Happy Friday! Halloween twenty-eighteen was a good one. A very good one. K hosted a little pre-trick-or-treating gathering at our house for a group of her friends and much jollyness ensued. See that lumpy tunic that human-as-cat K is wearing? I made that. Despite swearing up and down that I wasn't going to make a Halloween costume this year, I found myself cutting out fabric two days before Hallow's Eve. The reason I was anti-handmade costume is because I finally learned from previous ... Read more

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

Happy Friday, my friends! A little while ago, it occurred to me that K has officially outgrown the largest size (130cm) for most of the Japanese sewing books that I own. This was a momentous and startling occurrence. I've been sewing from these books for five years, which means I haven't bought her (or me!) any clothes for 60 months. Wait, that's not true. I did buy the first day of school outfit here. Okay, K has received an embarrassment of riches in terms of hand-me-downs from neighbors ... Read more

Had it been entirely up to me, this Tip Top dress would have been sewn in a sophisticated indigo linen with perhaps some Sashiko stitching along the sleeve edges. Or, I might have just simply copied Celina's version and made it out of buffalo checks. Those days when K was a pliable, acquiescing dress-up doll? GONE. There are two things that ensure K will wear something I make: It's made out of stretchy fabric It's tight (sigh, this does not bode well for upcoming teenage years) I ... Read more