Heartfelt Thanks

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Well, that was exciting! And nerve wracking. And outrageously inspiring. I’m talking, of course, about my Furoku Membership post. You, my wonderful, wonderful friends, have given me so much to think about, hope for and strive toward. I pored over every comment, teared up anew with every considerate and helpful email, gasped and shook my head in wonder every time someone signed up (!!). Even if I harangued you with thank yous every minute for the next decade, it wouldn’t be enough…

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I spent a good chunk of time setting up and creating furoku #1 last week, which will go out tomorrow. Given that I leapt blindly and headfirst to get this going without a lot of forethought, this first one is going to end up on the lo-tech side of things and I’m researching ways to build the membership site (I’m getting excited about offering video tutorials). Still, I’m pleased with what I was able to cull together in the short time, and I’m determined to make next month’s even better.

I’ll keep the subscribe button active till the end of the day today and will open up membership again some time in the middle of next month when I post the monthly income report. I may change this and have an option to join any time, but my technical know-how is still in its infancy and I have a few things to figure out about tracking and such. How many joined, you may be wondering? For now, I’ll just say: a small yet mighty number. I’ll share exact numbers and other tidbits with the report!

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“Enjoy the little things” — that charming note up at the top is from my Secret Valentine partner, Mirta of Modern Botanics. Her gift embodies everything I adore: neutral colors, graphic elements, linen, a bit of wabi-sabi flair. I am smitten with her hand-stamped linen tea towels and the soothing lavender sachets:

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Thank you for the loveliest of gifts, Mirta! Your message is so on point – it really is about enjoying the little things.

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SVE was one of the inspirations for the membership idea, and it holds a special place in my heart because it was borne out of collaboration. Ute and I accidentally stumbled upon a community of generous women willing to make and ship gifts around the world, to celebrate Valentine’s Day in a non-traditional way. We ended up with 100 participants (I’ve listed them all down below, though I think there may have been some additional folks who joined in later that maybe didn’t get captured in our list?) in 20+ countries. Wow. It was, more than anything, a celebration of creativity and thoughtfulness. Perhaps it’s just my own impression, but a quick glance at what’s popularized on the internet leads me to believe that thoughtfulness is an under-appreciated and precious quality.

Here is the list of SVE participants in total. I’ve included blog URLs and linked the names to instagram accounts where applicable (check out #2015sve for a roundup of in-progress and completed projects). There’s also much to admire on Flickr. What a talented and magnanimous bunch! I know some gifts took longer than others to arrive and Ute and I greatly appreciate everyone’s patience — we really had no idea so many people would participate from across the globe! Let me know if I missed anything, and we hope you all had as much fun as we did! Mark it in your calendar: #2016sve!!

Ailsa C
Alexandra L
Alexandra R moonstitches.typepad.com
Alison B
Amanda S
Amy L izamonky.blogspot.com
Angela S sewsnippet.wordpress.com
Ann B fretnotyourself.blogspot.com
Anna K
Anne M amaskellantics.com
Anneke C annekecaramin.com
Annette H
Annie B
Annika F naeh-connection.blogspot.de
Anu S crazyestonian.com/blog
Asmita H elephantinthestudy.wordpress.com
Becca F beccaeff.com
Beccy T
Betsy C
Brienne M briennemoody.typepad.com
Bronwyn T
Carrie S
Catrin K stoffbuero.wordpress.com
Charlotte C
Christiane M
Claudette G
Courtney C chinneus.blogspot.com
Dagny S finallyfinishedcrafts.blogspot.com
Dena W
Denise G dottiedoodle.wordpress.com
Diana R mamma190.blogspot.it
Dolores W achtungkinder.blogspot.co.at
Elle H
Fiona L fionamakes.wordpress.com
Georgina H hausofharridan.wordpress.com
Grace G
Helen P
Holly S
Idoia L
Isabelle R ocnietcompagnie.wordpress.com
Jana S effortlessattention.net
Jana V janavalachovicova.com
Janice H socalsewingmom.blogspot.com
Janine T
Jeannie P jeanniepham.blogspot.com
Jillian L sewunravelled.com
Jing D jingandtonic.blogspot.com
Johanna R
Jule R
Julie Ma
Julie M
Karina R cameoofkarina.blogspot.ca
Kate S thepolkadotroom.wordpress.com
Kathryn S mrsaprilsstorytime.blogspot.ca/
Kathy S
Kc S
Kelley T
Kimberly D coffinwax.tumblr.com
Kristi M sweetkmblogs.blogspot.com
Kylie B
Lara E 1000stoff.de
Leeane B facebook.com/smallshapespottery
Lena G
Lightning McStitch bartacksandsingletrack.blogspot.com
Lisa K paprikapatterns.com
Lucinda P
Maria A Mariakalex.blogspot.de
Maria dMH mycozyco.com
Marisa M thirtynineblog.blogspot.com
Marta S doguincho.blogdpot.com
Maximiliana H
Meagan K howikopp.blogspot.com
Mia M
Miriam W madebymiri.de
Mirta A modernbotanics.com
Molly G lifewithzeke.blogspot.com
Monika M schneidernmeistern.de
Natalie M
Nicole T
Nina A fliegfederfrei.com
Patrícia B pequenomundoa3.blogspot.pt/
Pips S thegirlinateacup.com
Renee W
Rhoda K
Rita V conversasdehermanas.com
Samantha M
Sanae I
Sara S made-by-sara.blogspot.com
Sarah D diyinterrupted.blogspot.com
Sarah Keith V dearlittlewater.blogspot.com
Sarah R Notchesandnotions.blogspot.com
Silvia p fraugoldmanufaktur.blogspot.de
Siobhan L
Steffi G feinverzwirnt.blogspot.de
Tammy G
Teresa B adventuresofagirlfromthenaki.blogspot.co.nz/
Tracey P
Ute S
Valerie S lifeamidstthechaos.wordpress.com
Veronika W tagfuerideen.blogspot.com

A Humble Request + An Experiment

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This idea came to me over the weekend, and it terrified me so much, I knew I had to do it right away or I would lose my nerve. When my instincts pipe up, I listen. And my instincts had lots to say, so be forewarned.

I’ve been thinking about how much I love this blog. Out of the many, many meanderings I’ve taken career-wise — even though relentlessly writing about myself and sharing the things I concoct may not technically be considered a true vocation — it’s what feels most right for me, what brightens my days and keeps me motivated. Creating the content, building a community, improving existing skills and learning new ones. It’s incomparable. I’m convinced it’s a huge reason I became healthy again. Similarly, illustrating and writing books is something I believe I was meant to do. Sewing and photography have been like discovering two children I didn’t know I had. I am surprised by their appearance, it’s still a little awkward, but now I can’t imagine my days without them.

Almost three years ago, I made a pact with M. It was obvious how much I was enjoying this eclectic mix of “hobbies”, and he kept asking me to monetize the blog with ads, sponsors, offering up my services, etc. etc. We are not independently wealthy and his job situation is extremely sporadic as well. His suggestions made me bristle, so we made an agreement that until the end of 2015, I could spend time building my blog and pursuing ways to make a living doing what I love. My way. No ads, no sponsorship for the sake of dollars, no weird SEO or backlinking shenanigans. I don’t have anything against them theoretically, but I don’t like the way the ads look, I’ve only had sponsorship offers from tissue and nail polish companies and I can’t write naturally when thinking about SEO. I was game to offer my services, but then I got stuck on the question, “What kind of services?” At any rate, I wanted to focus on the blog and explore everything that genuinely interested me. I would operate on consistency, quality and trust, I pounded my chest and declared self-righteously. But the crux of the pact was this: If, by the end of 2015, I wasn’t earning a certain amount, I would go find a “real job”. Shortly after we shook on it, I got a book deal, and then the second book deal happened. I was over the moon, and thought I was set.

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But here’s the cold, hard truth: the things I love doing more than anything don’t bring home the bacon. They don’t even bring home bacon bits. At least not yet. I know I’m not very employable in the traditional sense anymore, so I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to think of business ideas, investigating products I could create, learning about textile design, trying to develop a freelance writing/illustration/photography portfolio. All these options require serious time and upfront costs, of which, due to my current commitment to book #2, I am struggling to find. I have every intention of pursuing all these things though.

Uncomfortable details about the cold, hard truth: although publishing two books is an honor beyond anything I could have imagined, would you like to know how much I actually make per book in royalties? A little over $1. I need to sell a tremendous number of books to make a living. And I won’t make a penny until I earn enough to cover the advance payment. For Little Kunoichi, I received $5,000, which is pretty standard for a book advance unless you’re the likes of Stephen King. Not to put too fine a point on it, I received $2500 when I signed the book contract in January 2014, and then received the other half in August of last year two months after I finished everything.

And did you know? To get on the New York Times bestseller list, which then boosts sales, you need to sell roughly 5,000 books in a week (this number is debatable and varies depending on genre, but it’s what I found from my quick research). Though that number is less than I expected, my publisher told me they are hoping that we can sell about 3,000 copies of Little Kunoichi in the first three months. As I understand it, that’s a realistic expectation for my sort of book. I can’t assume that we’ll hit that number, so the bestseller list and covering my advance can feel rather out of reach. As long as I’m being blunt about all of this, I’ve made zero money this year so far. Including all the little odds and ends I did while working on the books, last year I made $9,500. Total. Pre-tax. And almost all of that went right back into book #2 and blog costs. Book #2, by the way, won’t be published until 2016. Plus, if I consider the number of hours I’ve put into the books (and blog), I’m pretty sure I’m clocking in at about 2 cents per hour, if that.

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I don’t want this to be a pity party or come across as woe-is-me, because I wouldn’t trade my current life for anything and I feel so lucky to be doing what I’m doing. I truly think I’m happier and healthier than I’ve ever been. I have the flexibility of spending quality time with my amazing 8-year-old every day and she gets to see a contented mama. If it were up to me, I would willingly continue blogging and creating books for a pittance. I would even pay to do what I’m doing (my husband would point out that I am, in fact, doing just that).

However, I do have a family and responsibilities, and my deadline is approaching. 9 months will fly by. M has been so patient and has been trying his level best not to complain about my inability to make a contribution to the family coffers. I have no aims or even the desire to make gobs of dough and M isn’t expecting that either. We live a very, very simple life. The goal is to at least double last year’s income…perhaps I have a skewed perspective, but it doesn’t seem that outlandish a goal. I have no illusions and know that there has to be trade-offs. As someone who used to make a six-figure salary and ruined my health and damaged relationships as a result, I’m well aware of this. But M’s logic is, “Does it have to be either/or? Make lots of money and be miserable or make no money and be happy? Can’t you find a job that doesn’t stress you out that you like — you don’t have to love your job, right? At what point is living the dream jeopardizing the family?” It’s a fair question, that last one. But I don’t have to answer it yet. I have about 270 days left.

I took inventory of what specifically has kept my interest over the past couple of years and what has drained me:

LOVE AND WANT TO DO
– coming up with ideas
– writing personal stories that I feel will be relevant to others
– creating storytelling packages that include visual elements and words
– variety within structure
– connecting with people in an authentic way, collaborating and creating small but mighty communities
– giving gifts
– learning new skills
– a flexible schedule / being able to work at coffee shops and studios
– being my own boss
– intentional sewing

DON’T LOVE AND DON’T WANT TO DO
– making the same things over and over aka mass production
– putting on airs, pretending to be someone I’m not to impress, gain readers, etc.
– selling and shipping products etsy style
– working alone at home
– doing what everyone else is doing

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Enter the Furoku membership. Furoku is the bonus gift that used to come with the monthly Japanese comic books I devoured when I was a kid. I talked about it in this post, and I waited with bated breath each month because I never knew what kind of furoku would be included.

This was my thought process: what if I offered a sort of subscription? The blog will remain ad-free and I will keep posting regularly, but for $10 a month, members would get a special email with some sort of digital furoku from me once a month. It could be a sewing tutorial/translation I’ve created, or maybe a riotously embarrassing essay from my life that I normally wouldn’t share and would be blackmail-worthy (can you believe I have any left??), or maybe a printable download for holidays — perhaps even a short ebook or some sort of video. So many possibilities! It would be fun for you, fun for me. The hope is that it would start with once a month delivery and potentially increase in frequency or develop into a full-blown site with furoku archives and forums and ways to interact. Maybe we can have virtual sewing sessions! Am I crazy? Have I lost you? I figure it’s worth a shot even if just a handful of people sign up — the one thing I don’t seem to have trouble with is coming up with ideas. But without some sort of financial validation, I can’t justify working on the blog that I hope brings some value or at least a smile to you, no matter how much it affirms my own existence. And the books…well, even a die-hard optimist and arithmetic-challenged bookworm like me can do the math.

I wholeheartedly believe in what I do and make. I might be off my rocker, but I utterly have faith that I can make a go at this blogging/creating/community-building/book-making thing but I’m not sure if I can prove it fiscally to M in the next 9 months. I have no idea how all those big-time blogs have done it, but my readership growth has been modeled after the inchworm. I have the best, smartest, kindest, most talented and loveliest readers, but there’s not a whole lot of you out there from what I can tell. Sometimes this is discouraging when I see the other people’s stats. But I don’t even need to be big-time! If I don’t achieve our agreed upon benchmark by the end of this year (a humble sum of $20,000), I will honor my word and shut down the blog, complete my book and find a reliable “real” job. But I’m not doing that without kicking and screaming and putting forth every ounce of creative energy I have to make this work.

I want to invite you to ride along and be a part of this venture with me. To create a space of giving, of sharing real (and ideally entertaining) information on how to create a sustainable life that feels right, of forming a small but mighty community — all for the price of two lattes per month. Okay, maybe three lattes. I want to make beautiful, functional or at the very least interesting things for you. I also want to transparently show you the dollars and cents as I progress, and I plan on sharing monthly reviews of my income for the rest of the year. I’ve found that I rarely get a true sense of how people in the “creative” field and bloggers are actually earning a living and I want to do something different. I thought of making that info available for members only, but that felt scammy, so it will be here on the blog and I’ll share the behind the scenes stuff with members. It’s still a little vague and will change organically, I know, but the blog will continue to be a recording of my life and sewing in general, and the membership will be based on the monthly digital gifts that I hope are uplifting and useful along with inside scoops and the nitty gritty of figuring out how to make a life worth living on my own terms.

This is an experiment. Maybe it will be a spectacular failure and I’ll slink away from the overwhelming lack of interest, or maybe I will have stumbled upon something triumphant. Even a few members would be a triumph. I want to try this. Will you?

[Updated: I’ve removed the subscription button for now, and will open up membership every month – thank you, thank you!]

I will leave this post up for the rest of the week as I watch with trepidation and excitement from the sidelines and work on the first furoku. Also, I’m flying by the seat of my pants here, so if anything is weird with that subscribe button, please let me know. You can, of course, unsubscribe at any time. Thank you, my friends, from the very depths of my over-sharing heart.

P.S. The winner of the giveaway is Greta, congrats! You should have received an email from me already.

P.P.S The illustration at the very top is the one I used for the dedication page in Little Kunoichi. I dedicated it to M and K, of course.

Happy Friday + Randomness

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Happy Friday! I meant to have a sneak peek of my upcoming children’s book today, but due to some unexpected snafus and technical problems on my part, I was foiled — I’m hoping for better luck next week!

I’m working on the custom illustrations from what is now an embarrassingly long time ago, and as my mother-in-law would say, the whole process is moving “slower than molasses in January.” I just hope I’m still not apologizing this time next year! The horse above is one of the few I’ve been able to finish. My scanner lost quite a bit of the details, but I actually like this version.

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Early in the morning yesterday:

K: Mama! You look so tired! You shouldn’t go outside — you have big fat lines under your eyes…

Me: I do? That’s okay, I don’t really care what I look like.

K: No, I don’t mean that. I’m saying you shouldn’t go outside because I’m worried you might fall asleep and collapse while you’re walking.

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Have a wonderful weekend, my friends! Postings might get a little spotty these next few weeks as I enter the last couple months of working on book #2. I’ll do my best to stay up to date here, though I must ‘fess up that I’ve officially caught the instagram bug and can be found there pretty regularly now (can’t.stop.following.people – so much inspiration! It’s like my first blush of Pinterest obsession all over again). It’s probably the cause of those big fat lines under my eyes…

I’m telling myself
I will not get overwhelmed
Not sure it’s working*

*It would probably help if I’d cut back on the social media. But oh, all the pretty images!

Sewing for Me: Ginger Skinny Jeans Muslin #2

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We’re getting close. In my glacial-paced sewing of the Ginger skinny jeans, we last left off at discovering that the size 12 made me look like I’d sampled Charlie Chaplin’s trousers. Like so:

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So I shaved off a size from the original muslin and dutifully sewed up a size 10 muslin (fabric salvaged!).

At first glance and with a roomy top (the beige-y top is a Renfrew I made in the softest imaginable bamboo knit a while back that I never shared here. I love it to death), it’s looking pretty good up there in the topmost image.

But then, you see that the hip area could use some denim liposuction:

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And holy cow, I truly have no butt, so I need to take a few inches off of the center of the back yokes:

ginger-2ndmuslin5Sorry about all the dust on the floor – I actually swept the floors before taking photos and it makes me question my cleaning abilities.

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Now, I have to confess that it was terribly, terribly exciting that I had to go down two whole sizes (except for my calves. Those are solidly size 12). Then I read that these patterns tend to give you extra wiggle room, so poof went my momentary thrill that my plodding, 16-minutes-per-mile treadmill workouts might actually be having an effect.

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Oh well. At this point I exercise because I love the endorphins, so I’ve made peace with the idea that there may not be a fitness model bod lurking underneath my currrent physique. The important thing is this: I’m seeing the potential for a flattering pair of skinnies on the near horizon. Because I’m deep like that. Though at the rate I’m going, the near horizon is most likely a few months away. Still, I’ve got my snazzy rivets and jean zipper from Thread Theory, and a few tweaks to go. I am wildly optimistic.

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Monday Outfit: Sailor Dress + Giveaway! [CLOSED]

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Good morning! One of the unexpected perks of starting this little online documentation of sewing and whatnot has been the relationship I’ve developed with Tuttle Publishing. Considered the largest publisher of “Asian-interest” books, they’ve recently been adding a slew of translated Japanese sewing books to their catalog. It’s been such a thrill to receive books before they’re let loose into the big world, especially when they’re the type of books I’ve adored and sewn from for years. Like this beauty by Yoshiko Tsukiori, who is one of the top designers of Japanese sewing patterns:

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What makes this book especially appealing to me is that the sizing goes up to 140cm (roughly equivalent to sizes 8-10). For K, this means I could sew outfits from this book for another couple of years (she’s currently a perfect 130cm, and each size seems to last over a year with their generous proportions). I’ve gotten emails asking if I know of any teen-sized Japanese sewing books, and so far I haven’t been very successful in hunting down any. Then again, the smallest size from the women’s Japanese sewing books will probably be up to the task.

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But back to this lovely book. This one takes the approach of offering up eight basic patterns, and each pattern can be modified in several ways (the modified patterns are called “Applied” in the book). I counted 18 variations, but the possibilities are limitless.

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Here are a couple of spreads that I really liked:

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And when I saw the sailor dress, I was all over it. Anything nautical or sailor-themed makes me weak at the knees.

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I had just the fabric, and though it’s described as midweight quilting cotton, it’s actually quite fluid in its drape.

dotted-sailor-dress6This book requires a lot of flipping back and forth to look for the illustrated or photographic step-by-step instructions, but it wasn’t too bad. In fact, the step-by-step photos were excellent, and as a visual learner, I appreciated them immensely. Also included are basic sewing tutorials that are heavily photo-based as well, and overall, this is my kind of book.

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The trickiest bit for this dress was the front placket, and I had to put my full body weight onto the iron to get the bottom of the placket to lay flat because I managed to sew it all puckered. Looks nice and flat now, right?

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As for changes I made to the pattern…I don’t like armhole facings, so I created my own bias tape instead. Appears much cleaner that way to me, and I imagine it’s more comfortable for K.

I love this dress! And I love this book!

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You, my lucky readers, can win your very own copy since Tuttle generously sent me two. And if you don’t want to leave things to chance, the book is available for pre-order now and will be officially launching in a mere two days on March 17th!

If you’d like to enter the giveaway, please leave me a comment with…let’s see…Okay, I have spring break on my mind, so how about a dream spring break location? If you could go anywhere in the world for spring break, where would you like to jet (or sail) to? Italy is sounding really good to me right now. Or perhaps New Zealand, because the season would be completely opposite and that would be fun.

The giveaway will be open until this Friday, March 20th, and I’ll announce the winner on the following Monday. International entries welcome as always! Good luck!