In my last post, I mentioned that I’m planning on making another Burda shirt for Josh—this time with a bit of monkey embroidery… I usually farm out my embroidery needs to my mom, who’s amazing, but since this is a shirt for Josh, I’m thinking that I should do it myself. To give myself a [...]
Author Archives: Josh & Sarah
Fashion Forward
July 6, 2008 – 7:47 pm
I finished Josh’s shirt (Burda 7767) late last night (By the way, does anyone else love staying up really, really late and sewing after the world is asleep?) and am 110% thrilled with the result. It’s so incredibly fashionable-looking that it could be mistaken for something from the “Rail” section of Nordstrom. And I’m not [...]
Pintucked Preview
July 5, 2008 – 11:37 pm
Can I just say, I am so incredibly excited about how the shirt I’m making for Josh is turning out?! Seriously, each time I make something for him I learn so much and really feel like I can justify my “Advanced” skill rating that I gave myself over on Pattern Review. This project not only [...]
Sewing a Celebration
July 4, 2008 – 3:11 pm
We at Sewer-Sewist have been preoccupied with the idea of making our own flag (yes, you read that right, making our own flag) for quite awhile. The topic first came up when we were in the car one afternoon and Josh said, “You know, we should make our own flag. That would be really cool.”
To [...]
Tutorial: Adirondack Chair Redux
June 28, 2008 – 11:27 pm
As promised, here’s the step-by-step for making over your very own crummy plastic Adirondack chairs into something fun and unique. We had some of the classic “computer monitor beige” chairs that were leftover from our past lives in Santa Fe where you just get used to everything being brown. Somehow, all brown stuff just doesn’t [...]
Pintucks > Pleats
June 24, 2008 – 9:14 pm
This is about the only math I remember, the “>” sign, meaning “greater than.” (Yes, the world breathes a sigh of relief that I was a liberal arts major and not a rocket scientist.)
I cleaned up the horrific mess that was on our, er, dining table (which sees more thread, needles and fabric than plates, [...]
Extreme Makeover: Plastic Adirondack Chair Edition
June 23, 2008 – 9:35 pm
Now that it’s (finally) sunny here in Portland, we’ve been furiously spiffing up our backyard so that we can enjoy hanging out outside. Our old crappy “computer monitor beige” plastic Adirondack chairs (that were our living room chairs when we spent a year living in a converted Santa Fe blacksmith shop—but that’s a story for [...]
Talk to Us!
June 22, 2008 – 9:20 am
It looks like we’re having an intermittent problem with the commenting function here at Sewer-Sewist. So, if you try to leave a comment and you’re told to enter a security code and there’s not one to enter or there’s some other problem with trying to talk to us, would you be so kind as to [...]
Not AWOL
June 20, 2008 – 5:24 pm
Rosanne was the first of you loyal readers to notice that I haven’t been posting much lately and ask what I’ve been up to sewing- and crafting-wise lately. Josh has certainly been making, and posting, a lot more stuff lately. But I promise, I haven’t gone permanently AWOL.
In fact, I started what I think will [...]
Shoeberries
June 14, 2008 – 10:03 am
Josh’s latest handmade shoe creation. This version is high-tops made using old Vans soles and Joel Dewberry’s new sateen canvas fabric line, Ginseng, from FreeSpirit.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
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Book Review: Alabama Stitch Book
June 4, 2008 – 9:22 pm
While at The Best Bookstore Ever (aka Powell’s here in Portland) this spring, Josh spotted the beautiful Alabama Stitch Book, written by Natalie Chanin of Project Alabama fame. (Josh has a real eye for design and aesthetics, so it caught his eye because it’s such an attractive book.) This is the book that inspired the [...]
Party On
June 1, 2008 – 9:32 pm
This weekend I went to a party for an old friend of mine (like, we went to preschool together, old friend) in celebration her graduation from medical school. I actually got to see a bunch of people that I hadn’t seen in ages—including a friend of my who (thanks to Facebook) I recently found out [...]
It’s Gotta Be the Shoes
May 29, 2008 – 7:03 pm
It has taken me ten days, but I think I am finally able to discuss the shoes. The combination of frustration, old shoe funk and the massive loss of brain cells from working with Shoe Goo had rendered me unable to rationally explain why and how I made these things and their deeper meaning (not [...]
Book Review Preview
May 27, 2008 – 9:12 pm
This is just a quick preview of a book review I’ve promised I’m going to write—the fascinating Alabama Stitch Book. I buy a lot of sewing books (and more recently lots of print making books, too), but I hate to review them until I’ve actually made something out of the book. Looks of books are [...]
Cub Reporter
May 20, 2008 – 8:37 am
Kim, over at TrueUp, the stellar newish blog for the fabric-obsessed, has a guest writer for today’s post—me! Needless to say, I’m thrilled to be her very first guest contributor. So, scoot on over and check out my outsider’s review of the Quilt Market fabric weekend here in Portland.
~Sarah
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Rough Draft
May 18, 2008 – 7:09 pm
Josh made his very own custom shoes. Check out the process! Amazingly, this is just his rough draft…
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Bagged
May 14, 2008 – 10:42 pm
My fabulous Amy Butler Sophia Bag—the one that made my fingers bleed—has gotten kinda of dirty. Between taking it on the MAX, leaving it sitting on the floor of my cubicle at work and accidentally kicking it and the general wet grossness of the weather here, it’s looking pretty funky. Now, I’m faced with a [...]
Slacker
May 4, 2008 – 11:08 am
This may come as a shock to everyone, but I actually finished something for once.
It’s been ages, and it’s not for lack of trying. I have had this pinstriped denim that I got at Bolt quite awhile ago (this fall, maybe?), but had grown way too attached to, and thus was reluctant to cut. It’s [...]
Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome “The Velvet Overcoat!”
April 24, 2008 – 6:47 pm
This is it, the first jacket that I have successfully made, well not made, as in made on my own, because this was truly a Sewer-Sewist co-production. I did most of the framing and Sarah did most of the finishing, to borrow from the construction vernacular. As you may have read Sarah has had [...]
Almost Famous
April 18, 2008 – 8:45 pm
If you’re not familiar with Diane’s fantastic podcast and blog, CraftyPod, you should be. And what better time than right now to check it out? Josh is one of four crafty guys that are featured in CraftyPod #73: Men Who Craft.
You may not know this about Josh from reading this web site, but Josh is [...]
Sewist’s Block
April 16, 2008 – 7:19 pm
You probably remember my Hot Patterns Jeanious Jeans that I was so gung-ho about… The ones that were looking totally awesome?
Well, I finished them up, complete with the hot pink pocket and waistband lining.
And some funky pink twin needling on the hem.
Pretty fresh, huh? I thought so, too. And they fit great. Seriously, Hot Patterns’ [...]
Creative Energy
April 9, 2008 – 9:40 pm
Josh’s screen printing has really piqued my interest. So much so that since he made his first screen, I had this vision in my head of a tree. I couldn’t quite get my head around what that tree would look like, but I had been messing around with a bunch of different ideas of trees [...]
Sewn House = Fun House
April 2, 2008 – 8:12 pm
As if the Tacoma News-Tribune telling us that “sewing is the new knitting” wasn’t enough, the new-found coolness of sewing is rearing its head in the latest Anthropologie Home catalog. Yep, the retailer that’s so great for sewing inspiration (love their styles, hate their pricing, really hate their bizarre fitting) featured a completely stitched together [...]
Big Printin’
March 28, 2008 – 5:50 pm
Sarah made me a lovely Burda raglan sleeve knit T-shirt (8827) for the Christmas Day Blazers vs. Super Sonics game, where the crowd was encouraged to wear red. I didn’t have anything red to wear, so she whipped this one up for me (it literally took her like an hour). Let me say that [...]
Not Knitted
March 23, 2008 – 8:15 pm
I used to knit a lot. I taught myself when I was still in college and really, really enjoyed it for a long time. However, about this time last year, I started having pain in my right index finger and wound up with tendinitis. Really, really painful tendinitis. This was shortly after I started my [...]
Things to Make & Do
March 6, 2008 – 6:58 pm
After finishing my baseball caps I started working on another “idea hat” for Sarah.
This was much easier after going through the fit problems of the earlier models (it involved only sizing the main panel which wraps around the head). Taking inspiration (those are the pictures at the top of this post) from my winter [...]
Sewing Emergency
March 5, 2008 – 6:28 pm
Have your sewing troubles ever gotten this bad?
From the The New Zealand Herald:
A woman in a rush to get to a garden party called 111 to ask for help with her sewing.
The woman, who has not been identified, called police in Rotorua yesterday pleading for help to thread her needle.
Now our friend Bryan, who recently [...]
Spring Training
March 3, 2008 – 9:12 pm
As you may know, I love baseball and I especially love old school baseball uniforms and hats (oh yeah and jackets and sweaters and stir-ups, oh my). While I am happy for spring training to have started, I do feel a little distant from my favorite game. Another bad year for my Reds is definitely [...]
Back Pocket
February 27, 2008 – 9:46 pm
I recently had a moment of weakness and was once again tempted by HotPatterns‘ sewing patterns that promise high fashion and really long legs (if you’ve visit the HotPatterns site, you know what I mean). I’d had my eye on a couple of their patterns for a long while (pretty much since my original HotPatterns [...]
Putting on our idea hats…
February 23, 2008 – 9:51 pm
You may remember that we’ve mentioned a few times that we really like hats. You may also have noticed that we’re slightly obsessed with looking for weird, quirky things to make together. Our latest project really scored on both accounts.
Recently, we have taken to going to Uwajimaya and the Japanese language bookstore contained within, Kinokuniya. [...]
Sewing is an attitude.
February 16, 2008 – 5:12 pm
It’s pretty bad when I’ve written about a project when it’s in progress, but totally forget to show y’all the finished garment—oops! I guess my foray into (Simplicity’s) Project Runway (patterns) wasn’t that memorable. Anyway, I think the photos were, though.
So, I think this sign is hilarious. I keep replacing the “Safety is an Attitude” [...]
Rocket Science
February 14, 2008 – 10:03 pm
Well, not really.
We have a nifty plastic box that’s supposed to hold bobbins, which is all well and good, except, it doesn’t really keep the tangled mess of threads from unused bobbins from knotting up into one another. It’s a tremendous pain in the ass during those moments when you just want the damn bobbin [...]
Oregon Camouflage
February 11, 2008 – 12:31 pm
Burda, Burda, Burda. Such nice looking in the pattern books, and so damn difficult to actually finish. This sweatshirt is my first attempt at sewing in a little while. I have been so frustrated trying to finish (or to be more accurate “move forward”) on my Burda jacket I have been having a hard time [...]
What’s going on?!
February 10, 2008 – 9:37 pm
Something strange is going on in our little sewing world here.
First, Sarah just keeps fighting with every single project that comes down the pike. Case in point: Sarah’s first attempt at Amy Butler’s Lotus Tunic/Dress. A lovely, straight-forward pattern that has all the makings of a real winner. All the fitting issues were worked out. [...]
Swell Dressed
February 3, 2008 – 7:02 pm
When Josh, my mom and I went on our little adventure to beautiful Washougal, Washington last month, I picked up some lovely dusty blue wool from the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store up there. For a whoppin’ $1.99 a yard. Pendleton makes some incredibly soft wools, almost silky, and if you can tolerate wool, you don’t [...]
Mamma Mia!
January 24, 2008 – 6:49 pm
Or, sometimes sewing projects just don’t work out for a reason…
If you remember, this fall I participated in the Great Trench Coat Sew-Along on Pattern Review, and I mentioned that I had e-mailed the pattern company, Indygo Junction, and let them know that there were a few (minor) issues with the pattern that I had [...]
Ready for the runway?
January 20, 2008 – 10:27 pm
Well, I guess if I really were a contestant on Project Runway, this top would be ready for the runway… Just use the glue gun on the hem (this never fails to enrage me when they do it on the show—I scream, “Put down the damn glue gun and sew your stupid hem!”) and call [...]
I’ve stopped whining…
January 15, 2008 – 8:57 pm
Because my Sophia Bag looks so awesome!
Even though it resulted in a serious pin graveyard and some bleeding fingers…
It was totally worth it.
I covered a lot of my changes in my first entry about this bag. You remember, the post where I whined a lot. But here’s the quick recap: I added some handbag feet. [...]
Sew Together: How We Got Started
January 14, 2008 – 6:58 pm
So, we sew together, right? We thought we’d let you know how this whole thing got started. This is the first in (hopefully, no promises) in ways you and your sweetie (or best bud/mom/brother/unrequited crush) can get started working on sewing projects together.
When we first started this little adventure Josh really wanted to make something [...]
No Pain, No Gain?
January 13, 2008 – 10:41 pm
from sarah the sewist
I spent a lot of this weekend working on Amy Butler’s lovely new pattern, the Sophia Bag. However, this pattern has officially kicked my ass. Or at least my fingers.
Yep, that’s my index finger—one of the many victims of this little project. As of this evening, I have had to stop bleeding [...]
If they’d only learned to sew…
January 12, 2008 – 11:06 am
Here you go, folks—another in our intermittent series of sewing-related tidbits in the news.
We knew it! Sewing is an essential survival skill. EarthSky blog is reporting that it turns out that Australian researchers have discovered that Neanderthals would probably not died out if they’d picked up a thread and needle and stitched themselves some warmer [...]
Field Trip: Our Sewing Heritage
January 5, 2008 – 8:39 pm
Today we headed out on a field trip in search of a good deal on a Pendleton flannel shirt for Josh’s grandpa’s birthday. If you’re not familiar, Pendleton is an Oregon company that’s been around for ages. They weave their fabric here in the Northwest, and the garments used to be sewn here. It’s very [...]
Doggy Fashion
January 4, 2008 – 8:23 pm
As you may know, it rains a lot here in Portland. The dog really needs a walk regardless of the weather. Last month, as a another storm was barreling down on us here (incidentally, we have just been hit with another one, with two more on the way) I decided to use some of [...]
Cool Blue
January 2, 2008 – 10:06 pm
So it seems that the powers that be at Pantone (the folks who track color trends) have declared that the color for 2008 is “Blue Iris.” You know that bluey-purple color of, well, a Japanese Iris (I’ll probably embarrass the Sewer here, but I have a soft spot for that particular flower because when we [...]
Punk Poodle Coat
December 31, 2007 – 11:13 pm
I absolutely love my Burda World of Fashion subscription, and generally go through the routine of getting really excited about seven or so things in the magazine, then get promptly overwhelmed and let it sit and “cure” for awhile so I can get my head around what I want to make. Eventually I make some [...]
Movin’ On
December 31, 2007 – 9:07 pm
We’re now posting over on our own domain at www.sewer-sewist.com. Please redirect your bookmarks and RSS feeds. All of the posts and comments here are over at the archives on the new site.
Thanks for a great run here at our blogger site—we hope you enjoy the new one too! Trust us, the new one’s way [...]
New Year, New Blog
December 31, 2007 – 9:04 pm
We’ve been blogging about our sewing adventures for awhile now, and Josh is almost at the one year mark in his learning to sew, so it’s time to move over to a site that will better serve our needs.
Welcome to our new blog, at our own domain powered by Wordpress. We’re thrilled to have built [...]
Happy Holidays
December 24, 2007 – 11:43 pm
Wishing each of you very happy holidays!
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Out of commission
December 12, 2007 – 9:48 am
Our computer is having some issues, so until that’s fixed, you won’t hear much from us. We’ve got lots and lots to post once we’ve got this issue resolved, though!
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Hard to give away…
December 2, 2007 – 11:21 am
from sarah the sewist
As we’ve mentioned a time or two, we’re continuing to work on holiday gifts for everyone, and we’re finally starting to feel like we’re making some progress. I just finished the gift for Josh’s stepmother. It’s the Amy Butler Downtown Purse. This pattern came in the mail yesterday—thank you Lisa Lam over [...]
On The Newsstand…
November 30, 2007 – 11:09 pm
The first in an occasional series of posts on stuff we find interesting.
What can we say, we still love a good magazine or newspaper. In a “paperless” world, there is still nothing like getting a magazine through the mail slot. A bath isn’t complete without bubbles and some light (or not so light) reading. [...]
Rip City Raglan
November 24, 2007 – 8:24 pm
from sarah the sewist
People who know me, usually know at least this one thing about me—I am a tried and true, dyed-in-the-wool, unwavering Portland Trail Blazers basketball fan. It’s a bit embarrassing, because I think that I’m a fairly interesting person with a variety of things that I do and am interested in, but I [...]
Happy Birthday, Sewer!
November 19, 2007 – 6:42 am
from sarah the sewist
Happy birthday to Josh! (We won’t mention that your birthday present is still a work in progress.)
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Unzipped
November 18, 2007 – 3:49 pm
from sarah the sewist
Sometimes things go wrong and you just want to give up. Generally, in sewing, given that it’s not really a life and death sort of thing, that’s the path I choose. In fact, I have been known to give my husband a pep talk or two about how it’s okay [...]
A Sewer-Sewist Holiday Gift Guide, Part 1
November 13, 2007 – 7:45 pm
Despite the continued pressures of “buying stuff” we love the holiday season and love giving gifts (and the Sewer loves to get them—lots of childhood issues, that one). In the spirit of the season, we decided to put together a gift guide to handmade or unique gifts. Some of these are Portland-centric, but they’re certainly a great excuse to visit our fabulous city (aside from the lack of a sales tax and not pumping your own gas)—some of these may seem odd for a sewing blog, but we believe in supporting the unique and creative whenever possible. Besides, we know that (amazing as it may be) not everyone shares the sewing bug.
Another one down…
November 12, 2007 – 10:00 pm
We’re plugging away with our Christmas gift making, and finished this up recently—an Amy Butler Swing Bag for Josh’s mom. It’s in one of Amy’s fabrics, two different ones from the gray and yellow theme from the “Belle” line. A lot of people have made this bag, and we can certainly see why. It comes [...]
Call of the Wild Hat
November 5, 2007 – 5:46 pm
We’ve mentioned before that we’re trying to make most—if not all—of our Christmas gifts for family and friends this year. We’ve coined it the “Great Making Everyone’s Christmas Gifts Odyssey.” It’s just so much less expensive and seems more thoughtful. Plus, it’s a great excuse for Josh to get more practice sewing and build his [...]