Kaoru Marie

Does anyone else have this secret desire to create pet costumes? I admit that it's so freaking ridiculous. My husband cringes every time I subtly suggest dressing up our cat. However, my dreams came true when my sister-in-law asked me if I could create dragon wings for her cats. My brother and her are planning a Game of Thrones themed Halloween costume and wanted to include their cats. Of course I jumped at the opportunity! I finally had the perfect excuse to dive into the realms of pet garments (or rather, costumes.) I won't go into the details here just yet because there is so much I want to write about, but I don't want to spend all the time just yet describing the "creative process" (ha!). Plus, I don't have both wings completed yet. But, I do have one photo to provide a teaser. Watch out for dragon kitty!!!! Everything seemed to look ok during the test run! I wasn't sure how the cape/jacket would fit on the cat so I only pinned the collar and ...

It's been a long, long time since I completed a quilt. I think the last quilt I completed was a gift for a friend who was expecting a baby boy, which was almost a year and a half ago! How funny that this quilt is also for a baby boy. I found out over the summer (early summer actually) that a really good friend of mine is expecting her first baby. When I found out she was due in October I knew I had plenty of time to sit on it and not do anything until just before her due date. Naturally, that is exactly what happened. My first baby quilt was actually pretty big. I had no idea what size baby quilts typically are so I just made it to fit a standard package of "crib size" batting, which is 45"x60". I remember finishing it and doing some free-motion quilting over it and thinking it was really big for a baby. Over the past year I have paid more attention to quilt sizes from some quilters I admire. It seems like 36"x44" is a decent size for a baby and de...

Is 'Professional Pattern Tester' a real job out there where I could seriously make a living? Because I want to apply for the job and do it forever. Pattern testing combines part of my real job (QA/QC checking for design errors) and my hobby (sewing). It's a match made in heaven for me! When I saw Christine's blog post about needing pattern testers, I immediately filled out the form. I have been dying to be a pattern tester for at least the past year. I always get a twang of jealousy when I read other bloggers tell their tales of pattern testing. Oh how cool and fun it always looks! Of course, some of my biggest concerns in my ability to be a good pattern tester were whether I could meet the deadline and have a wearable garment. What if the pattern didn't fit my body shape and I couldn't figure out how to fix it? That would be pretty disastrous. I was doubly concerned about the deadline because I was sorta in the middle of packing to move. My sewing corner ha...

I always get so envious of bloggers who snap up vintage sewing patterns at garage sales. Who are these people that sell these items?? How can I get some? Of course I could scour ebay and pay for them, but I'm kinda over ebay these days. I've never been a huge fan of garage sales. I'm not much of a collector and I guess when I decide I need something I never think about searching garage sales because it just seemed like it involved a lot of looking and not enough buying success. Although I gotta admit the appeal of garage sales started to creep up on me the past year because of all the posts from J. Money about this subject. Maybe it's his writing style, but my goodness, does he ever make garage sales and antique shops sound like the coolest effing places. A couple months ago I downloaded the free Craiglist app so I could easily search for garage sales in my area. I also narrowed down the search by specifically searching for "sewing" in the garage sales ca...

It has been a terribly long time since I posted photos of Bailey! A quick look at my Flickr account will reveal my obsession of taking photos of him. My husband doesn't seem to enjoy getting his photo taken by me, but Bailey doesn't seem to mind :) Here are some favorites of mine, most of which are already uploaded to Flickr, but a couple new ones too. One evening I decided to try and capture Bailey with his pupils ballooned to be as large as his eyes. I assume most cats get like this when they are bursting with energy or ready to pounce on prey. When Bailey gets like this, ohhhhhh, WATCH OUT! I don't remember why he paused in the middle of our living room like this. He's pretty good at staying still for a couple seconds when he sees me with my camera (unless I'm on the ground, then he usually immediately walks towards me). I can't get over how focused he looks! My goodness, Bailey....chill out! In the photo below he was enamored with the ironing board...

I bought the Simplicity 1650 pattern during a $5/5 patterns sale at Jo-Ann because I was too lazy to draft my own peplum pattern despite coming across a few free tutorials. However, after looking at the pattern, I decided that I actually liked both tops and wouldn't mind making a sleeveless peplum blouse. Even though this pattern has the peplum attached to the skirt, I didn't see why it couldn't just as easily be attached to the bottom of the blouse so I decided to try making it. I had quite a bit of yardage leftover from the Simplicity 2698 polka dot skirt so I quickly cut out the pattern pieces on Friday evening (oh yeah, I was livin' it up on Friday night!). I cut a size 4, but used 3/8" seams on the front and back pieces. The more I worked on this pattern, the more I liked it. The back and front each have 3 pieces, but the best is they are super simple to assemble. No darts. No pleats. YES! Just some curved portions that are pretty forgiving. Since thi...

I finished a shirt using some of the fabric I purchased at the FIDM scholarship store ! I'm super happy with the result! I initially wanted to make a pseudo-cap top with a drape neckline. I even have a top from Ann Taylor that I used to try and make a rub-off. Obviously, that didn't work out despite spending hours trying to figure out the pattern. I'm *this* close to taking apart the top to figure out how the pattern would look. Or I could just fork over the $10-$12 and purchase a pattern somewhere. But what's the fun in having something be too easy!? Anyway, I scrapped the drape neckline when I realized how long I had been fiddling with everything. I used another top from Ann Taylor to make a rub-off of the sleeves. With summer quickly approaching (actually, I think it arrived this past week...damn you high 80s/low 90s!) I wanted a short sleeve or sleeveless top. However, I always feel a bit "naked" when I wear sleeveless blouses in the office and I w...