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Sewer-Sewist
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09.08.09{Field Trip!} Honkin’ Huge FlowersThis Labor Day we piled into the car, along with our friend Bryan (check out his beautiful new photoblog, by the way) and went down to Sarah's hometown of Canby to check out one of the cooler annual events in this area--the Swan Island Dahlia Festival. (Locals: Even though the festival is technically over, you can still visit the flowers for a few more weeks--actually, it's kind of more fun when it's not the official festival. If you go, the Canby Burgerville is one of the best. Just sayin'...) It's simply acres and acres of dahlias of all sizes, shapes ...
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08.21.09Ooooh! Bolt’s having a sale![caption id="attachment_684" align="aligncenter" width="477" caption="Even if you don't live in the Portland area, you should be reading Bolt's blog--it's full of awesome stuff and pretty pictures of fabric."][/caption] So, we've been very naughty bloggers lately. Basically all summer long. We haven't really had a post of any substance in over a month--isn't that terrible. We have lots of good reasons, basically that this summer has been very hectic and extremely stressful. We're hoping that things will calm down over the next couple of months, and that we'll resume our regularly-scheduled programming here at Sewer-Sewist. We so enjoy writing this blog and ...
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06.21.09Letterpress Workshop – Final DayToday was the last day of our letterpress workshop--and it sure was fun getting to spend four full days together doign letterpress. Josh really enjoyed learning a new skill and I liked getting focused back on something I really am enthusiastic about, but have been too busy to make time for lately. (The big downside of letterpress is that it's not something you can just go do at the drop of a hat. You have to travel to the press, plan out your work, etc... Not like sewing and screenprinting, which you can can anywhere, anytime.) I didn't get to ...
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06.20.09Day Three of Letterpress – Now Our Feet Really HurtLots of fun printing today in day three of four-day letterpress workshop. Josh had a few minor "issues" to deal with--his type wasn't as cooperative as he had hoped. I hopped onto one of the printing presses first thing (nerds that we are, we went an hour early) and printed up the text for half of my postcards. I also worked on some photopolymer and did some lino-cutting. A busy, full day. One of the highlights was just watching all of the folks who'd never letterpress printed print their work for the first time--everyone was just so happy! Tomorrow, I'll ...
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06.18.09Photos from Letterpress WorkshopWe had a lot of fun in the first day of our letterpress workshop today. For me, It was interesting being one of the more experienced students, since I was definitely the least experienced in my letterpress class in the spring. In fact, I'm probably the most experienced student in the workshop. I realized that I actually know a lot about letterpress, even though I don't feel completely confident with the medium. Josh has such a unique creative eye, and because of that, it's such a treat watching him learn something completely new. I think he totally understood why I ...
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06.17.09Celebrating Our Anniversary, Sewer-Sewist StyleToday's our 4th wedding anniversary. Last year, we celebrated by screenprinting weird T-shirts, Josh creating a bizarre--yet appropriate--fake commemorative poster for the Moon Family Band and by making new outdoor lights for our patio. This year, we're taking a four-day letterpress and mail art class together, this Thursday through Sunday. It should be loads of fun--and what a treat to get to spend four full days just making stuff and learning together! Undoubtedly, Josh will make something crazy and Sarah will shoot for something entirely overly ambitious. Should be a great time. Cheer, everyone! Related posts:Summer of Making Registration + ...
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05.20.09A Year O’ Screenprinted T-ShirtsI'm a bit late in posting these pictures, since I had to go to Pittsburgh for Quilt Market (check out photos of the cool stuff I saw over on Project 95's Facebook page and detailed write-ups about new releases that I'm posting on FabTalk; True Up is also continuing their great coverage of Market--thanks to East Coast Stringer Mary Beth, so make sure to check out that awesomeness as well), I had a bit of a delay in downloading these photos of a special project Josh and I worked on together. Susan's sweet little girl, Pearl, turned one about two weeks ...
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05.19.09Shameless Self-Promotion – We’re in Stitch Magazine!Have you seen Interweave's awesome special magazine, Stitch? We loved it when the first issue was released--it's defintiely a magazine for folks who love to sew and create. Well, the second issue of Stitch features a lovely article by the marvelous Susan Beal, and she interviewed Sarah for her article "Print Me," which is about how to customize your sewing with DIY screen-printed fabrics. And, also flattering, little ol' Sewer-Sewist was listed as resource for those aspiring to screen print at home. Stitch is on newsstands now--it's a great magazine and Susan's article is wonderful, featuring loads of interesting and inspiring ...
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03.30.09Garden Dreams[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Some of last year's bounty. Those beans were so, so, so good--an heirloom mix of bush beans that were almost leggy enough to be pole beans. Very sweet and crisp."][/caption] We've still been sick around here. Between the two of us, there hasn't been a single healthy day in all of March. Pretty crummy, huh? We've been keeping thoughts of warmer weather and less sickness alive in our hearts, though, by dreaming about this year's vegetable garden. We plant an organic vegetable garden every year. In fact, we have gardened together since 2001, when we had a plot ...
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12.29.08Snowpocalypse ‘08!!![caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Our plants are really not prepared for this type of thing."][/caption] Portland's was under siege--by snow--for the better part of two weeks. We, like everyone else in Stumptown, didn't adapt too well to our forced solitary confinement. But, it did give us a chance to take a few fun snow pictures--including those of the projects we (read: Sarah) made for people for Christmas. While we showed y'all these in our first Video Threads episode, we thought you'd want to see a few pictures--plus, you just gotta check out all the snow. First up in our snow fashion shoot, ...
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12.18.08Snowed In[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Notice that the dog has kicked off one of her booties? She really regretted that once she realized how cold the ground was."][/caption] Ugh. It's been frigid here in Portland, and we've even had a dusting of snow--a rare sight, for sure. So we've been stuck in the house (with the notable exceptions of Josh going to work for a few hours each day and venturing out to the Blazers vs. Kings game last night). You'd think that would help with the final push to get all of our holiday gifts finished and shipped. Yeah, you'd think. ...
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09.10.08Crafts We Can Believe InWe hope you'll humor us for a moment while we diverge ever-so-slightly from our regularly scheduled programming... From the "Crafters for Obama" badge that's been on our site since Julie Ree created "Crafters for Obama" back in January, you've probably noticed that we're supporters of Senator Barack Obama's campaign for the Presidency. We believe that his leadership can help our country move in the right direction. We've been personally affected by many of the tough issues that are facing our nation, and many of our friends and family have also been directing impacted by the poor economy, lack of accessible and ...
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09.09.08Book Review: Printing by Hand by Lena CorwinLena Corwin's book "Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils and Silk Screens" (published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, the same folks who brought us the beautiful Alabama Stitch Book) caught our eye when it was featured on Design Sponge earlier this summer. Her aesthetic is very interesting---rather minimalist, yet bold and printed. It's an interesting juxtaposition. The book is a comprehensive overview of all three major printing techniques (stamping, stenciling and screening) and their different applications using a variety of inks and printing surfaces. One of the most valuable aspects of this new book ...
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08.17.08Pillow FightNot really. But, we were hiding from the miserable heat this weekend (real heat, it was 100+ this weekend) in our air conditioned house and were very very bored. Josh hasn't sewn a whole lot in quite awhile, because he's been preoccupied with printing on fabric, wood and anything else that will hold still (so far, the dog's managed to avoid any customization). Since we've been sitting around watching the Olympics as well as season 5 of The Wire on DVD, we noticed that our couch isn't exactly that cushioned. Nor does it look that cool and/or interesting. In fact, it ...
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08.10.08Behind the TimesWhew! I'm still trying to catch up blog-wise since our computer crash (we lost 100+ photos through that whole mess). So, we're a bit behind the times with posting some completed projects. My mom's birthday has come and gone once again, and once again, I made her a new bag (the woman used to just have one bag and carry it until it died, so I've taken it upon myself to ensure that she has an appropriate wardrobe of bags for various occasions). Last year, it was the Amy Butler High Street Messenger Bag. This year, it's another Amy Butler pattern ...
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08.08.08Field Trip: A Hood River SurpriseWe really like the Columbia River Gorge town of Hood River. Not only is it beautiful, scenic and home to very cool action sports like kiteboarding and windsurfing, it's also home to both Full Sail Brewing (Session seems to have become our "house beer" lately) and Tofurky (don't knock it 'til you've tried it - the soy Italian sausage is really good!). You can't beat that! We, along with Sarah's mom, went out there for lunch this week and after lunch walked around the town. In a window of a shop called Parts + Labour, we spotted this: That vine of flowers ...
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07.24.08That was awesome!We had a real treat today---Rachel (aka Average Jane Crafter) and her wonderful hubby were here in Portland and Diane facilitated a fun get together this evening at Thatch, the super-cool tiki bar on northeast Broadway. Not only was the company fabulous, it's pretty awesome to feast on pupu platters and drinks with umbrella garnishes. We feel so lucky to be a part of such a fabulous creative community and even more fortunate that those connections can translate into "real life." Thanks, Diane, for bringing everyone together---this was definitely a major highlight in our year! Although we do think that Rachel needs ...
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07.21.08Crafting Across Cultures(Or why we love Uwajimaya.) Maybe it's because we both lived in the international dorm in college, went to grad school oversees, did a fair amount of international traveling (before the dollar tanked and it was actually affordable to travel) and possibly even because Josh has a degree in International Studies, but we are both really interested in books, magazines and publications about sewing and "making stuff" from around the globe. (We also are both compulsive consumers of books and magazines on all sorts of subjects, so this feeds multiple interests at once...) One of our favorite Portland grocery stores happens to ...
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07.14.08A Day at the BeachWe're lucky here in Oregon to have wonderful beaches---and every last one of them are public, thanks to the 1967 Oregon Beach Bill (learn more on this site from an episode of The Oregon Experience). We haven't been to the beach since last fall because it's gotten just so expensive to drive the eighty or so miles over the mountains to the coast. But, we make the trek to Cannon Beach today---and oh was it worth it! We couldn't resist taking a few pictures so we'd have an excuse to post beach photos here on Sewer-Sewist... (Josh wearing his Sewer-Sewist ...
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07.13.08BlockedWe got the book Lotta Prints by Lotta Jansdotter (who also wrote the very-popular Simple Sewing book) when it first came out. As you know, Josh has gotten really interested in printmaking, especially screen printing, so this book had perfect timing as an impulse buy. We're not going to bother to review the book, since both Average Jane Crafter (aka Rachel) and Diane (of CraftyPod fame) wrote great reviews already, but we thought we'd share the first results from a project in the book. This was Sarah's first attempt in, oh, seventeen years or so, at printing using a linoleum block. ...
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07.04.08Sewing a CelebrationWe 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 which Sarah replied, "Good idea. We totally should." We tossed that idea around awhile, and on a relatively recent Powell's excursion (there are many of these such excursions) we picked up the groundbreaking Banners & Flags: How to Sew a Celebration. (For, like $5 or so...) There's ...
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06.28.08Tutorial: Adirondack Chair ReduxAs 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 fly now that we're back in Portland, so red and blue polka dot chairs seem much more appropriate. We're really enjoying our new and improved chairs. Hope you have fun with this! 1. Locate some old plastic Adirondack chairs, and clean them well (you don't what ...
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06.23.08Extreme Makeover: Plastic Adirondack Chair EditionNow 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 another time) have been resurrected. These look so awesome with super funky blue and red periwinkle polka dots that we're thinking this revamp may deserve a tutorial. (It's pretty simple, really...) What do you think? ~S & J Related posts:Letterpress Workshop – Final Day Today was the last ...
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06.18.08AnniversaryNo, not our "Blogiversary" (that's next month), but our real-life, actual anniversary was yesterday, June 17. It was our third, although we've actually been a couple since 1996. Being the crafty type Josh made us customized, hand screen printed matching T-shirts (sort of matching, actually, one in magenta, one in baby blue) as a surprise. We're not the sort of couple that normally wears matching T-shirts, but these are pretty awesome. Check out the screens ready to go. And they're in German, an homage to wacky eighties band and concerts shirts. Josh's creation is a tribute to the Moon Family Band---catchphrase: "A ...
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04.24.08Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome “The Velvet Overcoat!”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 some sewing mojo issues lately, which have somehow worked their way down the line to myself (or maybe it is the weather, I am officially rejecting and denouncing this crappy rainy spring). I had no confidence in my ability to set in the sleeves and ...
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03.28.08Big Printin’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 while it is really comfortable, how often does someone need a plain bright red shirt? If you are me, not often. I must admit that I love t-shirts with things printed on them. I am not much for the logo wear, that acts has expensive ...
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03.05.08Sewing EmergencyHave 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 deserted us for the greener pastures of Auckland, New Zealand, tells us that dialing 1-1-1 is like dialing 9-1-1 here in the States. But the best part is the police response to her panicked call: No one was sent as the local police lacked the necessary skill, ...
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02.23.08Putting on our idea hats…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. It is a fantastic place where you can not only get cool books (albeit in Japanese) and then get us all sorts of tofu and interesting sauces to put on said tofu. Plus, we were able to find some great embroidery books for Sarah’s mom, ...
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02.14.08Rocket ScienceWell, 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 of black thread. We're sure you can relate. Anyway, on Sunday when Sarah was wresting with that damn bobbin full of black thread that was all tied up with both the damn bobbin of hot pink thread and the damn bobbin of red thread, she happened ...
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02.10.08What’s going on?!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. It was lookin' good. Except one small thing. The fabric. It was a wool "melange" that we got at the Woolen Mill Annex during our little field trip last month. Pretty stuff, a beige and black herringbone with a blue and red windowpane woven into ...
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01.14.08Sew Together: How We Got StartedSo, 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 sporty and retro. A pair of shorts seemed to be a great way to make something he would wear and also something that he could actually make (with lots and lots of assistance from the Sewist). Oh, yeah, and Josh also expressed a keen ...
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01.12.08If they’d only learned to sew…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 clothes. ...when the last ice age hit, modern humans were well-equipped to produce clothes warm enough to fend off the cold. Because Neanderthals... [had not developed] advanced sewing technology. When the temperature dropped, they were stuck with clothes that didn’t keep them warm enough and didn’t ...
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01.05.08Field Trip: Our Sewing HeritageToday 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 nice, quality wool that's so soft you can wear it directly against you skin. It's nice stuff, to say the least. Our first stop? The Woolen Mill Store out on McLaughlin Boulevard---they didn't have any shirts, but they had a giant warehouse annex of fabric next ...
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12.31.07New Year, New BlogWe'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 a site here that really looks like us. The look and feel is a bit different than most blogs, but we like to think that's a good thing---'cause we're a bit different than most sewing bloggers out there (we like to think!). With this new ...
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12.24.07Happy HolidaysWishing each of you very happy holidays! No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
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11.30.07On The Newsstand…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. Here are few things that we came across this month. Having trouble finding jeans that fit? Virginia Postrel has an article in December’s Atlantic about changing ready-to-wear sizes, technology and $900 jeans for sale in England. There is an interesting data about how ...
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11.20.07A Sewer-Sewist Holiday Gift Guide, Part 2Part 2 of our Holiday Gift Guide... Miami Valley Pottery. This next one is a little tricky. Josh grew up with a guy named Nays (pronounced nace) who now runs a small pottery business near Dayton, Ohio. The thing is his website seems to be down and it is hard to get a look at the wonderful work that he does. Nonetheless, we strongly support his desire to bring hand made and wood fired pottery to people at production pottery prices. You can see we used one of his lovely pieces used to model the “Call of the Wild Hat” hat. ...
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11.12.07Another one down…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 together quickly and looks really sharp. It could use some pockets, but then it wouldn't be as simple to make reversible---not that that's a critical feature of the bag, but it's a nice novelty. We think she'll enjoy this one. There's been a lot written about ...
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11.05.07Call of the Wild HatWe'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 skills on items that you don't have to fit. Josh's grandfather is a pretty cool dude. He's really hip (probably a better dresser than either of us on any given day), his hair always looks perfect and he's funny as all hell. Recently, Josh's mom got ...
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09.08.07Cat-tastic!!!We don't have a cat. In fact, both of us are horribly allergic, and our dog thinks that cats are extremely suspect. So, no cats for us. However, we've got a lot of kitties in our extended family. Since we're beginning to embark on our Great Making Everyone's Christmas Gifts Odyssey, we decided that Josh's dad's cat, Lieutenant, really really needs a Kitty Tunnel from Amy Butler's In Stitches book. (We'll review the entire book soon---promise.) Not only that, Lieutenant needs, really needs, a funky-fresh, Miami Vice-style lime green flamingo print Kitty Tunnel lined with hot pink fluffy fur. This is ...
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09.03.07It’s Labor (of love) Day WeekendHere at Casa de Sewer-Sewist we're celebrating the long Labor Day weekend by juggling a bunch of different works in progress. There's nothing like a three day weekend to encourage you to start more projects than you can finish. There's something about that extra day to make you overly-ambitious. Anyway, Josh is slogging along on another pair of Simplicity 3891 pants. (The photo at the top of this post is Josh working on these pants, by the way.) This time, he's tapered in the leg so it's shaped more like a boot cut pant rather than the exaggerated, ultra-wide cargo leg ...
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08.28.07Shoe contract?from sarah the sewist So can you get a shoe contract for sewing? Josh saw me sewing with my brand-spankin' new shoes on (oddly, Vans seem to be the only shoes that I can wear while sewing and get enough traction for optimal foot pedal control) and stuck the sticker that was in the shoe box on the foot pedal. We have a lot of vintage skateboarding magazines around the house at the moment (believe it or not, these are related to my job---I have a very cool job) and Josh was inspired by the ads in them. They always show some ...
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08.26.07Stop, Drop & StuffWe're both sick---nothing like a late summer cold to make you feel stupid. In order to alleviate the boredom, we decided to work together and make the GIANT, Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillows. The fabric is Joel Dewberry's Manzanita Basket - Red Mix. Originally Josh wanted to use this fabric to make a shirt and then the Sewist thought of making a dress out of it (something like the Charmed Dress, but actually a dress and not half of one). Thankfully we didn't because this fabric is a little, well, busy. This looks cool as pillow, and ...
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07.27.07Back to the Rose City Textiles SaleColumbus Crew Major League Soccer team jersey fabric. White on white. Need we said more? Related posts:A Year O’ Screenprinted T-Shirts I’m a bit late in posting these pictures, since I...Letterpress Workshop – Final Day Today was the last day of our letterpress workshop–and it... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
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07.26.07Sporty Fabric HaulIn our ongoing quest to identify and procure the perfect vintage-style baseball flannel (more on that later), we visited Rose City Textiles deep in the heart of Portland's Northwest Industrial District this weekend. We'd read that they sold fabrics mostly for active wear, and thought they may sell the perfect stretchy wool flannel. They didn't. But it was an experience nonetheless. We walked in, and were greeted with, "Are you here for the sale?" Looking at each other, "Uhhh, okay." We were led through the store (Sarah was momentarily distracted en route but some interesting-looking bamboo knit) to the back, which was an ...
