Sanae Ishida

A crafty little atelier in a grey city

Guest Post: An of StraightGrain

Good morning, friends! First up for the fave series is quite the phenomenon: An of StraightGrain. Her blog is but a year old, but this maven of Belgian Style is all over Pinterest and has a loyal and rapidly increasing following. I was lucky enough to be part of her Belgian Style Series a few weeks ago, which was all sorts of fun. The series is just about to end, but it’s a definite must-see if you haven’t been following already! An is witty and clever and oh-so-talented at creating adorable patterns and tutorials like this one and this one and this one. An was also kind enough to nominate me for a Liebster award when I first started blogging, and it felt like an initiation into the wonderful sewing/crafting community. Naturally An herself was nominated as well, and her answers to the questions are awesome and so interesting (it takes dedication to cut fabric in public)! We’re going fabric shopping in Seattle next year, right, An? As for her creations, these are a few of my favorites from An’s impressive archive:
[1] [2] [3]
I obviously have a thing for blue. Those wings!! Love them, and Norah is just the sweetest! Without further ado, here’s An!
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Hi everyone! I’m An from StraightGrain, and I’m really happy to be a guest here at Sanae’s amazing blog. For this series, Sanae asked me to do something which I actually should have done a few weeks ago, when my blog celebrated its first birthday. I didn’t get round to discussing my favorites then, and I’m very happy that Sanae has given me a little push to do it now!

Before I discuss my own favorites, I’d like to discuss those of my daughter Norah.

Her first favorite was also the first dress I actually blogged about: a simple pinafore in amazing Echino fabric. Everytime I would ask her what she would like to wear (something a mother should never ask – I know!), she would say ‘zebra dress’.
One of her more recent favorites is her triangles dress. Is it the brilliant fabric? The asymmetrical collar? Of course not – it’s the circle skirt which made it something she would wear daily if she could.
Well, that was until I made her the third dress, a little project for the Vintage May series. This dress, mildly inspired by the Belgian book series Tiny, is her current favorite. Firstly because she can pretend she is Tiny when she wears it, but also because of the tie. She LOVES the tie!
My own favorites would be these:

The first dress is a bubble dress from a Japanese pattern book made in an amazing fabric: Nani Iro lawn cotton. Such a pity that Naomi Ito doesn’t work with this type of fabric more often. I was really happy with this dress. In fact, I was so happy with it that Norah never wore it after the photoshoot. I wanted to save it for a special occasion, but that occasion never came before Norah outgrew the dress…
The second dress is my current favorite. I made it with Elephants & Elegance amazing Ruffle Top pattern, and it suits Norah so well. She looks incredibly grown up in it, and somehow, really different from when she wears other dresses. It’s like magic. And she also likes wearing it – she calls it her LiLing-dress, after the Asian character in Belgium’s most annoying and ugly children’s tv show, Bumba. (Just to be clear: she really likes LiLing, so it’s a compliment for the dress).
The third item is a coat I made her a few months ago. It was a little experiment, and I was so happy when it turned out the way I wanted it to. It’s warm, it fits well, and I think she looks really cute in it. What else do you need?

Thanks for having me in this cool series, Sanae! This was a really fun trip down memory lane for me 🙂

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Comments

  1. HI An!
    Man-oh-man… I remember every piece you made and it’s been a year already? Time flies! If I had to choose my personal favorite, it would be the Tin(n)y dress with the tie. SO cute! You are one amazin’ lady, An!

    Reply

  2. I love all your creations An! but my favorite i would say is the “LiLing” one, that fabric is so lovely and feminine. Congratulations for your first year! really enjoy your post today.

    Reply

  3. Your sewing creations are all beautiful, both your choices and Norahs:) If I HAD to pick one . . . love that coat too! And your styling with it is so perfect – love it with the boots:)

    Reply

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