Guest Post: Cherie of you & mie

Day two of the fave series is yet another sewing super star. Cherie of you & mie is the sort of person who instantly makes you feel comfortable. Which might sound funny because I haven’t actually met her in person yet, but I have a strong sense she’s the kind of friend who will always have your back. My fabric dealer Keli of Drygoods (yes, I’m addicted) has met Cherie and raved about her sweetness and happy spirit. Her blog is full of amazing creations and the BEST tutorials, but more than anything, you fall in love with her easy-going and down-to-earth, chatty style when talking about her many (many!) delightful creations like cute clothes and quilts and costumes. She also sews up lovely clothes for herself like here and here and here, and they’re so inspiring!

And can we take a moment to talk about her daughter Yuki? I can’t get over her squeezable cheeks and rockstar presence. Cherie, which by the way rhymes with “merry” — something I just recently discovered after pronouncing it the French way in my mind for months –is expecting baby #2, and we all know he/she is going to give Yuki a run for her money. I love everything she makes, but these are a few of my fave things from Cherie’s vast archive:

[1] [2] [3]

That third image is a dress that Cherie made for K for the incomparable clothing swap, and I had to include it. I need to mention that K was WAY more excited about the clothes Cherie made than the ones I slave over for her. Alright, let’s find out what Cherie’s favorites are…

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Hi! It’s Cherie from you & mie and I’m so happy to be here on Sanae’s blog today! I’m such a HUGE fan of hers and basically adore everything that she creates. Plus, I’ve gotten to know her a bit more over the last few months through her posts and through email and she is just an honestly awesome gal.

When she asked me to talk about my most favorite thing I’ve made, I thought it’d be hard, but I didn’t realize just how hard. And it’s not because I’ve made so many fabulous things that it’s just so hard to pick. But over the years I’ve made so many different types of things, and gone through different phases and styles and made things for so many different reasons, that to choose just one that captures “me” is really quite daunting! It’s a great exercise though, so if you are a creator of any kind, I highly suggest you try it!

Anyways, I went back through months and months of blog posts looking for “the one.” And honestly, when I saw it, I immediately knew that I had found it. It is the creation that I am the most proud of, the one I consider to be my most original project, and one I had put A LOT of love and effort into. So what was it?

It’s the Fabric Photo Book that I made for Yuki when she was a baby with pictures of her family. You can check out my original post for all the details, but basically I had seen some other fabric books for babies around the internet with colors or appliquéd shapes. I loved the idea of a book made out of fabric for babies and toddlers – something sturdy and durable (unlike paper), but soft to the touch. I thought I’d try using iron on transfers to print photos onto cotton fabric and then sew into a book. I made it up as I went along and it surprisingly turned out just the way I had imagined it.

It was so sweet watching Yuki stare at the pictures and slowly start to recognize the faces, and eventually be able to say each of their names as she pointed to their faces. Sometimes she’d kiss the pictures too.

I really feel like this was a truly original idea – and not that I was necessarily the first person to ever do it – but unlike a lot of my other projects, I didn’t come up with the idea after seeing someone else’s version. I really created this idea on my own. I searched online for similar photo books and really didn’t find anything like it though (at the time), so I decided to start selling them. I discovered better ways to make the book – to make them sturdier, look better and last longer – using heavier weight fabric and printable cotton instead of iron on transfers.

I enjoyed making these for both friends and total strangers. I worked with each customer discussing the photos and who each person was in relation to the child and what kind of fabric they wanted for the book.

I sold a handful of these on Etsy, but then I realized that the amount of time it took me to make each one compared to how much I was comfortable charging for it ended up not being worth it. So I stopped. I just had too many other projects that were getting neglected and I needed more time to get things done. I still think about making these to sell and get regular requests for them, but I honestly don’t see that happening any time soon (sorry!). Maybe someday . . .

Yuki’s original book is getting a bit floppy and faded (which is why I stopped using the iron on transfers), but it’s well loved and still the project I’m most proud of.

But if you were to ask Yuki which mama-made item is her favorite, she’d probably pick this pink dinosaur t-shirt.

This one was much easier to think of because Yuki has only recently started having opinions about what she wears. Unfortunately, those opinions are very strong and consist of only t-shirts and sweat pants. I recently made her a bunch of t-shirts and they are by far the most worn of all the things I’ve made her. She’s also really into dinos right now, this shirt is super soft, AND hot pink, so what is not to love?

And, in case you’re wondering what the readers’ favorite project of mine is (based on the post with the most views) . . .

It is BY FAR, the Totoro costume I made for Halloween 2011, bringing in more hits than the next 11 most popular posts combined! Oh, the power of Totoro!!

So those are a few of the favorites from you & mie. Hope you’ll come by and say “hi” some time.

Thanks so much for having me, Sanae!