About Us

The name YumSumCha Designs

“Let’s go yum some cha,” my husband once said to me many years ago while we were on holiday in Hong Kong. I laughed at his attempt at trying to speak my native language, Cantonese, because he ended up saying a mash up of Cantonese and English instead (basically Chinglish). 

In Cantonese, “yum cha” 飲茶 means “drink tea” and stems from a tradition in Ancient China where teahouses were a common place of rest and conversation. You may also know it as “dim sum” 點心, which means “touch the heart” and refers to the little plates of food served with tea. In English, yum cha and dim sum are used interchangeably but growing up in Australia, it’s always been “yum cha” for me. 

As tea was exported from China to the world for the first time, different parts of the world adapted their own word for it depending on its trade route. If tea came by land they likely adopted the pronunciation “cha” they used in Southern China, for example, in Japanese tea is called “Ocha”お茶 and in Hindi it’s called “chai”. If tea came by sea, it was mostly exported from the Fujian province where they called it tê, which became the root for “thee” in Dutch and “tea” in English. Beyond language, tea (or in this case cha) has also become a symbol of sharing and connection in many cultures, particularly Asian. 

YumSumCha Designs means recognizing and sharing the rich history, culture, and traditions of Asia in a way that’s creative and playful for kids and kids at heart.

Hi, I'm Sam

I'm the founder, maker, and designer of everything YumSumCha Designs.

In a past life, I was a globe-trotting event manager and then training project manager for a tech company. Sewing was one of my many creative hobbies that let me express my love of art, anime, and colour. Over time, the emotional load of being a working mum trying to survive in a suppressive work environment got to me and I burnt out.

I turned to sewing as a way to help me feel like myself again and wanted to sew more felt food for my son's play kitchen. Growing up as an Australian-born Chinese and immersed in the diverse multi-cultural communities of Sydney, I love cooking and eating Asian food from Cantonese cuisine to Korean, and Malaysian. So I felt really frustrated that there were so many sewing patterns for western felt food but very few for Asian.

I started YumSumCha Designs to show kids and crafters that Asian (felt) food is so much more than just dumplings and sushi.

Because representation matters.

Sam