My Friend In Kyoto Is Having A Sale

I met my friend in Kyoto via the SewMamaSew Blog.
We have so much in common with her growing up near where I live now. Her family lives in Oregon but she met and married a Japanese dude man over 25 years ago.

She has lived in Tokyo as well as other cities in Japan. She now makes her home in Kyoto which I visited a year ago in March of 2015.

She is in the process of building a house in Kyoto which is seriously different than building a house in Oregon. She blogs about it occasionally - the frustration of wanting a bathroom counter at "high" american standards instead of the lower japanese standard.

We both like to sew. And any other handcraft, for that matter. We love nature. When she travels back to the states to see her family, they make a beeline to camp out at Detroit Lake and make a family reunion of it.

She's having a sale in her etsy store this August of 20% off. Which is a really good deal.

Featuring many items made of Japanese fabrics, she can make you anything. She's that amazing. She usually adds something special to the package and will add Japanese stamps (better variety than in the states) to reflect your interests. I often see airplane stamps on my envelopes.  Packaging is definitely an awesome superpower of hers.

The sale code is AUGUST20. Her store is called CraftyTokyoMama on etsy.

One item she makes is well-made shopping totes - Tight 'n Tidy Totes. I have two and they have lasted quite well. I keep one rolled up in my purse for amazing garage sale luck. Some of the people running sales are so amazed at my tote bag filled with goodies that they start offering me discounts right and left. lol


I notice her store is at 883 sales today. I had a goal of 1000 sales by Christmas last year and reached it in January 2016. I am passing this goal along to her.




Janine makes and sews Japanese Notebooks, book covers, shopping totes, handbags, etc.
She also knits and crochets.



I bought this adorable hedgehog fabric from her.
She also sells some of the amazing japanese fabrics she finds.

 Here is my garage sale bag I keep rolled up in my purse.
It easily unfolds to a large size tote.
I get the best deals when I use this bag.

Even if you can't make up your mind what to buy, could you show Janine some etsy "Heart" love? Just hover over the heart on each photo in her etsy shop and tap on it. This "hearting" really helps move things up the queue in the etsy algorythms. (thanks!)

CraftyTokyoMama on etsy. Use Coupon code AUGUST20 throughout the month of August to get 20% off your purchase.

I would like to see her get to  1000 sales too.

Crafty Tokyo Mama Thank You

Way back in March, I received some early birthday gifts from my dear friend in Kyoto. She knows my fondness for airplanes and fabric and regularly indulges me.

How perfect is this biplane postcard? We never see such cuteness here in the states.

Except - after I put it together and was getting ready to toss the punchout, I noticed it was made by HALLMARK! In China. We have Hallmarks here. I think Hallmark originated here in the states. Do we have awesome biplane postcards? No.

 And she sent me a second biplane - from the DAISO store!
Daiso helps make some  sweet packaging. Everything Janine sends me is perfectly wrapped in kawaii cuteness.. Stitckers, patterned bags, you name it. I need a Daiso store of my own!
{I save all her packaging to re-use}

Even her postal stamps she chooses are perfect. 

Airplanes, japanese geishas, Mail boxes (Red cylinder at bottom left)

She covered a journal book in awesome airplane fabric and then gifted me with the same airplane timetables fabric to play with.  :-)

Look at that Kawaii airplane ribbon.

She always picks out items with birds in them too.
Her parakeet, Trixie, just passed away. Trixie was one extraordinary pet.


When I am putting together a gift to send to her, I keep a lookout for bird fabrics and western/patriotic items. TV series and movies.

 She sent me some socks, a tiny coin purse she sewed for me and two doilies she crocheted for me - such beautiful colors.

My gifts all comes with origami notes, cute notepaper that can fold into shapes. I think she sent me eight different happy mail items. I feel well loved by her thoughtfulness.

This is where we are not similar - I usually am cramming as much as I can into a flat rate package to send to Japan. I'm still learning to put washi tape on my etsy orders...

 She also sent me some Japanese patterns which are read right to left from the top to the bottom and then over to the left. You follow the pictures in numerical order.
This one was for the four pocket card case.

 This one is for a tissue holder.
 
In Japan, you must carry your own tissues and a cloth for wiping your hands for when You are out and about and need to use the restroom. Toilet paper and towels are a rarity in public bathrooms. Of course, you need cute tissue holder accessories.

Again, she sent me the extra fabric - you obviously notice the airplanes?

 

See the Hallmark logo in the bottom right?

 Janine and I met online via the SewMamaSew Giveaway Day. Several years ago now.

I read her blog, She read mine. We both sew. We both like old things. She grew up just south of where I live. Her family is all in Oregon. We had many similar ideas and dreams.

We managed to meet up here in Oregon a couple of times.

I visited her in Japan a year ago and got to see her for an extended time. You can view many of my blog posts about Japan during the last two weeks of March 2015 by looking in my blog archives (sidebar). Her time in Oregon is packed with family events so it was real delight to spend more time with her when I visited Kyoto. I feel like I've know her all my life.

My niece has recently moved to Singapore. To get there, most flights go through Tokyo. I am making plans for returning to Tokyo. {My niece has a Daiso store in Singapore}.

Japanese Tissue Holder

Janine and I both bought the same craft book when I was in Kyoto this spring and we challenged each other as to who would sew a project from the book first.

I lost.

Janine posted hers months ago.

 I finally got down to it and made something Janine had spied inside the book.

This is like our tissue holders with the slit for the tissue to pull up out of.
In addition, there is a zipper at the top to easily put a new pack in.
 
In Japan, there is often, very often, no toilet paper in public bathrooms. You often discover a vending machine nearby *after* you leave the facilities.

Everyone carries pocket tissues, just in case, as well as a cloth to wipe your hands. We are not going to talk about the squat toilets vs. western-style toilets in major tourist spots.

 Look at the inside, its prettier on the inside with that fiddly binding.

I wouldn't sew it this way with US directions but I was trying to make something  with Japanese instructions which are so cute and slightly unfathomable.

You read right to left and look for the a tiny # (circled) denoting the order of construction.
In this case, I started on the right and stayed on the top row and then went on to the second row of diagrams.

I scribbled notes as to cm = ?inches but in the end, just used centimeters. I have rulers with both ways to measure.

I had a tissue pack I brought back with me from Japan and noted this pouch was not quite tall enough. I added about 3/4 inch and it was just right.

 Janine liked this retro kitty fabric I used on some pocket tissue holders I recently made, so I wanted to use the same fabric in her japanese-style tissue case.  I really have no idea why you would want a zipper there because it was quite easy to insert the tissue pack via the slit opening.

 This is winging it's way to Japan and she should receive it any day now. It's been taking about 8 days back & forth to Japan lately.

I am done with pocket tissues, I think. However, my ah choo giveaway is still open to all blog readers if you would like your own. Holler at me. or, sneeze.

Double Zipper Pencil Case

Interior fabric.

 Turned inside out. Almost reversible.
Actually, I like this quilted fabric as an inside too. Still have more of it...

Still turned inside-out.

A close-up of the gusset.
Very easy to add but not gonna work for a coin pocket in a wallet.
It's attached only in the side seams. Keeps items from falling out...

Sundays sewing had a little hiccup - see following.

Christine Welsh

Yesterday at 5:51am · Edited

Silly Sausage Sunday! DO share with us your most silliest sewing, completely goofy mistake you have ever done, in the comments below! wink emoticon I'll pick my favourite story about this time tomorrow and that silly sausage will WIN a pattern of choice from my shop!

Chris W is a purse designer from Australia and she posted the above Sunday morning.
My response that afternoon was:
Katydid Green OMG I regret reading this post this morning. Going outside now for a time-out.
 

 It should not look like this.

My time-out:
I did go outside. In our windstorm, branches and pine cones flailed out of the trees which we picked up between small rain showers. I have missed the rain. It has been four months since we've seen any rain here.
Then I came inside and did my juicing chore. Now I am all set up with my green juice for the week.

  I flipped channels on the tv and found a OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) Simon & Garfunkle pledge concert. Ripping out stitches to Simon & Garfunkle - well I can't recommend it enough. Old favorites to sing along to.

It went very pleasantly and I did some other hand-stitching as well until the concert was over.


Now it looks like the bag I won this last week.

I used some Japanese quilted fabric as my outer fabric. My lining is also from Japan. The red & skinny black stripe is stash as is the skinny black piping. I also used a double zip because it works very well for this bag.

This bag is just over 8" in length and about 4" high.  This is very cute and the inside finishes are similar to my son's ditty bag albeit a little smaller overall than his bag. This pattern is on my to-do list with oil cloth and a slightly bigger profile.

Pattern is here:Zipper Pencil Case with side gussets

More Heart Pouches

 More Heart Pouches for small things.
Coins, Earbuds, Lucky rabbit foot, whatever.

 

Two go as gifts - I'll let Connie and Janine pick their favorite.
The other two will go into my etsy shop.

I didn't delve into my new Japanese fabrics, although one came from there in a gift - cute bunny rabbits! The other fabrics are form the small scrap basket, trying to keep going on my new year's resolution of "keep sewing until you use the fabric up". ahem.

I think the Japanese fabrics need to age a bit longer.



Earbud heart tute is here.

Japan Post

Six weeks to arrive.
The last weekend I was in japan, I blew out my suitcase. I mailed 20# home for $50 - on a Sunday.

A lot of my purse hardware was packed inside. These are some that my friend gave me.

A lot of the Daiso hardware too. I took the packaging off some to save space.
I had extra allowable poundage in my suitcase but no space. Good thing japanese post offices don't follow US weekend closure schedules.

A little bit of 'kid in the candy store' as I drew out fabrics.

It's difficult to name favorites . . .

Quilted fabrics.

Solids.

Kimono scraps.

A little bit like Christmas.