Here is the first exciting event in celebration of the release of my new e-book Hello Sewing Machine – I’ve collaborated with the lovely ladies at Sew, Mama, Sew! to answer your sewing questions! Head on over there and put in any basic questions you have, and I’ll answer some of them in a post coming up soon. I’m curious to see what you want to know!
So today, a bit more about my new e-book, how I made it, and some well-deserved thanks to those who helped out!
My first idea to make this book revolved around a cartoon sewing machine, and adding real thread to my drawings. I thought it would help explain how all sewing machines are (in a lot of ways) pretty much the same. I hoped that the thread would show up, and look like thread, and add a fun element of style (it did!). But I knew that I needed more detail to explain some things. For months I was stuck, thinking that I needed photographs, and not figuring out how to make them as good as I knew they would need to be. That’s when my husband Bryan (a professional photographer) suggested maybe I didn’t need photos at all. After all, instruction manuals of all kinds are still full of illustrations. Sometimes they are even clearer than photos would be. The more I thought about this, the more I thought he was right. I started drawing, and then I knew he was right. In an illustration, everything that I would like to be in focus is so, and the visual emphasis can be wherever I want it to be.
This has got to be my favorite drawing in the book. To find out what’s going on, you might have to get yourself a copy!
As I drew, I took some snapshots for reference, so I wouldn’t have to keep moving my hands back and forth and get them in the same place again, etc. I also took a couple just to show my process and progress.
Sewing thread onto a drawing of my mom’s treadle sewing machine, using that same machine!
The fact that Bryan suggested doing these drawings points to another really important thing about Hello Sewing Machine, which is that I didn’t make it by myself. In fact, sometimes it seems like I didn’t make it all (despite the weeks of drawing, months of writing and editing, etc.), but more like I stood in the middle and brought together elements from everyone and everything I knew, things which already existed, and they coalesced and became this book. I now understand why authors seem so passionate about their acknowledgements! Mine are in the book, but I’m going to post them publicly here too. Lookout! Thanks below:
Desk reaches maximum level of chaos, near the end of the drawing phase.
First and foremost, thanks to my mom. She made most of my clothes when I was little, and created fabric magic right before my eyes. Not only that, she taught me to sew, too! She gave me access to all kinds of creative tools and supplies from the time I was old enough to hold them. When I grew up, she bought me a sewing machine I couldn’t afford on my own, and I’m still welcome to anything and everything in her sewing room at any time. I absolutely would not have the skills I do now without her in my life.
A close second for thanks is my husband Bryan. Besides the idea to illustrate this book, I also leaned quite heavily on his knowledge during the design and layout phase. Every day I lean on his love and support, and the fact that he believes in me. I couldn’t ask for a better partner in life and our many adventures together.
Also many thanks to Van and Charlie Odegaard, for letting me teach sewing to real live students at Odegaard’s Sewing Center! I’ve learned at least as much as I’ve taught. And I would like to thank Jena R. and Michael K. for the music. I listened to a lot of music during this project, and the CDs they gave me were like friends keeping me company. Thanks to Brian S. for a great idea in word processing—it worked! And last but never least, my truly amazing proofreaders: Kelly, Tom, Wendelin, & Lauren.
I’ve been as much humbled as excited by this whole process. Both are great feelings! I hope to continue to share the love here. More soon . . .
It’s the reveal of the super-secret project I’ve been working on for so long! And it’s safe to say I’ve never been as excited about a post, or a project, as I am about this one. Nearly a year ago, I had an idea to make a tutorial that would get people started sewing. It would assume the reader knew nothing, and explain as clearly and approachably as I could make it, how sewing machines work and how to use them.
Well, it’s here, today! Hello Sewing Machine is a PDF e-book, available for instant download from my Etsy shop! I’ve spent the past year dreaming about it, writing it, drawing the illustrations, editing, doing design and layout, and learning so much about all of the above as I went. It’s kind of unreal to finally see the finished product on a screen in front of me.
So, do you have a sewing machine sitting in your closet? Would you like to get it out and start sewing? Do you already sew, but you have someone you’ve been wanting to teach? Do it today! This guide will get you going. It has everything you need to know about how your sewing machine works. I want Hello Sewing Machine to be a bridge between would-be sewers and all the patterns, sewing blogs, fabric stores, everything that’s out there to help you make whatever you want. All you have to do is take the first few steps to get started!
As you know if you’ve been reading this blog, I’m a firm believer in handmade, and that by being makers, we make our lives better in just about every possible way: more connected, more sustainable, more grounded, more satisfied, more joyous. It’s my hope that this little book will give more people the tools they need to realize those benefits in their own lives.
I’ll be celebrating this release with some very relevant beginning sewing posts (including an all new one on hemming jeans) plus some other very exciting things, so watch this space!
Look, my name is on this poster!
I know what you’re thinking, I’m too short to be a model – but it’s not like that! Actually, there’s an eclectic show at FPC this month, celebrating fashion, photography, and the intersection between art and what we wear, and featuring some of my work!
If you are in town, come by, I will be there this Thursday night for the fashion forum, and Friday during First Friday art walk. I have a lovely selection of one of a kind purses, scarves, and wallets in the show, all made from recycled and handmade materials and totally unique! Plus the work of four different photographers, and some totally wild and amazing macramé masks made by Sheree.
If you’re not near Flagstaff, I’ve also been working feverishly on my latest project, which will be available worldwide, very soon if all goes well!
About time, don’t you think? I have two more of my fuzzy little Fiddleheads hats to give away! They are made from recycled cashmere, super soft, eco friendly, and easy care. These two will fit most kids from 6 to 18 months old.
Winning is easy! Just leave a comment saying which hat you’d like and one thing you like about it – be creative! You can get additional entries by mentioning this contest on your own blog, facebook, twitter, etc., just leave another comment with the link.
This contest is open to anyone around the world, although delivery in time for Christmas outside the US is not guaranteed. I will keep it open until midnight Saturday (Dec 8) mountain time, and choose a winner using a random number generator.
Good luck! Hope you’re having a great start to your week!
Update: this contest is closed now, but you can still get your very own custom hat from my Etsy shop!
Hello! I am back at home, and feeling pretty good about things. First of all, I just spent a week with some of my favorite women in the world, making all kinds of amazing things and stretching myself to a rare extent (more about this a little later). If that’s not enough to be grateful for, I came back to flowers and a love note from my amazing husband. Overall, I’m feeling pretty good about the life I’ve chosen. So I thought I would share the love by giving away two of my Fiddleheads hats (and two more to come later)!
I have these extra hats because of a bad situation which is slowly resolving. A long time ago now I sent some of my wares, including these hats, which were a brand new idea at the time, to a store in another state which turned out to be scamming artists and taking the money for their own pockets. The slightly better part of the story is that artisans, communicating through Etsy, figured out what was going on, and the shop was shut down and contents seized by the attorney general of MO. The much better part is that after much, much time in bureaucratic limbo, I was finally notified that they had “determined some of these goods to be” mine (maybe because they had my name and phone number on the tags?). And after so much time had gone by that I had given up again, I received a box in the mail with a fair number of bags (appearing on Etsy this fall) and hats inside! I doubt I will ever get any money out of this, but getting my unsold stuff back feels like a huge win.
When I first started making these hats, I didn’t realize how stretchy they would be, and I had more sizes. Bryan always laughs at me for forgetting things I’ve made, I forgot that I used to make four sizes instead of three, and I forgot that I started out writing all the fabric tags myself! I now think these two would fit around 3 – 9 months, on average of course. As you can see there’s a classic blue and pink, each one with two tones, and more texture in the lighter color. They are made from all recycled cashmere, making them super soft, eco-friendly, and washable. I have made every one of the now many many of these that are around the country and the world, and I still love this design.
One of these would make a perfect gift for someone having a baby soon, as it should still fit when winter rolls around up here in the Northern hemisphere.
All you have to do to win is leave a comment! Tell me which hat you would like and (yes this is for my marketing, small biz needs it too) what change having one of these would bring to your life/experience. Open to anyone around the world, so tell your friends! I will close the contest in just over a week, at 9 am Friday June 6 Arizona time. I’ll choose a random winner for each hat and ship them out soon thereafter.
Hope you’re having a grateful week!
There’s still room in my colorwork knitting class tomorrow! We’ll learn fair isle and intarsia techniques, or two ways to use two or more colors as you knit. If you’re near Flagstaff, come out and knit with us!
To sign up, call Purl in the Pines (our lovely local yarn shop) at 928 – 774 – 9334.
Tasha Miller Griffith 