Good morning! So. The first order of business now that the book is 99% done (at least in my mind) is absolutely critical: cleaning. I am, by nature, a neat and tidy person, but for the last few months I’ve really let the house go to pot. It’s ugly, folks.

The disarray has been steadily driving me crazy and probably had some impact on my productivity, but I tried my very best to choose taking care of my health via food and exercise and spending time with people over laundry or vacuuming when I wasn’t working. I made dinner most nights, dishes got done daily and bills got paid on time, so I felt like a champion despite the ever-increasing dust giants.

It’s a huge relief to finally tackle the mess. I’m planning yet another massive purge, and I’m getting my feet wet with a little bit of fabric elimination. I have about a yard of the adorable animal print flannel above and according to the selvage, it’s “Urban Flannel by Valori Wells for Free Spirit.” The scale of the print is quite large, and I think this would make a lovely baby blanket.

I also have about a yard of this darling floral corduroy that I purchased at JoAnn’s several years ago. I meant to sew up a back-to-school, first grade dress for K, but I had opted to go with polka dots instead and forgot all about this corduroy until yesterday. I figure that if I haven’t felt compelled to sew with it for 3 years, it’s unlikely to ever happen.

Anyone interested? To enter the giveaway, I’d love to hear about something you’re proud to have accomplished. It could be something seemingly small (unloading the dishwasher this morning, say) or something admittedly massive (climbing Mount Everest, perhaps?). All accomplishments should be celebrated, don’t you think? I obviously feel extremely proud and elated to have reached this point today, and I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of all the wonderfully encouraging comments, emails, pattern testing help, care packages, and so much more that I’ve received over the last year as I plodded away at the book. But making a dent in the gargantuan laundry pile in the last week has felt just as significant. Maybe that’s weird, I have no idea.

The giveaway will stay open until this Friday, October 23rd, and I’ll announce the winner on Monday. Internationals entries are always welcome! Good luck!

 

 

 

Good morning! I haven’t done a giveaway in a while, have I? The always good folks at Tuttle sent me the Stylish Remakes book to review, and what makes this special to me is that yours truly actually translated it. Yes, if you happen to get a hold of this freshly published (in English) book by Violette Room, you’ll see my name next to “Translated from Japanese by”. Exciting!

Here you can see the Japanese version next to the English one. The Japanese copy is slightly smaller, and the cover design is obviously different. I find this whole translation process so fascinating, trying to assess a different market, figuring out how to translate idioms into another language. I loved it! It came about quite casually, when I tossed out an offer to translate any forthcoming sewing books when I was in communication with Tuttle about reviewing a book last year. I was delighted when the editor contacted me with this project around October of 2014.

The book is chockfull of ideas for upcycling old t-shirts, athletic wear (think college sweatshirts) and flannel shirts. There are even instructions for repurposing adult-sized clothing into kids’ garb.

I enjoyed looking for the subtle differences between the English and Japanese versions. For example, I noticed that they used different fonts and colors for the project titles.

Japanese:

English:

Japanese:

English:

My favorite projects were the ones with the flannel shirts. They’re very clever and unique. I had a lovely time with this first foray into the world of translations (it’s a flat fee system and doesn’t involve any royalties, which is rather nice), and I’m hoping for more assignments once book #2 is all done! I’m loving all these various avenues into publishing I’m exploring and can’t wait to learn more.

OK! Onto the giveaway…what shall I ask? This isn’t a remake related question, but did you have a favorite item of clothing or outfit as a child? My mom used to lament that I would often pair a pastel yellow wraparound skirt with a pink t-shirt. I don’t know why, but I just loved loved loved that combination. I was about 10. Which is funny to me since I would never wear that color combo now, and it actually seems like an ensemble that my mom would approve of. The world is a mysterious place. What about you? What comes to mind from your childhood apparel?

I’ll leave the giveaway open until this Friday, August 14th and will announce the winner on Monday. International entries are always welcome — good luck!

 

 

 

Good morning! I thoroughly enjoyed a low-key weekend and I hope you had a great one too.

I didn’t do much other than eat, it seems. I grazed from one meal to the next, and the best part was that I didn’t cook at all and felt very pampered indeed. Although I squeezed in a tiny little bit of sewing, the weekend was all about hanging out.

My UFO pile seems to be shrinking a tad and my plan is to show you a finished item or two next week, but I acquired the English version of one of my favorite Japanese Sewing books and wanted to do a little giveaway for today. This book is particularly meaningful to me because it’s the one that launched my handmade wardrobe craziness three summers ago. I made this dress, and the sweat-inducing difficulty and the simultaneous exhilaration are still visceral.

And I kept making things from this book.

Same pattern, different fabric:

A brown and silver combo:

A starry indigo top:

The Bubble Dress:

Jodhpur pants:

Sashiko Pullover:

Patch-sleeve Jacket:

 

Capelet 1:

 

Capelet 2:

Coat Dress

Fluttery Top:

Wow, I’ve never compiled all the outfits I’ve made from a single book before. I obviously had a lot more time back then. I remember how I loved the creative freedom I used to feel, and I can see that I really tried a lot out in the spirit of experimentation. Even though I’ve scaled back on the styling and propping (and the sewing), I do think my photography has improved with time, and it’s nice to see progress.

Anyway. If you’d like to enter the giveaway for this oh-so-special book, please leave a……hmmm, it’s getting harder to come up with questions. I just had a memory flash of a dinner with friends a while ago, and the topic of color therapy came up. Have you heard of it? It’s the utilization of light and colors to restore desired “balance”, be it physical, mental, emotional, etc. It sounds like it’s considered pseudo science, bordering on woo-woo. I admit that I don’t really understand it, but the conversation turned to how the diagnosis part of color therapy is as follows: you are given a multitude of colored papers to choose from (it makes me think of paint chips) and are asked to select the colors you’re drawn to the most and arrange them on a larger sheet of paper. My friends and I discussed which colors we would gravitate towards and that was fun and very enlightening. Whether color therapy works or not, I’m a big believer in the power of colors and their effect on my moods and general state of being. For my colors, I chose grey, blue, white, cream, and dusty, chalky hues you would see in French countryside homes like the bluish-greenish-greys and muted pinks. So my question is this: which colors are you most naturally drawn to?

The giveaway will stay open until this Friday, June 19th, and I’ll announce the winner the following Monday. Entries from around the world are more than welcome. Good luck!

A long time ago, when this blog was just a gleam in my eye, I had coffee with a writer friend who was an expert in the blogging world (at least more of an expert than I was or am). I confided in her that I used to maintain a blog that had petered out, but I loved it and wanted to maybe-sort-of-kind-of begin another one. I bounced around some ideas with her (“Sewing? That sounds like too much work,” she declared). After much hemming and hawing, I was no closer to figuring out what sort of blog felt right, but she told me this: “Whatever you decide to do, eventually you’ll start getting free stuff.” I slapped her knee lightly, snorted and said pshaw.

Well, here we are three years later, and she was right. The lovely folks at Tuttle sent me not one, but TWO copies of this rather hipster book of sewing patterns to give away. It’s called She Wears the Pants. I’m not sure how I feel about the title, but I do know that I’m definitely going to sew up a bevy of outfits from this when I eke out valuable moments for myself in the next few weeks.

Compared to most Japanese sewing books, this one is dark and moody and dramatic, but I like it despite my penchant for light and airy. The photography is simple as always, and the light is beautiful. I usually try to have an accompanying sewn project to share with my book giveaways so I can provide a more rounded out review of instructions and such, but I’m going to have to just show you my fave spreads this time:

The Oval coat is oh-so-chic, and must become part of my Fall wardrobe!

I love the shape of the mini dress on the right so much…

Again, I’m a sucker for the boxy shape on the right.

This outfit that’s also on the cover looks so comfy. I need to add another striped shirt to my collection of three dozen striped shirts, no?

There are a few quirky projects too, like this one called the belt stole:

It’s fun, right?

To win a copy of this book, I have a question that requires some thought. What’s something that people are surprised to find out about you? For some reason, folks are often taken by surprise that I’m from Los Angeles. So many people think I’m from Hawaii. I also have absolutely no sense of direction and this seems to throw people off too. Before smart phones, I used to build in at least an hour to get anywhere new because I would inevitably get lost. It’s part of the reason I’m constantly early to events, meetings, etc.

I love finding out unexpected hobbies/characteristics/origins about people. Like Rosey Grier’s passion for needlepoint. Or K’s skateboarding interest. Or the fact that M used to work for a big corporation by day and lived in a hostel by night for a few years (this was by choice – he said the people were way more interesting).

So. What’s surprising about you?

The giveaway will be open until next Thursday, May 28th, and I’ll announce the TWO winners the next day! Enter away, international folks. Good luck!

P.S. In case you were wondering, the winners of the Little Kunoichi giveaway were Kristi A., Maki, Sophie, Karen and Anne.