Exploring craft, couture, and handmade style
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Kimono Book Educates with Gorgeous Photos and Informative Stories
Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, is a big kimono book with beautiful photography and smart text — a must read for anyone who loves textiles and fashion history. It is the official exhibition book for the V&A Museum exhibit of the same name, which ran from 27 Aug 2020 to 25 Oct 2020. Unfortunately, I wasn’t…
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A New Handknit Shawl Welcomes Spring in Style
It’s March and Spring is around the corner! When the weather is unpredictable, a perfect accent is a handknit shawl like the Elisabetta Damask Shawl, a light-as-a-feather piece made in fine tussah silk yarn that shimmers in the sunlight. The shawl is knit loosely in a geometric design that adds texture as well as dimension.…
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A Coat-Cape is the New Piece I Didn’t Know I Needed
Is it a coat? Is it a cape? Well, it’s actually a fabulous hybrid — a coat-cape made of felted wool fabric. With its swingy silhouette, stand collar, and lantern sleeves, it is comfortable and easy to wear, yet so stylish. I love capes with their simple style, but sometimes they can be a bit…
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Farewell to Manzanar: A Relevant Read 52 Years Later
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, author of 1973″s “Farewell to Manzanar”, the classic book about the World War II incarceration of Japanese-Americans, passed away last month. I had heard about the book since I was a child but never had the chance to read it until recently. What a powerful story. Houston’s memoir about her family’s experiences…
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The Magic of the Color Camel
Camel is a magical color. Timeless and elegant, the color describes the rich shades of a camel’s coat. While it hasn’t been a popular color in my wardrobe, I now have two articles of camel-colored clothing in my closet — my Retro Camel Coat and Connelly Cardigan — so I decided to explore the history…
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The Hand-knit Connelly Cardigan and its Twisty Cables
The Connelly Cardigan is my latest handknit project. This visually stunning design features a twisty cable pattern for the body and a simple 1×1 rib stitch for the elegant neckline and underarm. The resulting fabric is highly textured, ultra squishy, and dense, with a wonderful weight and drape. Worked from the top down, the neckline…
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A New Camel Coat with Retro Style
My new retro camel coat is the first camel-colored article of clothing I’ve ever owned. Yes, you heard it right. I’ve never gravitated to brown colors — always black or gray. So this new make in such a classic and timeless color is a first for me! Reissued Burda Pattern from 1955 When I saw…
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The Keeper of the Super Secret Teriyaki Sauce
My Obaachan’s (grandmother’s) super secret teriyaki sauce is legendary in my family. It has the perfect balance of sweet and salty and an unparalleled depth of flavor. Despite the tenacious efforts of various friends and family members over the years, she managed to keep the recipe a closely held secret. At least, I thought she…
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My New Skirt: Reverse Applique in the Alabama Chanin Way
It’s finished! My first project using the Alabama Chanin reverse applique technique is done and dusted! The skirt is made up of four identical panels. Each panel has a slight flare at the hem, giving the skirt a nice A-line shape when stitched together. The hem is left unfinished, as the jersey knit fabric will…
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The Nobel Peace Prize 2024 Shines a Light on Nuclear Taboo
This past week, the Nobel Peace Prize 2024 was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki for “its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” These efforts strive to maintain…
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The New Shirtdress: Femininity and Freedom are Always in Style
The shirtdress is the ultimate one-and-done garment. It is comfortable to wear, looks pulled together with a few key accessories, and doesn’t require time spent in front of a mirror agonizing whether an outfit “matches”. It is a classic that is always in style. Speaking of classic, who can forget Audrey Hepburn’s iconic shirtdress moment…
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Wearing my Handknit Twinset in the Wild
I finished knitting the Woolfolk Pringle Twinset back in June but didn’t have a chance to wear it out until now because the weather has been so warm! As I wrote in a prior post, I love how this set turned out. The Woolfolk Tynd yarn knits up into a soft, drapey, and lightweight fabric.…