I really love jewelry that incorporates textiles. It’s something I’ve always wanted to dabble in, since I have so much lace and interesting vintage notions.

These pieces are from designer Emma Cassi. Aren’t they beautiful?

She also has an impressive styling portfolio and a blog.

My first tutorial up at the new blog is about making a silk scarf out of 1/2 yard silk charmeuse. I love this green one I made. It has a hand rolled hem, which I just love. I think these would make very nice gifts as well.

The best thing is that the tutorial includes other tutorials on how to create a french seam and how to make a hand rolled hem.

Hi everyone. I really couldn’t wait to share this with all of you. For many months, I have been working on designing a small collection of sewing patterns! They aren’t quite ready yet: the patterns are all designed and graded (and will be available in sizes 0-18), but I am still working on the instructions, packaging, and printing. The goal is to make them available in January.

I really think the designs themselves are wonderful. They encompass many things that I love: buttons, dresses that use more than one fabric, really flattering feminine cuts, linings where appropriate, and best of all - pockets! I’ve been wearing the samples I’ve sewn up, and I get tons of compliments, which is incredibly exciting.

So, why am I announcing all this before I have anything to show you? A couple reasons.

First, I’ve started a new blog over there, appropriately called the Colette Patterns blog. I will certainly still be keeping this one. I anticipate that I’ll be posting more helpful sewing and craft things, like tutorials, free patterns, tips & tricks, and fun things related to the new business over there. I’ll continue to post about my own personal projects and life here. I think you’ll really like both of them, so go subscribe!

The second reason is I wanted to see if any of you lovely sewers out there would be interested in testing the patterns for me. I would give you a choice between a few designs, you’d sew it up in whatever fabric you choose and let me know of any problems. You could feel free to write/blog/whatever about the project, if you’d like (or not). Don’t worry too much about your sewing skill level, a mix of people would be great.

If you sew and you’re interested, please just write me a note, let me know you’re interested, how long you’ve been sewing, and what you consider your skill level to be (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

Thanks so much for all of your kind words on this blog over the months. It has been so encouraging to see how many people appreciate my little projects.

Update: I have gotten a ton of responses, and truly appreciate it! As of now, I’m no longer looking for pattern testing volunteers. Thanks everyone!

It’s cold! I know I keep posting pictures of warm beverages, but they are a big part of my life at the moment. Warm tea, hot baths, and thick socks.

I have been working really hard on creative projects that I think you guys will really dig, but they’re not quite in the ready-to-announce phase. But I am molto excited about them and having trouble concentrating on anything else. Even Halloween has sort of slipped through my fingers this year. But I know it will be worth it.

This is a halloween sweater for a certain little girl who is dressing up as Lucy from the Narnia books (before she goes to Narnia). Her mom asked for help finding a vintage dress similar to this reference photo, and I offered to do the sweater up. The actual dress ended up being purple-blue colors, so I changed the embroidery a bit.

I actually had the embroidery floss lying around for a project I’d abandoned. I’m not much of an ebroiderer really, and had no idea how to transfer a pattern to a knit garment, so I ended up freehanding it. The back of the embroidery was interfaced with a knit fusible, which worked really well.

The actual knitting was pretty quick, which is why I love making kids’ stuff. I made up the pattern, and even while having to occasionally rip back a lot (like an entire sleeve), I was done in a couple weeks. I used cascade 220. I don’t recall the color, but it definitely looks period, especially with the tweedy bits. I really love this yarn, it’s so inexpensive and sturdy and warm and relatively soft and there are so many colors.

She is going to look so cute. I wouldn’t mind one of these myself.

While down south with my family, I got not one, but two amazing bags of treasure. First, my mom gave me this incredible collection of vintage buttons she’d acquired. Some are celluloid, many seem to be on these lovely sample cards. I love the idea of using matching buttons in different sizes, though I must say, they look good displayed as they are.

Thee are many many more buttons not pictured.

The other treasure was from nonna, who brought over a giant shopping bag full of vintage lace and other gorgeous notions that she’s collected over the years. This is the very fine, soft lace you see on silk lingerie from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. I can think of a million uses for this stuff. I will be wearing lots of lace-embellished things soon.

This thread looks so pretty in its box. I want to display it as is, does anyone have any ideas? I thought about putting some of these things in little glass cases, the sort they pin butterflies in.

These are bone crochet hooks. They feel so fine and delicate. I can’t wait to use them.

I sorted the lace into jars for now. yum.

If you’ve been reading a while, you know that I love Japanese craft, fashion, and style books. Japanese publishers put out a huge range of well-designed, beautifully photographed books and “mooks” (a cross between a magazine and a book), spurred by the Zakka design movement.

“Zakka has also been described as “the art of seeing the savvy in the ordinary and mundane”. The zakka boom could be recognized as merely another in a series of consumer fads, but it also touches issues of self-expression and spirituality. Cute, corny and kitschy is not enough. To qualify as a zakka, a product must be attractive, sensitive, and laden with subtext.”

Now I’ve gotten many questions about how to go about purchasing Japanese craft books, which can be pretty hard to come by, especially if you don’t live in a big city with a Japanese community. So I thought I’d put together a few resources that could be helpful.

One of the most helpful resources is the Crafting Japanese site, which is chock full of photos of various photos from books, and always lists each ISBN. If you see a book you like, having the ISBN can be really really helpful when searching a non-english site.

Another great resource is Flickr. There are groups on Flickr dedicated to craft books, many of which are Japanese, and it’s become standard practice for members to tag each book with its ISBN. My favorite is the “inspiring images from craft books” pool, but there are others dedicated to Japanese books as well.

As for buying the books, one option is to try a big Japanese bookseller. Many people order from Amazon Japan, and Craftlog has a guide to doing an ISBN search, if you don’t speak Japanese (I don’t). YesAsia is another big one. You could also try Kinokuniya, which now has an English interface. I buy almost all my Japanese books from Kinokuniya, but in the physical retail store in San Francisco, so I haven’t used the site much.

Ebay is another option. Try a search by ISBN, or check out this list of sellers.

You can also find them on etsy. I’ve found sellers such as chocolateswirl that offer a good range of knit and crochet books.

Last, try checking your local Japanese neighborhoods for bookstores. I am lucky enough to live in the bay area, where we have the blessedly huge Kinokuniya. I could live in this store.

Some people are concerned about being able to read the patterns in these books. I’m not sure why it is, but Japanese books tend to be extremely visual. For knitting and crochet, charts are always provided, and techniques are diagrammed. I’ve never had a problem figuring a pattern out, but keep in mind I’m a really visual learner.

By the way, if you’re looking for design inspiration, the Paumes books are incredible.

Hope this is helpful to you!

For a while now, I’ve been hearing about some super secret button store which is stocked with all manner of vintage buttons. I never understood why it was a secret, because I’m sure such a tiny little business could use the support and customers!

Anyway, I finally found it. Exclusive Buttons in El Cerrito is a teeny tiny little shop run by an incredibly helpful older lady, and stocked to the brim with vintage buttons still on their cards, along with buckles, closures, etc. The owner told me that they stock no plastic. I’m still confused about that because a lot of them seemed like plastic, and some things were clearly marked “bakelite,” which was the first manufactured synthetic plastic.

I bought several cards of beautiful buttons, but seriously had to restrain myself. Beautiful buttons can transform the plainest piece of clothing, but it’s really hard to find full sets of nice vintage ones.

But I think my favorite purchase was the vintage belt buckle kits for making fabric-covered belts! Remember when I was just recently pining for such a thing when I posted about this beautiful yellow Lorick dress?

And just look at those red and white flowery things. They look like christmas cookies. And the ones below are my favorite.

I always thought Tender Buttons in NYC’s garment district was the be all and end all in buttons. And it still wins for selection. But Exclusive Buttons is so much more charming, magical, old fashioned, and helpful.

Still addicted to crochet, and working on more complex things now. This is a lace scarf made from KnitPick’s CotLin. I think the color is “island.” It’s a perfect vintagey coral color, which looks rose in some lighting and peach in others.

It’s basically just a bunch of joined motifs from the Japanese crochet book mentioned previously.

I have a ton of the yarn left, since I originally thought I’d make a sweater with it. I think a matching cloche would be pretty, but cloches aren’t very summery, and this color and fiber is. And I’d still have a lot left.

I’m guessing crochet must be very popular in Japan, judging from the amazing array of great crochet books they have at Kinokuniya. I picked these up recently.

The book on the right are just a treasury of different motifs and edgings. The book on the left is called “romantic lace.” The below images are from this book.

I especially liked these roses.