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Sanae Ishida

A crafty little atelier in a grey city

Sewing for Me: Frances Newcombe (Part 2) Meets Darling Ranges

August 20, 2014

The thousand yard stare....perhaps it looks like I'm contemplating the plight of the impending world financial crisis or maybe it merely looks like I'm making a mental grocery list. In fact, I'm thinking, "What IS that brownish spot on my curtain?" A picture is worth a thousand words they say, but this one sums it up in six: "Stay down, poufy stomach, stay down!" The theme is 'thousand', it seems, and I have thousands upon thousands of these "what's going on here?" shots of myself ... Read more

Filed in: sewing, sewing for me • by sanae • 33 Comments

Monday Outfit: Frances Newcombe Fabric Part 1

August 18, 2014

Good morning! Did you have a good weekend? I hope so! This weekend I upheld a couple of promises. First, the enormously talented Frances Newcombe had sent me a generous amount of fabrics from her various Art Gallery collections, and who refuses free fabric to sew up into cute clothes? No one in this household, that's for sure. Especially when beautiful neutrals (perfect for me) and fun, color-infused prints (perfect for K) are involved? I love them, and over the next few weeks, you'll be seeing ... Read more

Filed in: sewing, sewing for K • by sanae • 28 Comments

Happy Friday + Randomness

August 15, 2014

My mom left Tuesday, and we've been off kilter  -- it's how we always get after her visits. K's emotions spiral out of control, I get flummoxed with having to cook again (yes, my mom cooks the entire time she visits. It's her thing) and after speaking so much Japanese, I tend to get thrown off for some reason. M laments that we can't have impromptu date nights and is disappointed that I'm back in charge of meals. This visit was slightly different in that we took a number of little trips and ... Read more

Filed in: life • by sanae • 37 Comments

Sewing for Me: The Summer Salvation Dress (aka The Tent Dress) + Quick Tutorial

August 13, 2014

Today, I give you the one-hour tent dress. This was a completely unplanned sewing project, and I'm pretty sure that if I saw this on a hanger in a store, I would dismiss it as shapeless and unflattering. Then again, I so often feel like my signature style is the muu muu, and this muu muu has been saving me from the hotter-than-normal days we've been having here in the Pacific Northwest. It hit 90 degrees on Monday, which meant that it was about 110 degrees in our un-air-conditioned house. Not ... Read more

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

Monday Outfit: A Little Lace, A Little Boho + Giveaway! [CLOSED]

August 11, 2014

Good morning! Has it really been two weeks? It's all a muddled blur in my mind now and I'm still racing against the clock to get stuff done, but I'm happy to report that I've been working hard behind the scenes, but I've been playing hard too (in a boringly wholesome way, I should clarify - no tossing back of jagermeister jello shots or misguided pole dancing involved). I have a lot to share, but for today, I'm going to focus on this li'l outfit. It's from this new book I got as part of ... Read more

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

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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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