Josh per a tres!

Red, black & white banners flying on the stage outside the Rose Garden Arena before the Trail Blazers' first playoff game in several years. These semi-transparent banners are really beautiful rustling in the breeze with the cityscape in the background.

I’m hoping that “Josh per a tres!” actually does mean “Josh for three!” in Catalan, because that’s what the online translator said, and those things are never wrong–right?

I thought I’d share Josh’s latest screen printing project–an impromptu one, at that. (Although, let’s all agree that normal people don’t plan and execute a three-color screen print on an “impromptu” basis–Josh is weird.)

It’s been well documented that Josh has officially jumped on the Portland Trail Blazers bandwagon in a big way. (Although, really, he’s been on the bandwagon for about three years, but he’s reached the terminal stage of BlazerMania–emotional investment.) He has also sucked it up and finally become, like the rest of us here in Portland, a big Rudy Fernandez fan. Portland hearts Rudy, an flashy player from Spain–and people are wearing the T-shirts around to prove it. (Seriously, the now-defunct G.I. Joe’s sold them. First they were just women’s shirts, but then they started stocking men’s and you’d see a lot of very old male Blazers fans wearing them too.) I think the final straw was last Wednesday, at the Trail Blazers’ last regular season game, and Josh’s return to going to games after nearly a month of dealing with a nightmarish situation with regard to the horrendous customer service by the Trail Blazers season ticket staff and dealing with the thugish occupants of section 322 in the Rose Garden over the course of 41 games (and really, I’m pretty sure that I’m not quite ready to drop my complaint after the service folks’ pathetic reaction to our concerns). What was so special about Rudy’s performance that night? Well, he made six freaking three-point shots! Six! Which meant that he also broke the rookie record for most threes in a season. (You can check out some highlights of Rudy hitting threes this season here and if you’re feeling really wild and crazy, check out this phenomenal bit of play from Rodolfo.)

So, a bit more about Josh’s inspiration. Rudy makes a really unique and energizing hand gesture when he makes a three, and fans have started imitating him when he scores. It’s joyous, and it gets everyone fired up.

Portland, Oregon - Where the NBA Playoffs are finally happening again!

Josh got the idea to create a screenprint based upon the logo from the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain–you know, as a shout-out to that awesome city and country. (We went to Spain in 1998 and spent quite a bit of time in Barcelona, it’s one of the most wonderful places we’ve been–and we’d love to go back sometime.) Do you remember that logo? 

This is Josh’s re-interpretation:

A last-minute three-color screenprint? What a maniac!

Josh elongated the “face” to better resemble Rudy, and added Rudy’s signature “3″ hand gesture. The results are pretty nifty, if I do say so myself. 

The Trail Blazers put up this awesome banners of all the players all over the Rose Garden Arena outdoor concourse. They're really swell-looking. Here, Josh demonstrates Rudy's "3" sign under one of the Rudy banners.

Now, Josh would be the first to admit (actually, he did admit it to me yesterday), that he got all nervous about the playoff game on Saturday night (with good reason, apparently) and had to do something, hence the complexity of the three-color screenprint. He also printed me one. 

Josh tried to get me to take my picture under a certain players banner, but I thought that would be 1) a mixed basketball metaphor and 2) too Fan Girl.

Sadly, the Blazers lost their first playoff game, and I was–frankly–devastated. I never imagined that they’d lose, let alone get blown out. But, I’ve got to believe they’ll come back with a vengeance. So, I’m asking y’all a favor: If you currently have no NBA loyalties, or if your team’s not in the playoffs (I’m speaking to you, Phoenix Suns fans–I rooted for y’all’s team for a long while during the Jail Blazers Era and have even read :07 or Less.), please consider sending some positive playoff energy our way. It would mean a hell of a lot. For inspiration, here’s a video we shot at the Playoff Rally at Pioneer Courthouse Square on Thursday. 

15,000 of us showed up to cheer on the team just for making the playoffs! Look how excited everyone is! We need this here in Portland! So, please, send some positive vibes here to the Pacific Northwest.

~Sarah

P.S. You can check out my Flickr set for our pics from Saturday’s game.

Golden Globes, J-Boy Style

Bowing to the unrelenting pressure from Sarah (not really), it is now time for my Year-in-Review for 2008. I think we should do this Golden Globe style: Look! There’s Sarah’s Amy Butler purse sitting at the table getting drunk with George Clooney!

And now for the awards…

The most useful thing I made myself this year. (This award is presented by Sarah’s lovely blue dress.)

And the winner is…

The orange and blue hat was in heavy rotation most of the year.

My Baseball Hat! In surprise move that has totally left the producers of the Oregon Camouflage Sweatshirt reexamining, not only their script, but their tiny marketing budget, this low-budget indie project has come out of nowhere to capture the hearts and minds of, well, me. Why did I love this project? It is functional, fun and was on my head most of the spring and fall (too hot for the summer). I wasn’t even expecting this draft of the project to work and sometimes our “mistakes” lead to better things (I think Sarah might have edited that exact line out of our wedding vows).

The most useful thing Sarah made for me.

And the winner is…

Oh, something that didn’t make the blog (occasionally that happens). My awesome, blossom, Heather Ross gold fish fabric PJ bottoms. They are PJs–I am an adult and yet I still refer to them not by their proper name, pajamas, so you know they gotta rock.

The most disturbing trend of 2008.

Oh, and  we have a TIE…

We've definitely upgraded our screen printing set-up since this early go at it.

In a surprise move, I actually spent a lot of time showing Sarah how to screen print. If you know the blog, you know I am the dumb ass, so this shift from grasshopper to master has been strange (but fun). If only I could be a hard ass and make her clean her own screens, then I would feel like I had some real power. (As an aside, she has been less rigid about making me pin my own things when they aren’t working. Could my subtle mind control be working? Will I get her to learn to “paint the fence” by painting our fence? This could be THE story line to follow in the New Year).

Is this cool or concerning? You be the judge.

I think you all know what is coming next. Sarah’s ascension to uber-Blazer geek being broadcast to the world. Screen printing, season tickets, twitter followers? What is the world coming to? Did I mention she was on the 2008 Fan Board? Of course I have been caught up in this, but can we live in a world where the Blazers are playing into late-June? This also could be a story to follow.

(Would somebody please stop drink service to my Dayton Triangle Hoodie? Not winning does not give you the right to drink copious amounts of Bourbon and punch Jack Nicholson. Good thing that went down at the commercial break.)

Biggest question of 2008.

And the winner is…

While the overcoat didn't get a lot of run, the shoes I'm wearing in this shot sure did.

In a landslide:  Why didn’t I wear my velvet clothing more? Pants from ’07 and a lovely jacket from ’08 just sat in the closet. They need a better agent (or belt loops in the case of the pants).

Let’s wrap this up…

Weirdest thing I did in a snowstorm that might become a feature.

Obviously it isn’t walking around in boots and no pants (which didn’t happen). It is the Video Threads series. Look for more; it was fun to do.

Best value in the house.

Besides the dog, the re-subscription to Burda World of Fashion. Man, that is expensive on the newsstand (did I sound old using the phrase “newsstand,” we need more of those by the way). If you like it, get a damn subscription. You, your accountant and your mailman will all be happy.

Most interesting thing about having a website.

We sure had a hell of a lot of fun with this crafty posse at Thatch this summer.

All of the cool people I have got to meet this year. Really, I know I am the quiet one (which is very real), the one that is not as web 2.0 connected, but whether in person, on the comments or through Sarah’s stories, I am continually impressed. We had a political component this year, which I had a lot of trepidation about; it only produced a handful of hateful and idiotic comments. I think that most people, even if you didn’t agree with us politically, appreciated the passion. Thanks, it means a lot. Plus I got to meet Pearl, who is just about the coolest.

Coolest spouse in the house.

And there she is... (At the Barack Obama rally at Memorial Coliseum this spring.)

You all know it has to be the Sewist. As I have been distracted by work, printing and running she has kept the website up and still encouraged me to explore my creative side. I am a lucky mofo–look for me to pull my weight around here more in ’09.

~Josh

Buffet of Goodness (AKA The Mysterious Case of the Cursed Hoodie)

I have a terrible, sinking feeling that my latest screen printing project may be cursed. Which is truly unfortunate.

This cool hoodie can't be cursed... Can it?

Before you continue reading this post, I do want to make an important point: I’m not a Fan Girl. And I’m certainly not a Channing Frye Fan Girl. If I were going to be a Fan Girl of any of the Trail Blazers players, it would have to be Martell Webster. Yes, I know Rudy Fernandez is the flavor of the month, but, for me–if I were to become a Fan Girl in a parallel universe–it would have to be Martell. (Now you may click through to the rest of the post, and settle in for a lengthy post.)

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More Blazers Craftiness

Obviously, I’m in need of a cell phone with a better camera, because I’ve spotted some awesome Trail Blazers craftiness at the last three games and my pictures suck, suck, suck. First, on Monday versus the Sacramento Kings, Susan and I were behind this guy on our way to the Fan Shop:

This dude cut strips of black, red and white felt and then sewed them to a patch to create a wig fit for a true Blazermaniac.

Next, the lady sits in the row in front of us, and sewed a great blouse out of Trail Blazers branded fabric (they sell it at The Despot) that she wears as a jacket to the games. Her collar points are a work of art, and I wish this picture was better so that you could see them in all their perfectly pointy glory.

This woman is a hardcore fan. Not only does she wear this awesome home sewn Blazers blouse, she simultaneously listens to the to games on the radio and keeps a stat sheet while watching the games. Impressive. She's kind of my personal hero now.

And finally… Josh and I got to sit in a suite in the game versus the Miami Heat because I was on the 2008 Fan Advisory Board and it was our last get-together. (This was a nice upgrade from our upper bowl seats.) The wife of one of the Board members made the most amazing sign ever. Ever. Check it out.

For those of you not in the know, "G.O." stands for Greg Oden, the team's 7 foot center who was out last year (his rookie season) due to knee surgery.

The sign was created by Michelle, who is another Crafty Blazers Nut. She made this sign using glitter and installed a battery pack (battery pack!!!) to illuminate the basketball. The glitter letters pulled the whole thing together. Needless to say, her sign is unchallenged in its awesome. However, the geniuses who operate the fan cam thing that put people’s signs on the giant jumbo-tron thing obviously didn’t understand this and failed to feature her sign. Personally, I think this is a travesty of monumental proportions. My theory is that they didn’t want all the other sign makers to feel bad because their signs didn’t involve battery packs. It’s just a theory, though.

~Sarah

Bingo, Bango, Bongo!

That post title doesn’t really mean anything, but it’s a quote from the great Bill Schonely, the best play-by-play announcer of all time. When someone would do something really awesome, The Schonz would randomly shout, “Bingo, Bango, Bongo!” There were other things, too. Like, “Rip City!” or “Ocean to Ocean…” or “Lickety Brindle up the Middle.” I listened to him call Portland Trail Blazers games on the radio my whole life, and no on will ever be as awesome as The Schonz. Seriously, Josh and I saw him walking down the street last year and I literally started hyperventilating. He’s that rad of dude.

Anyway, this post is about a T-shirt I screen printed and embroidered, but you’re going to have to humor me a bit while I digress…

I'm not a crazed fan! Really. I'm not. I swear.

It’s been well established that I’m a crazy fan of Portland Trail Blazers basketball. And keep in mind, Trail Blazers fans are a special breed of crazy in general, so that’s saying something. This season, we are actually season ticket holders. We have seats waaaaaay up in section 322 to each and every game this year. This is going to sound cheesy, but this is actually a life-long dream of mine. When I was a kid it was nearly impossible to get tickets. When Josh and I moved back to Portland, no one was going to the games, because of the whole Jail Blazers thing, and we were able to score all kinds of free or deeply discounted tickets (great seats, too). So we went a lot. (An aside: for the longest time, I thought that if I was at the game, the Trail Blazers couldn’t lose–it wasn’t until Portland played the stupid Clippers that season that I attended a Blazers’ loss.) That year, 2006-07, was Brandon Roy‘s Rookie season–he eventually become Rookie of the Year, Ime Udoka made the team (he’s a Portlander) and Nate McMillan was coaching. The vibe was changing, and fans kind of knew that it was Zach Randolph‘s last season before he was traded. Portlanders knew the team was changing–and something good was going to happen. Then Portland won the #1 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft.

It was amazing.

Blazermania was back.

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Book Review: French General Home Sewn

Cover of Kaari Meng's French General Home Sewn, published by Chronicle.

Chronicle Books’ latest sewing offering, French General Home Sewn: 30 Projects for Every Room in the House, is a unique sewing project book from Kaari Meng, owner of the well-known store in L.A., French General (you can visit her blog here). (I figure it’s pretty well-known, since I’ve actually heard of it.) Part tour of the vintage French aesthetic, part sewing book, this is an appealing book for folks who are Francophiles or fabric collectors, in addition to those looking for unique designs for sewing useful and decorative home items.

Every sewing book should include a pet bed.

This book was on my radar initially because I did judge a book by its cover. It looked so incredibly attractive, and visually very distinctive (I am slightly obsessed with design). In that area, Home Sewn did not disappoint. From the cover, which has an unusual fabric-y texture, to the hand-sketches of the project instructions, there is no doubt that this is a book inspired by the French aesthetic. Each project is even named in both French and English.

Floral cocktail coasters made from 5-inch squares of fabric--a perfect project for using up remnants.

However, the sewing projects and innovative use of special fabrics are really what make Home Sewn stand out. Kaari Meng is a collector of vintage and antique French fabrics–and she has been doing so for years, “whether they are small scraps or large panels.” You may have noticed that I love Japanese fabrics, especially those designed by Etsuka Furyura. Sadly, they’re also quite expensive, and so it would be more cost-effective to purchase small quantities. This book is full of ideas for small pieces of fabrics, from the coasters pictured above, to small lavender-filled cushions. So, if you have an affinity for distinctive, and expensive, fabrics, there are a number of projects in Home Sewn that could fit your needs.

My favorite project in Home Sewn--simple wall hangings and a shaped banner.

There are several projects that I haven’t seen in other sewing books, such as a shower curtain and a bath mat. While these are very basic projects, it’s the discussion of the usage of materials that really shines here. She recommends using natural hemp. Why? Because hemp fibers are naturally absorbent and fast-drying, which makes it ideal for bathroom projects. What a nice alternative to the plastic-y stuff that dominate mass-produced bathroom textiles.

Quick-Dry Bath Mat: The striped ticking adds a bit of style to this simple project.

And that speaks further to my earlier point about Meng’s book–it’s definitely a book that’s written more with the fabric-lover in mind, rather than a more sewing focused work. While the projects are generally quite clever unique interpretations of really useful everyday items (the fact that the projects are focused on items that you actually need is a huge bonus in my mind), fabrics really take center stage in this book. Even when the projects utilize very simple, unprinted textiles.

Scalloped tablecloth made with hemp fabric.

I was thrilled to see a different interpretation of “Party Banners” in this book—these are lined and, in the beautiful vintage French fabrics used in the book, could really be a wonderful decorative addition to a home office or guest room. (Full disclosure: I have party banners hanging in my home office.)

Hooray for party banners!!!

There is an added bonus to Home Sewn if you’re mad for embroidery (I’m looking at both of you, AverageJaneCrafter and my mom). There are many intricate, vintage-looking embroidery patterns included with the patterns in Home Sewn. They’re meant to mimic the look of the embroidery on antique linens. There’s also a perfectly respectable step-by-step of basic embroidery stitches.

Directions page.

A note on the book’s design and presentation: As much as I really love this book (I will probably make a number of the projects as I need housewares), this is another book in which I wish there’d been a bit more attention to the way in which the book is designed from the user’s perspective. Like so many craft books, the font is rather small and lightweight, which is difficult when you’re sewing. I generally glance down at the directions while I’m doing other sewing prep, and if the font were one point larger (which would make the book longer, and therefore more expensive, which isn’t a good thing either), it would be much easier to read. My other gripe is that, despite the absolutely stunning photography, some of the projects are hard to see completely in the photos, and it’s hard to get a sense of the scale and how some of the projects should look when finished. But would I trade the almost coffee-table book look of Home Sewn for boring pictures? Nope. Also, beginning sewers and sewists should be aware that there are not a large number of drawings accompanying the projects, although there are a few for each one. This doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, for straightforward projects like these, they’re just a bonus. However, if you’re used to the beginner-level books that have a lot of detailed illustration and instruction, be forewarned. Personally, I think you don’t need a lot of illustrations once you’ve got the basics of sewing down.

Despite those relatively minor criticisms, Home Sewn is really a winner of a sewing book. It is very, very different from anything else out there. It not only educated me about the French aesthetic, it got me thinking about new ways to utilize my favorite fabrics, about the benefits of collecting small pieces of really special textiles and about the beauty in elegant touches added to simple, everyday items.

If you’re a stationary fan, there is also lovely stationary that’s been developed as well. You can check it out here. Also, during the month of November, Kaari Meng is hosting a stash-busting contest with a really swell prize. You can get more details right here.

~Sarah

Sewing Heritage: Women, Sewing & the WPA

Folks, it’s time for a little sewing history lesson…

The Works Progress Administration (rename Work Project Administration in 1939) was created in 1935, and employed millions of people–especially in the rural West and Appalachia and other mountain regions–following the catastrophic downturn of the U.S. economy resulting in the Great Depression. What many people don’t know about the WPA is that a sizable number of people put to work during this time were women, around fifteen to twenty percent of WPA-participants. They were considered unemployed heads of household for a variety of reasons, including abandonment or a husband’s death or disability–and the lack of jobs caused many men to seek jobs far afield, thus allowing women to participate in WPA programs as their only source of family income. Almost every single female WPA participant, with the exception of the very small Professional Division, was involved in a sewing project of some sort. Later in the program, bookbinding was added to the WPA program, and women were engaged in that activity as well. Interestingly, while the WPA made the intentional decision to pay women and men the equally for the same work, sewing–and eventually bookbinding, were the lowest paid positions available. Since most women at that time were still sewing by hand, they received training in using sewing machines. Once they became skilled with the machines, they were put to work making clothing, bedding and supplies for hospitals and orphanages.

The poster above, from the Library of Congress catalog, was used to advertise the positions using sewing skills available to women in Ohio via the WPA. Note that “Power Machine Operator” is highlighted at the top of the poster.

~Sarah

Note: I am likely going to make “Sewing Heritage” a semi-regular series here. I’m personally interested in the subject, and have been for some time—even prior to our post of the same title. I have both a B.A. and an M.A. in Women’s Studies and my focus was on history (at one point, I seriously considering getting a PhD and going into academia)–and for a long time I was very interested in women and the small craft and big-time garment industries, both in the U.S. and abroad, past and present. Anyway, I figure that this is as good of place as any to share both a bit of my knowledge on this topic and some of my finds (the LOC image library is amazing). Let me know what you think!

Crafts We Can Believe In

We 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 affordable health insurance, the expense of a higher education, among other issues. We’re also fairly typical Gen Xers, we think, having never really been thrilled about the dialog and personalities in American politics, and generally feeling like politicians at all levels don’t speak to the issues that matter to us. We both went to college in Washington, D.C., and grew to loath many of the politicians on both sides of the aisle–since politics is so very “in your face” all the time (Joe Lieberman cut us in line at the supermarket once, so some of those loathings are more personal than others). We were both very excited by Senator Obama’s speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, and were thrilled when he became a viable candidate after his win in the Iowa caucuses in January.

This weekend, Sarah decided to take that enthusiasm for the candidate into our crafty/sewing/screen printing world, and made some old school pennants to hang in the window of her home office and support our candidate. (Everyone–and in our neighborhood we sort of mean everyone–has a yard sign, no one has craftastic handmade pennants.)

Sarah made these creating a pennant template, using our flag making book as a resource, pinking the edges so they wouldn’t unravel/look snazzy, and then screen printing the Obama campaign logo on each one in white. The screen was created using the stenciling technique from Printing by Hand, but utilizing Tyvek instead of mylar. The way the logo is designed, it was a relatively simple one to cut. The tough decision was, however, how to attach the pennants together. Twine just seem a bit lazy, bias tape seamed bulky, but rick-rack, that was just right. Sarah stitched the pennants onto the rick-rack a couple of times so that they’re nice and secure and the pennants hang flat.

They’re now hanging in the large window of Sarah’s office. They look pretty sharp.

(Once the campaign season’s done, Sarah’s wanting to make some Portland Trail Blazers pennants to replace these. With the retro logo, of course.)

We know we’re not the only crafters out there who have been making all sorts of items celebrate the historic campaign by Senator Obama–whether they’re knitted, sewn, printed, embroidered or some crazy plastic canvas. In fact, pretty much every day we see something new and fabulous on Flickr or one of the blogs we read. We thought it would be nice to have a central place to feature some folks’s work, so Sarah’s set up a quasi-photoblog over here, called “The Obama Craft Project,” where she’ll be featuring some fabulous Obama inspired crafts. Stop by and check it out. If you know of anything that we should feature, send us an email at sewersewist@gmail.com or pop it into the Flickr pool.

The Obama Craft Project is obviously focused on our support of this particular candidate that we believe in, and we know that not everyone who reads Sewer-Sewist agrees with us. However, that’s one of the beautiful things about our country on a macro level, and sewing and creating “stuff” on a smaller scale — it takes a diverse chorus to create a vibrant country and community.

“It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.”

–Barack Obama

~S & J

A Giveaway!

(Note: Comments are now closed. We will announce the randomly-drawn winner shortly.)

But you gotta work for it a little bit.

Remember The Alabama Stitch Book that I reviewed back in June? The one that I used to make the skirt that I wore to that get-together with some old friends? Well, the lovely folks at Stewart, Tabori & Chang sent me a copy to review as well, so I have two copies. So, looks like I need to get rid of one of them…

I think that whomever gets the copy of this book will really enjoy it. There are lots of great project ideas (which can easily be converted to machine-sewn projects for the hand-sewing averse among us, ehem…) and the real gem is the author’s take on sustainability and rejuvenating traditional craft.

In that vein, in order to win the book, I’d like to ask you to leave your tips in the comments section of this post on reusing, recycling or integrating “green” concepts into your sewing and crafting. Do you search out organic cottons? Refashion thrift store finds (Antoinette, I’m talking about you!)? Try to shop locally? Plus, feel free to make the argument as to why sewing in and of its self is sustainable… If you’re not feeling green, share something about your sewing heritage, which is a huge theme in the book. If you do both, I’ll enter you twice.

If you feel compelled to pass this giveaway along to someone else (via Facebook, Twitter, some other social networking service or on your own blog), let me know by emailing me at sewersewist@gmail.com and I’ll enter you again.

I’ll keep this giveaway open until midnight (Pacific) on Monday, August 25.

Thanks, and I hope the winner enjoys this book as much as I did!

~Sarah

Field Trip: A Hood River Surprise

We 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 is constructed of pieces of sewing pattern tissue with measuring tapes, ribbon and pins holding the display together. Plus, some embroidery hoops thrown in for an added dash of stitchery. Here’s a close up of one of the flowers:

It was a pretty fun idea and certainly drew us into the shop (which was a very interesting place, not only with clothes and accessories from small brands, but a number of one-of-a-kind handmade items – including clothing). Although, perhaps normal people are more excited about the merchandise than the sewing-related window display…

This would be fun to replicate with any of the zillions of tissue paper flowers tutorials out there, especially this elaborate tissue paper bouquet from (gulp) Martha Stewart (note how they say it takes “just an afternoon”). In fact, that would look just right on the desk in the new workroom/home office/sewing room we’re in the middle of organizing (that probably won’t happen, but we can dream, right?).

Finally, a use for those Simplicity patterns we bought just because they were on sale for 99 cents!

~Sarah & Josh

Crafting 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 be Uwajimaya, way over on the west side (it may technically be Beaverton, actually). Uwajimaya is an Asian supermarket with lots of wonderful foods are very wonderful prices. They have interesting vegetables, noodles of all kinds and more sauces than you can imagine. They also have a fascinating assortment of Hello Kitty merchandise, Japanese cookware, a Shiseido shop and all sorts of odds and ends. But the gem at Uwajimaya is the Kinokuniya Bookstore, which is a chain of bookstores in Japan that has a few branches in the U.S. as well. Whenever we do some grocery shopping at Uwajimaya, we always spend a fair amount of time poking around the bookstore at the interesting magazines (the men’s fashions magazines are amazing—especially the single-topic ones devoted to things like canvas sneakers or jeans) and the gorgeous craft books. In fact, we’ve accumulated quite the little collection of Japanese sewing books.

The photography and styling in these books is just beautiful.

When we stopped by Uwajimaya this weekend, they were featuring Japanese craft books as part of their “Japanese Crafting Books Fair.”

Which was less of a “fair” per se (but it was still more than usual), and more of a special table set up with a display of unique craft books. This was our favorite that they selected for special display:

In addition to the “Handmade Dog Dresses” book above (which we resisted buying, but it sure took a lot of self-discipline and reminders to ourselves that the dog mind not ever forgive us), there was a huge knitting book selection (Japanese knitting uses charts, so the language issue wouldn’t be too bad), softies, crochet, beading and embroidery as well as the awesome sewing selections.

We’ve been exercising restraint with the unnecessary purchases lately, but had to get the latest issue of “Female,” a sewing magazine.

The reason? TEN HAT PATTERNS! The perfect companion for the Idea Hat Recipe Book! Our hat-making power has almost doubled. (Perhaps we have an unusual enthusiasm for hat-making? Just maybe?)

Even though the patterns are complicated-looking because 1) neither of us knows a word of Japanese (okay, Sarah knows how to answer the phone in Japanese due to having a roommate from Japan for a semester) and 2) the pattern paper is crazy, with loads of intersecting lines, our (really Josh’s) first foray into sewing hats using the Japanese patterns really helped us develop an understanding of how hats are constructed and what shapes make up the various styles of hats. It’s pretty fascinating, really.

The perfect accompaniment to a fresh set of Japanese hat patterns? A bit of fabric from Heather Ross’ Rabbits and Racecars line for Kokka of Japan (purchased at Bolt after our trip to Uwajimaya). This may just need to be a driving cap…

~Sarah & Josh

A Day at the Beach

We’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 T-shirt was purely coincidental, though.)

Enjoy!

~Sarah & Josh

Sewn House = Fun House

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 “Fun House” in the pages of their latest catalog.

If the Sewer ever neglected to trim his threads like Anthropologie did for this photo-shoot, he’d be in big trouble, but I guess that’s artistic license for you. Actually, I just bought The Alabama Stitch Book (I’ll review it soon, I promise) and while I really like that book, one of the things that drives me nuts is their not trimming their threads as a “design element.” I know this makes me profoundly uncool, but leaving threads untrimmed drives me nuts.

Anyway, my weirdness aside, it’s interesting to see sewing and general craftiness used in marketing. Sort of shows that even the illusion of handmade is appealing on some level, which in a sense is positive thing. (Even though I take issue with the fact that Anthropologie’s stuff is not, in fact, handmade, and is actually likely from factories in China or wherever .)

I do really like what they did with the walls in this shot, though…

Looks like they took fabric pieces and adhered them like wallpaper. Wouldn’t that we great in a sewing room? And if you didn’t want totally trash your walls, I’m thinking that you could stitch together some canvas the size of your wall and use spray adhesive to attach your fabric scraps to that, them tack the whole thing up on your wall for a similar effect. It would be a totally interesting backdrop for photos, too. Actually, that could be kind of cool on a small scale as well—sort of a fabric collage. Hmmmm… Something to think about, huh?

This is not how I store my spools of thread, by the way.

(You’ve gotta love that the sewn together house is the “Fun House.” As if you needed to tell us that!)

~Sarah

Things to Make & Do

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 head wear, my very nice wool Borsalino Fedora (thanks babe!), I interfaced this model with fusible fleece (which really is the gift that keeps on giving) and underlined it with lining fabric. The result is a really nice quilted look from the inside and some nice double needle top stitching (that isn’t as random as I had hoped for, unfortunately).

I am always struck by the number of stitches that make up a really great commercial hat, and have decided to embrace this idea of a not perfectly flat fabric but one with character from the threads. This is a good revelation for me. I used another piece of wool fabric, this being suiting, from Pendleton and cut it at different angles to make the plaid look random, which again doesn’t look as random as I desired, but I can live with that.

They Call Me “Crop-a-dile Dundee”

My other silly project this week has been adding eyelets to my sneakers using Sarah’s recently acquired Crop-a-Dile (which is not only a manly shade of pink, but also on sale at Costco right now with a ton of eyelets for $29). (The Crop-a-Dile is a gadget that looks like massive hole punch that easily inserts eyelets, snaps, brads, grommets, etc.)

I think it was worth the ten minutes to add some additional flair to some admittedly boring kicks. Why don’t sneakers come with eyelets anymore? We all know they make everything look sweeter. I have a feeling there will be a lot of shoe customization around these parts for the next couple of days.

~josh

Putting 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, who is quite the stitcher. Taking inspiration from the Geek Sewing blog we used to enjoy (it’s no longer in existence, but Geek Sewing contributes over on the forums at Tamyu’s site) we thought, “What the hell? Let’s give this Japanese sewing thing a try.” Sarah found a couple of really great books on retro clothing (we’ll write about those soon, we promise) and we both were over the moon with excitement for this fantastically titled book: Idea Hat Recipe!

So, we’re pretty sure that “Idea Hat” is a Japanese translation of the term “thinking cap.” It was written by a Paris-based Japanese hatmaker called Sept Bleus. There’s sort of a duel concept thing going on in this book. First, all of the hats resemble desserts. Second, the book comes with a bunch of different elements (printed on pattern paper like Burda World of Fashion) that are combined in “recipes” that you piece together to make different hat styles. So, there’s sort of a foodie kind of theme going on. The one we created was “Marcaron The Russe.”

Our first couple attempts were sort of like a bad fairy tale, one was enormous and the next was way too small. These are the problems you run into without directions that you can understand. If it were in German, between the two of us, we could figure it out. But Japanese—the only thing we understood were the numbers. But when they’re not related to anything, numbers aren’t that useful. We could have salvaged the first attempt, but Josh decided foolishly to cut eyeholes into it so he could look like a character from Fat Albert (Dumb Donald to be exact). Instead of looking cartoony, which would have made this needless destruction at least funny, Josh instead looked like a bank robber (a stupid, poorly wardrobed one at that).

For the first successful hat we used the leftover fabric from Sarah’s fabulous retro dress. Instead of adding seam allowances (we assumed that the Idea Hats needed seams added—they didn’t) we used the exact pattern pieces and just a tiny seam allowance. Josh added a covered button to the top to finish it off. This one’s just a smidge too big, but with enough blow drying, Sarah’s hair can puff up enough to make it work.

The second hat (it was quite a weekend) was made to match Sarah’s funky German soccer (fußball) jacket. We decided to use black medium weight denim and added an elastic headband to keep it tight and a really awesome metallic thread that matches the German flag on her jacket. Jawohl!

Coming soon… report on Josh’s hat adventure for himself and our first attempt at printing on fabric!

~Josh & Sarah