No joke, this jam took less than 10 minutes to make. I do have to mention that a microwave played a major role, and I'm usually not one to rally behind nuked foods. But when a recipe claims to take a mere ten minutes, well, I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. When it first came out of the microwave, the mixture had ballooned considerably and then slowly deflated, leaving a soupy mixture. As it cooled, the jam thickened, and I have to say, it's scrumptious. K, of course, thought it was a ... Read more
Sewing for Me: Moss Green Linen Jacket
Good morning! I'm starting the week off a little differently with something sewn for me. As I mentioned last week, Tuttle Publishing sent me some books to review and this one is another goodie which I'm excited to talk about. This is the popular Happy Homemade Sew Chic book in English. I don't have the Japanese version of this book, so it was a fresh experience to sew from this collection of lovely patterns. As you can see, there are 20 patterns and if you click on the link ... Read more
Happy Friday + Randomness
One of my big goals for the past couple of years has been to practice photography and get to a point where I could blow up at least one of my images to hang on our walls. My skills haven't improved much, but I'm understanding my camera better and better every day. I started a "To Print" folder on my desktop for the images that might have potential. These are a few of the ones I've been gathering, and I thought I'd share. Due to my privacy policy, I had to cut off this photo above, but it's the ... Read more
Fashion Revolution
There's a movement brewing. Laura, Celina and Abby have adopted this movement and reached out to those of us that create our own clothing, a call to action for solidarity to question current garment industry standards and to recognize the global and environmental impacts of fast fashion. In their words: The goal is for all of us to stand together for a united cause and help to show sewing (in all its forms) as an ethical and sustainable alternative to fast fashion and mass consumerism. It’s ... Read more
Sew Chic Kids Pintuck Dress + Tunic + Giveaway! [CLOSED]
One of the benefits of obsessively making excessive amounts of clothes from Japanese patterns books is that the publisher of the English translations of said pattern books will contact you to see if you'd like to review their books. Since "Duh!!!" was not an appropriate answer, I responded with an enthusiastic yes. Now, I have the Japanese version of Happy Homemade vol. 2, but I was curious to see what the difference(s) would be with the English translation, Sew Chic Kids. As you can see, ... Read more