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 the largest size. Besides, the patterns in this book are precisely the kind that I drool over but hold very little interest for her. I mean, look at those dresses and skirts!!
Anyhow, if you’d like to win a copy of Sew Sweet: Handmade Clothes for Girls, please leave a comment. As always, any comment is great, but perhaps you’d like to share a favorite summer dish? I love making pesto pasta because it’s easy and quick and refrigerates well. Who wants to slave over the stove in this heat, right?
OK! I will have to skip yet another couple of weeks due to travel, but will be back again on August 4th. Happy end of July, everyone!
So many flurries
of summer activities
Barely keeping up
[Update: The winner is Coralee, congrats!]
P.S. Chibi Samurai Wants a Pet is launching SO soon on August 8th, and I have some fun stuff I’ve been working on to share soon!!
Hope all your travels are going well. My daughters live in skirts and dressed so this book sounds perfect. I usually love cooking but am currently in the throes of morning sickness and can’t think about food. Pesto is wonderful though!
Beautiful book! My favorite summer dish is vermicelli noodle bowls – fresh produce and very little cooking!
This book looks lovely but sadly all the children I can sew for are boys – and maybe I shouldn’t say this but it doesn’t have the same appeal…I shall make a note in case any girls come along!
I love the Japanese sewing aesthetic and have several books, which are published here in France. As a complete digression – I learnt from one of these the story of ‘The Tuttle Publishing Company’ which if you don’t know it is very interesting…
Thank you for your continued inspiration. For various reasons I have been in the sewing’ doldrums’ this year, and I keep dipping into your book to help get me motivated..
Getting to sew her dresses like these would be great consolation for my little girl growing (up) way too fast for my liking. The book looks lovely! For hot summer days, and especially when feeding a crowd I love Vietnamese summer rolls: most ingredients are are raw or cold and everyone can assemble their own wraps with fillings they like, so you don’t have to worry about diets, allergies and preferences too much!
Oo, my daughter loves skirts and dresses. I could have lots of fun with this book. In the summer, I love this recipe. Though sadly some critter got to my herbs before me this year, so I haven’t made it yet. http://ourbestbites.com/2012/04/lemon-garlic-herb-rubbed-chicken/
This books looks like a treasure! I’d love to make many of these patterns for my daughter. As for a summer dish, we love banh mi with maple soy tofu!
These are so lovely! And this grandma has a precious granddaughter that she is excited about seeing for!
Also – we do lots of grilled meats and simple salads in the summer, including lots of locally grown produce.
I have a little grand niece that I would like to sew for. This book looks perfect! My favorite summer meal is a chopped salad with just about anything in it. I don’t know why but salad just tastes better all chopped up.
I’d love to win this lovely book! I just started sewing again and am hoping to make some clothes for my daughter (who loves skirts but only owns two). Also, we have lots of fresh produce right now so I love to make a quick salad of tomatos, avocado, and fresh corn with a squeeze of lime juice. Happy travels!
Welcome Home, and Bon Voyage. Perfect timing for the book, since my three granddaughters are all clustered in the summer birthday wise. Though we try to give adventures and not things, I can’t help but make a birthday dress each year. My ultimate goal would be to teach the 12 year old to sew, but so far she is more invested in catching lizards and snakes than threading a needle. I can’t complain though. Anyway, I await my Furoku in a few days.
Oops, I forgot my favorite summer dish. We have been having Light Night once a week, which means we don’t have to turn on the oven or stove. It’s been over 100 degrees on California’s central coast, so we experiment with hearty salads, our favorite being watermelon, tomato and feta cheese over spinach.
I have a sweet little granddaughter I love to sew for, especially Japanese patterns ❤️ Happy Summer!
This book looks so sweet! And I love the “easy to make” part 🙂 We have a pesto pasta variation: add rotisserie chicken, kalamata olives, baby tomatoes and toasted pine nuts. Everyone’s favorite, hot or cold!
Oooh I usually don’t enter giveaways but I have a good reason to want this book 😉 Everything looks adorable!!
I completely delegated meal planning since I’m a Blue Apron convert, but in the summer I love salads that incorporate a fruit, like greens+ tomatoes+mozzarella+peaches!
I’m taking my second trip to japan next spring. Very excited to see some sites again. I make a quick make ahead taco dip. Easy if you keep the ingredients in your summer pantry.
In a glass pyrex baking dish, layer – starting with one can refried beans .Then add some sour cream. Next– your favorite salsa 💃. I usually sprinkle ground red pepper over. Then a combo of tillamook cheeses: cheddar and pepper jack. Maybe cut-up olives.
Serve with your favorite potato chip or tortilla chip.
Lovely book – I would be thrilled to work my way through these beautiful patterns! A favorite lazy summer meal in my home is avocado tacos in corn tortillas with crunchy salt, cilantro, spicy salsa or chipotle powder, and whatever veggies are coming out of the garden at the moment (cucumbers, raw sweet corn, squash, arugula, caramelized onions), and sometimes other leftovers from the fridge. This is almost always served with a side f sliced heirloom tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil in my home, where we fight over finishing off the oily tomato juice at the end of dinner and I often lose all manners and like the plate clean after everyone else sops up the juice.
I love bulga wheat, mint, pomegranate seeds and coriander together as a salad! Very summary and fresh!
THAT COVER PICTURE! To me summer is zucchini blossom filled with ricotta and parmesan baked in the oven, heavenly!
Welcome back & safe sailing (as we say in Dutch)!
The book would be lovely for my two girls, although I like sewing for my son too (I do relate to Julia’s comment re boy’s sewing, it’s less dreamy sewing, but I dedicate his sewing to pants construction, which has its own appeal bc – to my self-taught & learn-as-you-stitch sewing skills at least- is such a challenge. But I digress)
In summer I love eating from the garden, when we have a humble harvest of, eg, herbs, string beans, potaties, zucchini and summer kales. I usually end up using these in light summery dishes as couscous, noodle soups or salads, but I do like something hearty as a meal even when it’s hot out. A coconut curry embraces those really fresh veggies for only moments to a state of heavenly tender and we enjoy that as much as real summer fare. You wouldn’t even need a vegetable patch, a great farmer’s market will deliver almost as deliciously fresh veggies.
My favourite summer dish would be a pea,mint and feta frittata. I’d love to win the book as I’ve not done enough selfless sewing and my daughter always loved what I make her.
Fave summer dish? We have been eating a lot of Greek salad these days: spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, red onion, feta, chicken or fish, sometimes served with pitas or pita chips if we have them around.
Welcome back from Japan and have a great trip to Indiana!!! I would love this book!! My granddaughter is getting into activities that need dresses and skirts. I like prepared salads from our local food coop. Yes, that’s right– our coop makes different organic vegetable salads. My favorite is quinoa, feta, diced orange squash, pecans, tiny pimento slices mixed in with fresh lettuce. It seems very healthy and there is no waste. I wish I had my own garden, but I really do not.
Our favorite is tomato pasta. Best with tomatoes so ripe you can peel them without scalding. Peel and seed five or six large ripe tomatoes. Dice to about 1 cm cubes and let sit in a strainer. Toss with a large pinch of salt while you prep the pasta. Boil about half a pound of pasta or a little more. When pasta is ready drain, mix with tomatoes, fresh basil and more salt if needed. Top with shredded ricotta salata and a few glugs of olive oil. I like it best at room temperature. So good!
I have never sewn a Japanese pattern before! This books look adorable, possibly a good place to start.
In the summer I could eat grilled corn on the cob all summer long. Luckily the kids love it too.
I love all those little tops and dresses! I’ve spent the entire summer away from home, using a borrowed sewing machine and the two sewing patterns I had the foresight to bring (why didn’t I bring my absolute favourite kids dress pattern??? I just do not know…), so I’ve been really enjoying the creative summer meals we’ve been rotating through (not to mention a whole extended family to do the dishes….) My favourite is grilled pizza, baked outside on the BBQ grill, followed by pineapple grilled chicken, and Greek chicken pita pockets. And kale salad with peaches or mango and cherries. Scrumptious.
I love making beet salad. Cooked beets, chopped walnuts, parsley and red onion. Oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.
I’m a huge fan of my crockpot in the summer! I know people usually think winter for crockpot recipes but I can toss my ingredients in, we can all go out somewhere to enjoy the day and we come home to dinner and the house isn’t a million degrees 🙂
Thank you for this contest; I have never used a Japanese pattern although I have read your blog about using them for a long time!
My granddaughter only wears skirts and dresses and lives in California so I enjoy sewing for her whenever possible and sending
her “handmade surprises” which she immediately puts on according to my daughter, who then sends me a photo! I love the Iphone
for just this reason. We grill out a lot during the summer – hamburgers, chicken, fish. Generally I cut up some fresh fruit and just
clean some baby carrots which we eat uncooked. When pineapple is on sale – $.88 each in Houston, we grill that too! Have a
wonderful summer.
Yay, I can’t wait for more Chibi Samurai! How exciting for you!
My favorite summer dishes ar so easy: caprese salad and sweet corn!
Hello – looks like a lovely book . Have to say our favourite summer dish is fig ricotta and honey – can be dessert or with some rocket leaves and crusty bread and balsamic vinegar it can also be a savoury salad. love your sewing book do hope you’ll do another one!!
Cherry tomatoes, mozzarella balls, basil, balsamic and olive oil all thrown together with salt and pepper! No cooking and so delicious. Thank you so much for bringing sewing happiness to my life!