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Sanae Ishida

A crafty little atelier in a grey city

KCW Popular Patterns

February 11, 2014

Today, I'm guest-posting over at the KCW blog. I made a pretty poor showing with only a few items (technically one item) during this esteemed week dedicated to sewing, but I had a great time perusing all of the winter KCW projects, and rounded up some popular patterns. Hope you can check it out! I'll try to be back tomorrow with some fun Valentine's stuff...(it's starting to get a teensy bit overwhelming behind the scenes) ... Read more

Filed in: guest post • by sanae • 4 Comments

Monday Outfit: Bicycle Dress

February 10, 2014

Greetings from snowy Seattle. Snow!! It's been a winter wonderland for the past day or so, and this is highly unusual. The city stops dead in its tracks, uncertain of what to do with all this white stuff. K and M went sledding down a nearby hill yesterday, then returned almost immediately due to claims of "frostbite". I stayed indoors (I hail from Los Angeles, need I say more?); basically we're all wimps. And really, I should have been sewing puffy parkas and not a lightweight dress with ... Read more

Filed in: sewing, sewing for K • by sanae • 25 Comments

Happy Friday + Randomness

February 7, 2014

Happy Friday! This week I've been diving in full force and working on my book, and I've just made a happy discovery. I love painting with gouache, but with the kinds of illustrations I want to create I need a lot of control and the flexibility to change things on the fly. The beauty of traditional painting is the lovely unintentional effects that can happen. The not so beautiful part is the permanence of a painted line when mistakes are made -- no undo button! Enter digital watercolor painting. ... Read more

Filed in: Community, digital, gouache, illustration, life • by sanae • 16 Comments

Sewing for Me (sort of): Take Three

February 6, 2014

I'm having all sorts of server issues again. As a result, I've been dealing with tech support, and I'm incredibly sad that I seem to have lost a few comments - so sorry! Things have been wonky in general, so I'm playing catch up with responding to comments and fixing some backend stuff. It's Murphy's law, because I actually had posts prepared early in advance this week, which is something that never happens. Poof, they went, up into the ether. It turns out that procrastination is a handy trait ... Read more

Filed in: sewing, sewing for me • by sanae • 14 Comments

Pretty Pouches

February 5, 2014

After yesterday's brain dump, I thought I'd lighten the mood a little so here are some pretty pouches. I made these for a couple of friends as holiday gifts. I've used the yellow fabric for K's top here, and the indigo one for a dress for me. I referenced the excellent open wide zippered pouch tutorial by the fabulous Anna of Noodlehead. These are so easy and handy to have. My friends loved theirs! I'm dying to make her road trip case for sewing. Genius! One for me, and one for ... Read more

Filed in: sewing • by sanae • 8 Comments

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I just realized that this week marks 10 years sinc I just realized that this week marks 10 years since my first craft book Sewing Happiness was published. I’ve sewn literally thousands of garments and other textile projects in the last decade! I included a Sashiko primer in the book, and I’m delighted that this humble Japanese embroidery practice has stood the test of time - if anything, I’ve noticed that there’s an ever growing enthusiasm for hand stitching. Fun news: I’ll be teaching a virtual Sashiko workshop for @tatterbluelibrary on Thursday, April 30th at noon ET. Link in profile! Would love to see you there! 💙💙💙💙💙
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