Applelulu Crafts アップルル

Hello everyone! It’s been so long since I last posted. Here’s a photo of a craft shop I stumbled upon while climbing Yoshinoyama in Japan this year. This quaint little shop sells vegetable-dyed sashiko threads! It was closed, but it reminded me of my little dream for Applelulu Crafts—a small, humble shop, unique and crafted from things I love.

That’s also why I decided to put Applelulu on hiatus. I hadn’t officially announced it until now, though some of you knew if you checked in about workshops. Running Applelulu was such a joy, but as things changed after the pandemic, it became harder to avoid financially driven decisions.

While Applelulu was profitable, it wasn’t set up just for profit. I wanted to run it with passion and authenticity, which isn’t always business-savvy. I could have chosen cheaper materials, bigger classes, or offered more trendy projects to attract more customers—but that wasn’t what I wanted Applelulu to be. I worked long hours to make up for my stubbornness, but there are only so many hours in a day.

Eventually, I had to choose: make it commercially sustainable or take a break. After much thought, I chose the latter, and my work-life balance is much better now.

Do I miss Applelulu Crafts? Absolutely. Do I regret the decision? Not really. I believe the right time will come to bring it back exactly as I envisioned it. And I hope some of you will remember and return. For now, I’ll craft in my free time and keep dreaming of a small, quaint shop to call my own one day—a shop where creativity and heart come first.

Hi everyone! How have you been? 🥰 I have been enjoying my personal craft projects and one of them is this Rosewood Cardigan pattern by 🧶

Having crochet mostly amigurumis, it was tempting to attempt this pattern as it needed nothing more than single crochet stitches (which make up a big part of amigurumi making).

So after seeking the wonderful advice of Zakka Craft Shop, I decided on the Sheepjes Soft Fun Denim cotton acrylic blend yarn in 514 rood colour. Surinaa was super nice, super kind and super helpful in giving me recommendations, advice, tips and tricks in my first ever crochet cardigan project.

Fast forward 10 months of very slow progress, starting and stopping, moments of wanting to give up on such a slow make, 14 skeins of yarn, having to accept some missed stitches, blocking to even out tension and more, I finally finished this cardigan last night and can proudly say that I crochet this wearable myself 🤣

I deliberately made it larger for a relaxed, slouchy look. It isn’t too hot to wear and just warm enough for a cold air-conditioned room in sunny Singapore. Super proud that I survived this longest craft project of mine. 😅 Thank you everyone who has been cheering me on in this. You know who you are ❤️

Well, let’s continue this spirit of trying out new things, overcoming new challenges and delighting in the crafts that we enjoy and love so much. God bless you!

Love,
Jasmine 🍎❤️



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Good morning everyone! How have you been? ☺️ We hope you’ve been well and enjoying your crafts. We’re still on our extended break and doing mostly sashiko and crochet during our free time. Yesterday, a very pleasant surprise arrived in our mail from Japan! We won the lottery prize awarded to only 20 people around the world from the “Stitch Stitch Sashiko Exhibition” event organised by ! 😍 It was a full set of their latest sashiko product—Sashiko Lamé, cotton threads intertwined with metallic threads. The shimmery, pastel colours are so so pretty! 🤩 We haven’t tried them before so we must consider carefully which project to use these precious threads on 🤔 We use a lot of sashiko products and they are available locally at (the Sashiko Lamé threads too). Once again, thank you for the lovely gift. We will continue to enjoy sashiko with your delightful products. 🍎❤️



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Thank you very much for your love and support for the first half of 2023! ☺️ Especially as we venture into new crafting areas like sashiko and simple apparels. Things are more slow moving in our studio these days with many travelling. So from July onwards, we’ll also be taking a break from conducting craft workshops. We’ll still continue to post updates on our personal craft journeys and projects here 😉 In the upcoming weeks, we’ll be doing an inventory stock take of our fabrics, craft materials and bag sewing notions etc. We’ll take this opportunity to reduce clutter and destash some of our craft materials at greatly discounted prices. So stay tuned for our updates! 🍎♥️



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We'll be running one last Sensei 先生 Bag Workshop this June holidays on 22 Jun, Thu, 9am - 5pm. If you're keen to join us, do message us. Last month, we crafted another 2 beautiful Sensei Bags with Maggie and Grace. Maggie's version is a lovely, vintage looking floral print with dark brown accessories, while Grace's Shiba Inu version is super kawaii and goes really well with the light brown accessories. Both of them worked really hard and fast and finished way ahead of time. Kudos to both of them! Please enjoy using your very own handcrafted bag. For more details on this confident intermediate bag workshop, check out https://bit.ly/senseibag. 🍎❤️



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Want to get a taste of how sewing your own apparel feels like? ☺️ If you already know how to operate a sewing machine, you can join one of our simple Japanese tops sewing workshops to whip up a top for yourself. No drafting or apparel making experience is required! Earlier this week, we ran a Tenugui Shikakui 手ぬぐい四角衣 workshop for Stella and Seow Ling. They brought their own fabrics and together, we measured, cut, overlocked and sewn up two lovely tops together. Both of them had lots of fun and told us that they'll be replicating the make again with their favourite fabrics at home 🥰 We'll be running another class on 6 Jun, Tue morning. Drop us a message if you're keen to join us. Details here: https://bit.ly/TenuguiShikakuiworkshop 🍎❤️



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Last year, .sg collaborated with us to craft our Day Umbrella 日傘 in one of their lovely Liberty fabrics--Marina Swim in blue. This water resistant Liberty fabric is made of recycled polyester and is great for making beach wear. The print and material works for a beautiful handcrafted umbrella too! If you're keen to craft our normal or foldable day umbrella in Liberty fabrics from Fabricity, we have some good news to share. Upon registration, you'll receive a discount code from Fabricity to enjoy 10% off your next fabric purchase with them. To find out more about our day umbrella workshops, check out details here: https://bit.ly/appleluludayumbrellas 🍎❤️



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We just wrapped up our first Little Pig 子豚 Amigurumi by Hainchain crochet workshop last month! In this 3-session series, we hosted Maggie and Sook Ping who are both newbies to crochet. We first started from basics like how to hold the hook, crochet magic ring and more. Slowly, we worked from the body to the arms, ears and finally the snout with weekly homework for them to practise more. During the last session, we guided both of them on how to find the right positions to sew each body part, slowly assembling their very first amigurumi. Kudos to the two ladies for their patience and hard work! ☺️ We could see them improving session upon session and they are already on to crafting their next Little Pig! For more details on this beginner-friendly workshop, please check out bit.ly/littlepigamigurumibyhainchan. Drop us a message if you wish to enquire for available class dates. 🍎❤️



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Many of our crafters are intrigued by our Dogu 道具 Tool Pouches when they see us using them during fabric cutting or crochet sessions. Yes, you can learn to craft this pouch with us in our workshops too! This confident intermediate sewing project has some difficult steps and require hand sewing to complete the bias binding of the base seams. But the completed pouch is very kawaii and useful to store all kinds of your crafting tools. Fafa and Juliah joined us for a workshop some time ago. Check out their journey of stitching up their own Dogu Tool Pouch and their very pretty completed pouches. For more details on this workshop, check out https://bit.ly/dogutoolpouch. Simply drop us a message to enquire for available workshop dates 🍎❤️



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Our new Drawstring Pocket Tote Bag, Hikihimo Tote 引きひも is a beautiful medium sized tote bag with a drawstring closure for its main body, accompanied by a total of 7 lovely, practical pocket compartments. Surrounding the main drawstring compartment are 4 deep slip exterior pockets, each pair separated by a metal snap. Check out this beautiful black number freshly crafted by Ellouise! Dip into our wide range of chic or cute Japanese fabrics to craft a Hikihimo Tote 引きひも that you'll call your own; matching it with a drawstring colour of your choice. We'll be running this workshop again on 23 Jun, Fri. For more details, check out https://bit.ly/hikihimobag. To register or enquire, simply drop us a message for a chat! 🍎❤️



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We've been having a lot more request for amigurumi and pouch crochet workshops this year! Thank you for your support and fun we had together in the classes 🥰 Here's a throwback to a very lovely workshop series for Tira the Cat by Hainchan that we had with Foong, Lily and Shi Ling. Over 4 sessions, we taught them the basic stitches of amigurumi crochet, reviewed their weekly homework with them, stitched up the body parts as well as embroidered and painted the cute little cat faces with them. Check out the process of their crochet journey with us and their kawaii Tira the Cats! For more details on this workshop, check out https://bit.ly/tirathecat. If you already know how to crochet, you can do the same project with more homework and less session with us. Just drop us a message for a chat! 🍎❤️



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Many of you have been asking us when we'll start the Day Umbrella workshops again. Good news is the umbrella accessories are retailing again in Japan in anticipation of summer! And besides the normal Day Umbrella 日傘 workshop, we'll be introducing a second and new Foldable Day Umbrella 折りたたみ日傘 workshop 😆 The foldable version is basically a dual-fold version of the original umbrella. It is not the smallest foldable umbrella but it is compact enough at a folded 33cm length to fit in your regular-sized bag. Due to the handmade process, it is also not an automatic folding mechanism but a manual one. We had a lot of fun crafting ours in the Kokka San-X Sumikko Gurashi Plaid Nylon Taffeta Khaki. If you are keen to craft either the normal or foldable day umbrellas in our confident intermediate workshops, you can start pre-ordering your umbrella accessories and Nylon Taffeta fabrics from today onwards. Shipping from Japan will take about 2 weeks so the workshops will begin running from late May into June. For more details, check out https://bit.ly/appleluludayumbrellas. To pre-order your umbrella parts and register for your workshop, drop us a message today! Hope you like our new project 🍎❤️



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