I really love cooking but the food we can eat is limited and instead of stuffing ourselves with madeleines, cookies and other delicacies I can make, I decided that I could use rainy days to work on new projects. I love drawing and painting, I love embroidery, I love the pottery workshop. But I wanted something I could do at home and would challenge me, that I could stop and take back at anytime and that would produce useful things. I found sewing was ticking all the boxes. So a few years ago I bought the cheapest sewing machine. I started by making pillow covers, and then challenged myself with a fabric, a shape and a construct that were way over my abilities and failed miserably. After the I didn’t sew for a while until last year my neighbor offered me to teach me how to sew Japanese traditional clothing. During the early winter I did two quilted coats, one for me one for A. This early summer I did two yukata again one for me and one for A. Then A. challenged me with a fitted surfboard bag, and yesterday, rainy Sunday again, I decided to try making myself a sweater with the remaining fabric of the surfboard bag. My first piece of western clothing!!!

Luckily, now I have a full floor just for myself overlooking A. wood workshop, so I have plenty of space to unroll fabric, cut and mount and mess up! So I started with the one and only sweater I have and planned in reproducing the same cut and shape. With cardboard I drew each piece, cut them and apply on my fabric and cut it, being careful of the jersey orientation etc… yes yes… then I mounted everything once to see if things would come out nice and also see what would be the proper order to sew things together. Then I unmounted everything, and starting sewing. It took me only 60min to sew everything back together for real and to wear my sweater!!!