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Sanae Ishida

A crafty little atelier in a grey city

Happy Friday + Yet Another Giveaway: Sew Sweet Book [CLOSED]

July 21, 2017

Happy Friday! I might as well just call this a giveaway blog at this point, no? I'm still playing catch up since returning from Japan and when I looked at the calendar, I shook my head in pure disbelief that over a week had already passed and that we are yet again traveling (this time domestically, to visit M's family in Indiana). But lucky you, I have a backlog of Tuttle Books I'm happy to give away and this one is a particularly good one. I would keep it, except K can no longer fit into ... Read more

Filed in: Uncategorized • by sanae •

Happy Friday + Stylish Dress Book Giveaway! [CLOSED]

June 23, 2017

Happy Friday! We are in full-on countdown mode since we are boarding Delta airlines to head out to Tokyo tomorrow. I did, however, promise Tuttle Publishing that I would do a little review of their books before I left. Given my current state of being caught up in travel preparations, I'm cheating a little because I discovered that I had, in fact, already mentioned this Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori. At any rate, I now have an extra copy to give away. The top I made from this book ... Read more

Filed in: giveaway • by sanae •

Happy Friday + K’s Grad Dress

June 16, 2017

Happy Friday! I tell you, these days I can't tell what's up and what's down with all that's going on. There are daily events at K's school, work deadlines are looming and it's dawning on me that my dream of sewing up a whole new wardrobe for my Japan trip is of the pipe variety. We leave next week and the total number of things I've sewn for the upcoming Asian adventure: nada. Luckily, I started early on K's graduation dress and after many, many iterations it's done a week ahead of ... Read more

Filed in: sewing, sewing for K • by sanae • 20 Comments

Happy Friday + Randomness

June 9, 2017

Happy Friday! I'm having one of those weeks when nothing I do seems to turn out well. Case in point: the above photo is a muslin I was working on for K's graduation dress, but I messed up the invisible zipper insertion and then accidentally tore the very thin rayon fabric in a very bad way when I attempted to unpick the seams. Unsalvageable. At least it was the muslin, though I was secretly hoping that she'd like it so much that I wouldn't need to make the final version in an even more ... Read more

Filed in: life • by sanae • 12 Comments

Happy Friday + Hallelujah!

June 2, 2017

Happy Friday, my friends! I did it! I did it! I completed my rough art for the next book that's coming out in 2018. Normally, I create digital rough art using only Photoshop brushes like these and these, but I wanted to try a little something different. For this next book's rough art, I used only black watercolor and I enjoyed it so much! It's a different kind of challenge to paint with a single color to create various shades. Surprisingly, it took less time to hand paint than it does to do ... Read more

Filed in: black and white, book, illustration • by sanae • 4 Comments

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Giveaway time, my friends! So, 2026 is starting ou Giveaway time, my friends! So, 2026 is starting out in a very exciting way. My latest book, SHIBUI: THE JAPANESE ART OF FINDING BEAUTY IN AGING, is already in its second print run — deepest thanks to every person who purchased a copy, then got more copies to give as gifts!! Speaking of gifts, I have a little giveaway today that’s different from my usual kind. Shibui is available in audio format (a first for me!) read by the talented @edelynokano, and I have SIX free Spotify codes. Please note that you do need a Spotify account to utilize the code. Interested? 

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment below. Any comment would be lovely but if you have an audiobook recommendation, I’m all ears! No pun intended. I’ll leave the giveaway open until Friday, January 30th and will DM the winners shortly after. Good luck!🍀 @sasquatchbooks #shibui
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