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Sanae Ishida

A crafty little atelier in a grey city

2019 Advent Calendar + Even more holiday tags!

December 13, 2019

"I wonder when this Advent Calendar tradition will end?" As K grows older, this is the question that pops into my brain every time I embark on yet another design for the holiday season. She'll be starting high school next year and I don't know if she'll enjoy it quite as much. This was a fun one, my friends. The idea first came to me when I was -- as per usual -- shopping at Trader Joe's. I saw the garland with the felted balls ($8.99! What a steal!), and I immediately knew that it would be ... Read more

Filed in: download, watercolor • by sanae • 10 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving + Free downloadable holiday tags

November 28, 2019

Happy T-day to all my US friends!! Just a quick little hello today since I'm still working on K's Advent Calendar and tying up a few other fun projects. Today, K and I had a leisurely Thanksgiving brunch, strolled around Greenlake, and now we're getting ready to go out for our annual Taiwanese family dinner at this delicious restaurant. I have given up trying to be "normal" in any way, shape or form and love love love how stress-free our holidays have been these past few years. Also! I ... Read more

Filed in: download, illustration, watercolor • by sanae • 3 Comments

It’s that time of year…

October 25, 2019

Hello, hello my friends! How are you? I'm flooded with relief right now since I've just wrapped up some major deadlines and have a few days to prepare for my mom's visit next week (my parents are in Los Angeles at the moment to take care of some U.S. paperwork but will be returning to Japan again during Thanksgiving week). K told me what she wanted for her costume and I made this quick sketch in Procreate today, and she said, "So pretty!" This one is looking like a relatively simple costume ... Read more

Filed in: sewing for K • by sanae • 7 Comments

Pre-Order Time: ANIMAL FRIENDS TO SEW!!!!!!

September 27, 2019

Hello, hello, my friends! What do we have here? It's my newest book!!!! It's called ANIMAL FRIENDS TO SEW: Simple Handmade Decor, Toys and Gifts for Kids and will be released May of 2020 through Sasquatch Books. I'm so in love with this book. SO in love. It's very much the book I would have wanted when I first began sewing for K and all her itty bitty friends, and it's a grateful nod to the numerous Japanese craft books that inspired me to teach myself how to sew back in the early days. I ... Read more

Filed in: book • by sanae • 2 Comments

Greetings from Japan!

August 30, 2019

Hello, hello! K and I have spent a glorious time in Japan for the last 11 days, and we're having a hard time leaving. I have so many thoughts and emotions right now and though I'm unable to organize them in a coherent way at the moment, I wanted to pop in to say hello. I also wanted to talk about Ogden camis. For this trip, I somehow made four Ogden Camis by True Bias Patterns in two days before embarking on the plane to Narita. I originally purchased the PDF pattern and then printed it ... Read more

Filed in: life, sewing, sewing for me • by sanae • 8 Comments

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I designed a bespoke set of fabrics for my upcomin I designed a bespoke set of fabrics for my upcoming GOOD NIGHT, NINJAS book launch (two more weeks!!). They’re not publicly available on Spoonflower at this time, but if there’s interest, I’ll pop it on there. Let me know in the comments! Now to do some super secret ninja sewing….🥷🥷🧵🪡🧵🪡🧵🪡
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