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Sanae Ishida

A crafty little atelier in a grey city

Greetings from Japan!

August 30, 2019

Hello, hello! K and I have spent a glorious time in Japan for the last 11 days, and we're having a hard time leaving. I have so many thoughts and emotions right now and though I'm unable to organize them in a coherent way at the moment, I wanted to pop in to say hello. I also wanted to talk about Ogden camis. For this trip, I somehow made four Ogden Camis by True Bias Patterns in two days before embarking on the plane to Narita. I originally purchased the PDF pattern and then printed it ... Read more

Filed in: life, sewing, sewing for me • by sanae • 8 Comments

A whole new world (no more PDF taping!)

June 28, 2019

Hello, my friends! How are you? I'm getting ready to travel to Indiana to visit relatives this weekend, and despite my best efforts, I was unable to fully execute my glorious vacation wardrobe sewing plan I had in mind. However, in the process of attempting said sewing plan, I've discovered a life-changing thing: PDF Plotting. I found out about PDF Plotting through a very thorough and super helpful blog post on Sew Liberated. I bet most of you sewing mavens are already familiar with this ... Read more

Filed in: sewing, sewing for me, sewing resources • by sanae • 10 Comments

Black Wool Dolman Top + Some Forgotten Sewing Projects

November 23, 2018

Happy Friday! If you're in the U.S., I hope you had a Thanksgiving feast shared with loved ones! We went to watch Ralph Breaks the Internet (M and K made fun of me because I cried. I cry at every movie, regardless of genre) and capped our quiet, low key T-day at a bustling Taiwanese restaurant and it was awesome. I’m a big fan of stress-free holidays - they're pretty rare, wouldn't you agree? So I finally got photos of the dolman sleeve top that I made out of the remaining fabric from the ... Read more

Filed in: sewing, sewing for me • by sanae • 2 Comments

Black & White: Linden Loves + Making Magazine no. 6

November 9, 2018

Happy Friday! I've had an unusually social couple of weeks with more events on the horizon, which means I can really feel the tug of my inner introvert imploring me to hibernate and recharge. Getting out and about is good for me, I must say, and last week I made a couple of Grainline Studio Linden tops that happened to match one of the events I attended this past Monday: Making Magazine's Black & White trunk show at Drygoods Design. You know, as someone who spends a lot of time alone ... Read more

Filed in: crafts, sewing, sewing for me • by sanae • 7 Comments

Rumi + Toaster = Roaster Sweater Tunic Thingie

October 26, 2018

I did it! I figured out the tripod/wireless remote situation with my new camera and new photo wall! I just realized that all my shots are a little crooked but I'm out of practice with this whole selfie thing, so let's take it slow and easy. The new camera was a reluctant purchase. I managed to somehow drop and break both my nice Canon and back-up Canon cameras a few months ago (sob!) and after lamenting the losses, I decided to take this opportunity to try out an Olympus mirrorless camera. I ... Read more

Filed in: sewing, sewing for me • by sanae • 8 Comments

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The word that incites terror in most newbie sewing The word that incites terror in most newbie sewing enthusiasts: zippers. Now that I have a few years of sewing under my belt I’m less cowed by them, but there’s something about long, separating zippers that still makes me nervous. I powered through, however, and made this versatile twill hooded jacket originating from a @patterncouture_ zip-up hoodie pattern meant for knit fabrics that I modified a lot. I blogged about it! Link in bio if you’d like to see the different versions I created. 

To skip zippers altogether and make a truly summery garment, swipe and check out my NEW @creativebug Tiered Dress class (link also in bio!). Back to sewing more hot weather stuff because I’m going to Japan for a special trip next week! 🇯🇵🇯🇵
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