Happy Friday! We are in full-on countdown mode since we are boarding Delta airlines to head out to Tokyo tomorrow. I did, however, promise Tuttle Publishing that I would do a little review of their books before I left. Given my current state of being caught up in travel preparations, I'm cheating a little because I discovered that I had, in fact, already mentioned this Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori. At any rate, I now have an extra copy to give away. The top I made from this book ... Read more
Happy Friday + K’s Grad Dress
Happy Friday! I tell you, these days I can't tell what's up and what's down with all that's going on. There are daily events at K's school, work deadlines are looming and it's dawning on me that my dream of sewing up a whole new wardrobe for my Japan trip is of the pipe variety. We leave next week and the total number of things I've sewn for the upcoming Asian adventure: nada. Luckily, I started early on K's graduation dress and after many, many iterations it's done a week ahead of ... Read more
Happy Friday + Randomness
Happy Friday! I'm having one of those weeks when nothing I do seems to turn out well. Case in point: the above photo is a muslin I was working on for K's graduation dress, but I messed up the invisible zipper insertion and then accidentally tore the very thin rayon fabric in a very bad way when I attempted to unpick the seams. Unsalvageable. At least it was the muslin, though I was secretly hoping that she'd like it so much that I wouldn't need to make the final version in an even more ... Read more
Happy Friday + Hallelujah!
Happy Friday, my friends! I did it! I did it! I completed my rough art for the next book that's coming out in 2018. Normally, I create digital rough art using only Photoshop brushes like these and these, but I wanted to try a little something different. For this next book's rough art, I used only black watercolor and I enjoyed it so much! It's a different kind of challenge to paint with a single color to create various shades. Surprisingly, it took less time to hand paint than it does to do ... Read more
Happy Friday + Making Magazine DOTS + GIVEAWAY [CLOSED]
Happy Friday! Just popping in to sing praises for the latest issue of Making Magazine: DOTS! It's been so fun contributing to this gorgeous, gorgeous publication, and Carrie and her team at Making are top notch. My project for the DOTS issue is a diminutive Sashiko-embroidered pin cushion inspired by a meditation pillow. Form, function and Ommmmm -- doesn't get better than that, right? I sewed several iterations to get the project to match up with my mental picture, so my little ... Read more