Happy Friday! Mid-winter break is about to end, and K and I have been having a grand old time. It's been a great blend of relaxed lounging around, quite a few impromptu playdates, tons of arts and crafts, and a couple of bike rides thrown in. I tend to dread these school breaks without any structured activities planned because I'm type A like that, but this time, it was no problemo. Because I had to do a lot of painting, it was a handy excuse to keep K occupied with assorted art supplies. I've ... Read more
Sewing for Me: The Sumo Wrestler Top
I had such high hopes for this top. It's from this book, and you can see how stylish it looks when professionally photographed below - I've shared this image before, and it got pinned like crazy. It's clearly a cute garment, but I'm guessing you can't have curves to pull off this look. The curves, oh the curves. They are accentuated in a way that I can't say is flattering. Hence the name of the post. So let's talk details: the fabric I used is a shot cotton, I believe. I've had it for ... Read more
Secret Valentine Exchange Recap
It's time to highlight the utter loveliness that was the Secret Valentine Exchange! In total, we had 39 participants including me and my indispensable co-organizer Ute - amazing! There were ladies from the U.S., Germany, Canada, Australia, Singapore, India, France, Spain, Ireland and Italy. So international, right? I'm overwhelmed that these are all -- in some capacity -- readers of this little blog. One of my favorite aspects of this project was that I got to know the various folks that stop ... Read more
Seam Allowance Curve Ruler
As I down coffee after coffee and scurry about with watercolor pans and digital painting tools in the background, I deigned it high time I finally cross off an item from my "must-write posts list" (lists breed like bunnies in my notebooks). One of the distinctions of Japanese patterns is that seam allowances need to be added. I know that this is often a turn-off for many folks, but I happen to love it. There's something about adding that extra 1 to 3 centimeters to the traced pattern pieces ... Read more
Monday Outfit: The Un-fur-trimmed Coat Dress
It started with a vague excitement for my very small but very pretty faux fur stash. I thought, "Wouldn't it be so unnecessarily sophisticated and chic to make a fur-trimmed wool coat for K?" I'm all about unnecessarily sophisticated and chic. Alas, faux fur is NO FUN to work with. As soon as I came within an inch of it, it started to shed all over the place. In my crazy deadline-ridden state of being and due to my slightly OCD personality, I just couldn't hack it. So I resorted to an ... Read more