of a time reorganizing them hehehe)
3. Have big envelopes/plastic dividers/clear books on hand.  I organize the patterns I bought in big Manila envelopes for easy reference.
4. For the patterns I’ve downloaded, you can only print each up to 5 times.  This isn’t really a problem though, in fact I could see myself sharing patterns with my friends who sew too.

DIY Ge lai practices (Chinese confinement) in Manila

As the daughter of a pure Chinese mother, my mom expects me to undergo the traditional Chinese “confinement” or “ge lai” post-partum.  This is supposed to speed up your recovery after childbirth and ensure that you don’t feel any untoward effects due to childbirth as you age.  I didn’t follow this to the letter when our first baby was born, but I plan to try to adhere a little more with our second.  My mom underwent this tradition but unfortunately she never learned any practices or recipes from my grandmother (who did this all for her) so I’m sort of winging it or doing it myself and asking advice from my close friends and relatives.

I found some great resources online regarding this practice, but few recipes and information on where where to buy the things I needed such as the tea, Chinese wine/Seravallo wine, herbs, etc.  Luckily a trip to Binondo/Ongpin solved all that!

We headed to Binondo on a Sunday to look for a Chinese drugstore.  Hong Kong Chinese Drugstore along Ongpin was closed but as we were driving around we saw a Chinese drugstore across the fruit stands in Salazar where I was able to buy Chinese herbs for the following types of tea:

1. Seng-hwa-teng tea – to clean out “dirty blood,” should be taken for the first 3 mornings after giving birth.  This cost 40 pesos per pack (1 small pack per day) only.  Instructions for this were to boil in water until the volume is reduced by half.
2. O-tso-tong-sim tea – to be taken from the 4th to the 30th day post-partum as replacement for water.  This cost 1,680 for a month’s supply.  Instructions were just to boil and drink either hot, warm or room temperature but not cold.

I was also looking for native chocolate tablea from La Resurreccion and was hunting around Ongpin near the church for the stall but found out from a tricycle driver that they had moved to a permanent shop in Benavidez.  Sadly, La Resurreccion is closed on Sundays good thing the lady in the neighboring store informed me that I could buy it in Chinese groceries around the area.

Of course, for Chinese groceries I always go to Bee Tin where you can find almost everything you need.  This is where I buy tamarind paste, Malaysian white coffee, etc.  In preparation for meals post giving birth, I bought the following:

1. Seravallo tonic wine – 480 pesos, to be taken after menstrual bleeding stops, estimated on the 14th day post-partum according to the owner of the grocery
2. Black sesame oil – 280 pesos for a big bottle
3. La Resurreccion tablea – Unsweetened is 750 pesos for 100 tablets, sweetened is 700 pesos for 100 pieces of tablea.  Suggest you get the unsweetened and just add sugar to your liking
4. Sibut herbs – 250 pesos for 10 servings (individually packed)

I’m currently in the process of looking for recipes for black/native sesame chicken and other confinement recipes for my DIY confinement.  Any resources/links you can all share with me would be much appreciated.  =)

Links to other super helpful posts on ge lai are as follows:

This Mom’s Life

Chronicles of a Nursing Mom

Smart Parenting Article

Everyday Mommy Diary

Hard water problems in Manila?

We’re beyond excited to move into our new house, but when we last visited, I noticed that the brand new fixtures we installed already had *gasp* water stains.  We asked around and found out that our new neighborhood, although very nice, has hard water.  Sorry, first world problem, I know.  But seriously, hard water brings a lot of problems – build up of residue in pipes, stains on fixtures and shower walls (my pet peeve), not to mention dry skin and buildup on hair (!!!).

My husband tasked the Part Time Homemaker with reading up and finding water filtration systems within Metro Manila.  I kept putting it off thinking that it would be a snap, but finding a water filtration system here is much less common than I thought.  I checked online and there are so many types of systems that are available – in other countries.  Hahaha.  🙂  Anyway, I finally stumbled upon Aqua Add-on Systems Inc, website here and they appear to have a home filtration system that will cure our hard water problems.  They’re scheduled to visit the house tomorrow, will let you all know how it works out!

If any of you know of any other water filtration company/provider, please do let me know.  🙂

Sewing supplies in Manila – South side!

Living in Makati will always be near and dear to my heart but The Part Time Homemaker is soon going to pack her bags and move to the South!  When our little girl came along we decided to buy a house and we are nearly done with the renovations (which of course took much longer than we would’ve liked!)

Although I definitely don’t look forward to paying for toll in SLEX, I can’t wait to see my precious daughter take her first steps in a place with some space for her to run around.  And of course I’m beyond excited to cook in my totally remodeled kitchen.  Yahoo!!!  We had no choice but to put a lot of our wedding gifts (the big appliances, etc) in storage since our flat isn’t big enough for a full set of appliances.  Plus I have a sewing room…well until another baby comes along!  🙂

So anyway, this weekend we found ourselves in Alabang Town Center.  I was happy to see that they’ve done a lot of renovations, with a lot of my favorite restaurants now in the South!  I was on the hunt for bamboo steamers in Metro Department Store since I wanted to make shu mai, and I ran into Carolina’s which had a pretty good selection of sewing and craft supplies.

They had headpieces, beads and buttons in every color:

Carolina’s Metro Alabang Town Center

Beads, necklaces and more headpieces:

 

 

Tassels for whatever purpose you desire:

 

 

Furry accents for make your own feather boas, shiny ribbons, silver and gold chains:

Of course they had their usual selection of fabric too.  Nice to know that I have a place for fabric and supplies that is pretty near even when we finally move.  🙂