January 2016 – Page 2

January 18, 2016

Ginger Jeans of My Own

“What are you doing?” he asked me. It was the pounding that caused him to poke his head into the room — he looked confused and slightly alarmed.

I stood there with the hammer poised a few inches above an overturned cast iron skillet.

“Making jeans,” I replied. And whacked a rivet into place.

I made jeans.

JEANS.

!!!!!

These Gingers Skinny Jeans took me just shy of a year to complete from the initial muslin, mostly because I was stymied by the idea of altering the pattern. But before I go into the various modifications I did indeed need to make, I want to address this image above.

As you can see, I used indigo thread for what is obviously not blue denim. Until I saw this photo, I actually thought the fabric was blue. I was going for a subtle look, deliberately choosing to skip contrasting topstitching. So much for that plan. It had been a while since I’d purchased the fabric, so I’d forgotten that I purchased black denim. I’m going to have to do something about the lighting situation in my house. Or maybe my eyes need to be checked.

At any rate, I’m incredibly proud of my new jeans made out of Osaka denim from here (the link is to the indigo denim, which they were out of when I was at the store. The black denim was slightly cheaper at $15/yd).

I started out with a size 12 for view B, and ultimately ended up cutting a size 6, predominantly because the Osaka denim is nice and stretchy. However, my calves are solidly a size 8 so I graded up for the lower leg portion. Look at those buxom and sturdy babies. Other changes I made:

– Reduced leg length by 3 inches.

– Tapered the leg opening by about 1 1/4 inches

– Moved the pockets up to the size 12 markings (I think this means my rear end sits high? Or maybe having a non-existent butt means the pockets need to be moved higher. Dunno).

Most of the fiddling had to do with trying to figure out which size worked best for me. I’m embarrassed to admit that I printed out and taped together the pattern pieces from scratch 4 times instead of just modifying what I had already printed up. What can I say, sometimes you just need to start fresh. In my case, it takes a lot of fresh starts. I’ve killed a small tree, I know.

I also killed another tree by printing out the über helpful ebook Sewing Your Own Jeans that Heather created. It was well worth using up my ink cartridges for the 90+ pages because I doubt I would have been able to sew the jeans without this handy guide. With clear (and always witty) step-by-step instructions and plentiful photos, this visual learner was thrumming with happiness. I was also blown away by the alteration tips and tricks — that Heather, she knows what she’s doing.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about high rise jeans, concerned that I might be spiraling into mom pants territory, but they are so crazy comfortable that I don’t even care if the hipster youth of Seattle are sniggering behind my back.

The best part was that once I figured out the sizing and read this AMAZING post by the genius behind the Ginger Jeans herself, it really wasn’t difficult to sew at all. Sure, I made mistakes and the pockets don’t want to stay entirely flat and there are some extra pooling at the ankles as well as generous whiskering around the knees and at the back of my thighs that might indicate I need to make a few more tweaks, but you know what? They look profesh. Truly. And I love love love love them.

They even look good rolled up like I usually do with all my jeans:

Very Pacific Northwest, right?

The verdict? Jeans are fun to make! In fact, I had such a great time that I immediately cut out a second pair. I’m about half-way done, and I’ll show you next week!

P.S. The winner of the giveaway is Mary Ann. Cograts!

P.P.S. Secret Valentines! Emails have gone out with partner information. We ran into a minor snafu when we found a couple of dupes after we’d sent out some emails, but they should all be sorted out now. Please let us know if you have any questions at secret.valentine.exchange@gmail.com.

P.P.P.S. Happy MLK Jr. Day to my fellow US residents!

January 15, 2016

Happy Friday + Randomness

Happy Friday! I’ve had an eventful couple of weeks, what with my car overheating and billowing smoke all over the highway and then losing my ipad — which is like an appendage of mine — so I was rather discombobulated. We’ve ended on a high note, however, because the car’s been repaired, the ipad returned (I left it in a cafe bathroom and someone was kind enough to turn it into the staff) and holy wow, the Secret Valentine Exchange!!!! We clocked in with over 180 participants!!! We think there may be a couple of dupes, so we’re cleaning up the list and are going to start matching folks up. It’s all very exciting.

I was also very happy to have completed a belated gift for a friend who had a little baby girl a few months ago. I painted a mini portrait and how cute is this panda fabric?

It’s a lusciously soft cotton gauze from Japan, though it’s not Nani Iro or Kokka. The selvage didn’t give me much in the way of information other than COSMO TEXTILE CO. I checked out their website and was highly amused by their tagline of “Turning freshness into affluence…” At any rate, I got the fabric from here and all that really matters is that it’s darling. I got a yard and half and made it into a swaddling blanket.

I even busted out with some mitered corners (a bit wonky, yes, but still proud). I hope Baby E likes it!

**************************************************************************

Off to get my weekend started — there’s a basement in need of some purging. I’m all sorts of wild and fun. I hope you have a lovely weekend that has nothing to do with basements!

Secret Valentines
Ready and get set, we will
send you your partners*

*Expect to receive emails on Monday, January 18th. Due to some time differences, a few may carry over into the 19th.

January 13, 2016

Last Day to Sign Up for 2016 SVE!

Hello! Just a quick note today with one last reminder that today’s the deadline to sign up for the Secret Valentine Exchange. We’ll stop taking sign-ups tonight, around midnight-ish my time (PST). We have nearly 150 participants!! Ute and I can’t wait to pair everyone up – there are over 20 countries represented, making this the most internationally diverse SVE yet!

I, of course, am planning, planning, planning. Last year, Ute made a stunning constellation mini quilt for Elle (scroll down a bit through all of Ute’s amazing Kollabora projects) and received knitted and sewn loveliness from Monika, and I received gorgeous tea towels and sachets from Mirta of Modern Botanics — much adored and used — and made this. You can see more of the swapped gifts from previous years at our Flickr pool as well (since Flickr isn’t used quite as much, we’ve opted to focus more on IG this year).

I feel remiss without giving Ute major props for being the most generous and kindhearted partner in this annual collaboration we’ve stumbled into — Ute’s idea, naturally. We are very much a simpatico team, and it’s one of my very favorite things to do every year. We hope you’ll join us in this celebration of intercontinental friendships through handmade goods! Sign up here!

January 11, 2016

Faux Fur Infinity Scarf + Giveaway [CLOSED]

Well now. Ute and I are simply blown away by the enthusiastic response to the Secret Valentine Exchange!! It’s been so enthusiastic that my server crashed a number of times last week. It’s true that I have a wimpy, tiny server, but still. I also think there’s something problematic about multiple people trying to fill out the form simultaneously, but that’s an uneducated guess on my part. We’re approaching 130 sign-ups!! If you were one of the folks who couldn’t access the form to sign up, please email secret.valentine.exchange@gmail.com and we’ll send you the form directly. Quick reminder: the deadline is this Wednesday, January 13th!

Today, though, I’m talking more faux fur. There’s a pint-sized fabric store near my house called District Fabrics, and during the holidays they sold these infinity scarf kits. For $10, the kit comes with a 19″ x 30″ faux fur piece, a spool of coordinating thread and instructions. I thought it was a decent deal and a good idea, particularly for a little someone obsessed with all things wild and animalistic in my household. Plus, I’d just seen something similar in Anthropologie, so it was totally on trend (not that we’re ever on trend or ever feel the need to be).

I didn’t get around to sewing it up in time for Christmas, but I did find a few minutes to bang it out this weekend. So fast! It was done within 15 minutes, and then I realized I didn’t follow the instructions because I’ve made so many infinity scarves. Instead of sewing the ends right sides together, leaving an opening and hand stitching the opening closed, the instructions call for finishing one end of the tube, slipping the other end in and sewing through all four layers with the right side facing out. I guess that part would end up at the nape of the neck so the flattened section won’t show, but I’m glad I did it my way for the overall fluffiness.

K decided that she would create a special ensemble – a faux-furnanza, if you will — and I’ve dubbed her “mini sasquatch”. Actually, with the ear muffs she looks like the love child of Princess Leia and Chewbacca (yes, we’ve seen the Star Wars movie that just came out).

And here she is, playing the part of an infirm Victorian poet with a furry ascot — or is it a cravat?? She’s engrossed in a game of Mancala (an African game with which she’s obsessed).

There’s a little twist to the front of the scarf, which I like, and because of the thicker material, it’s a simple circle scarf, meaning it doesn’t loop twice like most infinity scarves.

At any rate, after sewing the vest, the trim on the jacket, and now a scarf, I’m all faux furred out. I have an extra kit, but I can’t bring myself to sew it. Would anyone like it? This one is a lighter shade of brown, sort of chestnutty or squirrel-colored. Even if you don’t end up using it as a scarf, there’s plenty there to make at least one side of a pillow cover, which happens to be all the rage right now — something that mystifies me. Or you could add a fur trim to a garment. So many possibilities.

It seems like I should ask a New Year’s Resolution type of question, but I’m going to turn it on its head a bit: what worked for you last year that you want to continue? So often it seems like we try to change when we flip the calendar to January 1st. But there are so many things that we already do right and well and I’m a firm believer that those things ought to be acknowledged. Last year I met with at least one friend a week for coffee or some sort of get together, and it was so uplifting and wonderful, it’s something I’m very conscientious about continuing this year. Another funny little thing that worked for me last year was getting rid of the word “busy” from my vocabulary. Whenever people would ask me how I’m doing, my automatic response used to be, “Good, but so busy!” I can’t remember where I heard or read it, but I came across the term “glorification of busy” and how it’s become so normal in our society and is essentially a humble brag or a way to feel important. So I experimented with not saying that I’m busy for the whole year. And you know what? It was awesome! I felt like I was less in default mode and it forced me to pause to think about how I’m really doing and what I’m spending my time on. I’m going to keep up this habit of not saying I’m busy for sure. What about you?

I’ll leave the giveaway open until this Friday, January 15th and will announce the winner on Monday. Entries from around the globe are welcome. I hope someone’s interested – I’ve had enough of faux fur for the time being!

January 8, 2016

Happy Friday + Randomness

Happy Friday! I may have mentioned this before, but in my family we had this sacred tradition: on the morning of New Year’s Day, my mom would plop a few pairs of new underwear on all the kids’ beds, and the three Ishida offspring knew that it was mandatory to don one of them to bed the first night of the year. Just to clarify, the new undergarments are worn on the first evening of the year, and not on New Year’s Eve. I have no idea if this is a traditional Japanese thing, or if it’s some weird ritual my mom came up with. Most likely the latter.

Anyway, I continue to carry on this tradition because I think it’s funny, though M hasn’t gotten fully on board with it. Because I was in the throes of puffer jacket making, I decided it would be okay to buy a few pairs for K and myself instead of sewing them up. So on New Year’s Eve, K and I found ourselves at the mall, sipping hot cocoa at a Starbucks and armed with a fresh package of undies for her (I realized I’d gotten some for myself from Fred Meyer a while back and still had a couple of pairs that were unworn). Since we had some time to kill, I asked her to write down all the things that she liked about 2015.

She did so, and without me prompting her, she also wrote down what she’s looking forward to in 2016. I’m especially smitten with her 2016 list which you see up there. I implored K to give me permission to post it — it’s so dang cute.

You can see that though she has slight reservations about 5th grade, she’s mostly happy about it. A couple of her closest friends have been out of the country for the last few months, and she can’t wait to see them again when they return. And “nengajoe” (I usually spell it nengajou, but I like her spelling better) is a Japanese New Year’s postcard; her school had a special nengajoe art contest that she entered — there’s some trepidation there, I’ve noted. I remember how nervous I used to feel whenever I entered any contest. And how sweet is it that she’s counting down the days for my mom (bachan) to visit? Last year we missed seeing M’s side of the family due to some scheduling issues, so we’re doubly excited about the mini-reunion we’re planning in Michigan this summer.

I’m writing up my own list of Awesome Things That I Hope Happen. There will be book stuff on there. Traveling. Earning a living. Being comfortable in my own skin (I’m getting there). The usual hopes, I guess. What would be on your list?

How is your new year
starting out so far, my friends?
Let’s make it awesome

Happy, happy weekend to you! See you next week!

P.S. Update on 2016 SVE: WOW! We already have almost 90 people signed up and it’s only been a couple of days. Ute and I are over the moon!! Remember, sign ups end January 13th – hope you’ll join the fun if you haven’t signed up already!