ALL IS WELL

what we're working on and thinking about in January

Hello again!

My, how time has passed! We have been away for a while, enveloped in each of our lives. A little bit of sewing here and there, but mostly other projects and places and people and things. The good thing about time away is that it makes space for the feeling of yearning — or “missing” at least. It feels like the time has come to work on sewing projects again, and that is a good feeling. We are wading back in.

What have we been up to in the meantime?

A M E L I A: The Pacific Crest Trail hike with my husband Adam that I wrote about in summer 2023 turned into an even bigger adventure: when as we were walking we decided to sell our place in Seattle, put our things in storage, and keep traveling. (!!!) We walked 2,200 miles of the PCT, marveled at lichen, and then had lots of other adventures in cities and deserts and mountains — camping, biking, seeing friends and family, eating a lot of good food. We’ve mostly been taking a break from working, but I have been writing about life, travel, art, and the risograph prints and zines we’ve been making as ANEMONE.

I wrote about artist publishing vs. self-publishing, and made a risograph printed zines Notes on Artist Publishing and Taking Care of Yourself as an Artist Publisher. We exhibited at Short Run and Seattle Art Book fair, and made the RISO West Coast catalog. And with Alex Barsky, we co-organized a Climate Emergency Reading Room + Community Altar, and are planning installations in Detroit and Norway this year. It felt so good to have these conversations and a space for hope, grief, anger, and beauty about the climate destruction we’re in the midst of, and the community and good things we can all continue (or start!) building as we’re making creative things with sewing, publishing, cooking, community.

Writing has been my main creative outlet in the travel era, always carrying a notebook (or three). Daily morning pages and bullet journaling sometimes, other times just adding little notes and sketches. We added a bunch of new things to Spectrolite, the free Mac app that Adam and I make to help people lay out PDFs into printable booklets, and do color separation for risograph. I added some pages to my personal website: a /uses page with tools and things I use (including for sewing!), and a page for things I’m looking for. I’ve been reflecting on what I want to write in 2025 — more personal writing!

A M Y: The main hum of my days for the past few years has been caregiving. My two sons are four years and 18 months old, so I have my proverbial hands full. Over my four years (so far) of parenting, I have learned so much about surrender and humility. I had thought I would be able to continue my creative career without missing a beat. Haha! I can see now that my work needed to change in the face of the demands of parenting and, maybe even moreso, the ways it is changing me.

I took a definitive break from sewing for a bit. Writing has been the biggest throughline for me, workwise. It’s the thing I never fully set down. My second book of poetry, Broken Waters, was published this past summer! It’s the book I wrote when I was pregnant with my first son, almost five years ago now. I’m so happy it’s out in the world! I’ve also been steadily writing and sharing essays via my Substack newsletter, My Candle Burns. I’m nearing the completion of a new poetry manuscript, which feels exciting and scary (will it become a book?). Writing never really leaves me, even when life is overfull.

I knew I would want to write my way through my second son’s first year, so I decided to give myself some goals and a container to put that writing into. Inspired by Amelia and Adam’s work with ANEMONE, I started a small press of my own, Imaginary Lake, to publish a print zine series called A Year Postpartum. It was such good work for me to make these zines — I’m so glad I committed to the project, probably biting off more than I could chew, but the result is so beautiful. The first year after a baby is so joyful and hard and strange, and writing zines as touchstones of change over time really helped me process all I was experiencing. It was an added joy to share the zines with readers, and, in doing so, connect with so many people who really understood what I was sharing.

I loved writing and publishing that zine series. Along the way, I also made a few poem prints for Imaginary Lake as well, along with some standalone zines, and one “pattern for writing” — a writing workbook inspired by sewing patterns — all revolving around birth and early motherhood. But, after the series ended, I felt pulled back to sewing, a good shift I was finally ready for. I don’t have any new publications in the works for Imaginary Lake right now, because I’m finally sewing again, making a dent in the wildly huge collection of secondhand fabric I’ve amassed! (Many thanks to the Salvation Army Fabric Sale in Pittsburgh, I’d be nothing without you! Haha.)

Studio

KIDS CLOTHES!

For a long time, we have wanted to make kids’ versions of our classic garment patterns. People have asked repeatedly for this over the years, and now that Amy has two little boys (who keep growing!) to dress, and Amelia is getting close to settling down again after lots of traveling, the time has arrived. We are focusing on two pieces — Play Pants and the Little Box Top, enjoying iterative design and experimentation to find the perfect proportions (in our opinion) for comfy, cute, and sturdy play clothes. Our goal is to make these super streamlined and quick to cut and sew, and very economical of fabric to keep cost-per-garment down! Both of those things are important to us for all of our patterns, but for kids clothes especially, it’s exciting to make something so cute so quickly! So, watch this space!

For the longer term, we’re thinking about H O M E G O O D S !!! More on that later!

What we’ve been sewing

A M E L I A: It’s been incredible to be on this travel adventure, but it’s also meant that I haven’t really sewn anything in the past year and half. (Sewing, alas, not the most portable.) It is kind of wild noticing how many “oh I could just sew this” thoughts I have when I can’t easily sew, and need to write the idea down for later, or find a different solution. So it was really satisfying when I dipped my toes back into sewing on my mom’s machine on a long visit with family this winter. First I helped draft a simple two-piece pattern for covers for the sun-tattered arms of bucket seats of my parents’ vehicle. We sewed them out of upholstery vinyl, with double layers of stitching so they’ll hold up to use over the years.

My mom and I went to a creative reuse store called City Sewing Room in St. Louis, and I found pale grey silk twill, navy cotton, and a stack of small scraps from the free shed in the parking lot. (What an amazing place! I love creative reuse stores.) Then, my sister and I thrifted bunch of cushions ($1-4 each) with tired covers but good quality feather inserts, and I made her a big set of new cushion covers. Three of the grey silk, one of the navy cotton, and one out of nubby blue upholstery fabric from my mom’s chest of scraps. And then I deconstructed some slightly wonky arm covers of a vintage green velvet chair to make a little matching lumbar pillow.

Pillowcases are one of my favorite homegoods, because they blend in so quickly. Do you know that feeling? They feel just right for your space, but also you forget you made them — it’s like they’ve always been there? (I love when I forget I’ve made something I’m using/wearing.)

I also helped out with hemming some sets of curtains, and Amy and I were laughing about how commercially made curtains are often not the same in a pair, and also curtains stretch out from the weight of being hung up. So you need to actually measure down from the top to get the length you want — if you measure up from the ground you often get wonky curtains with two different lengths and uneven hems. Ah, the perils and delights of sewing!

I sewed a cat doll from an Ann Wood Handmade pattern, and drafted a little dress and apron by putting scraps on top of it to guess at sizing. I’ve been slowly working on an all well stuffed animal pattern, and over the years I’ve been sewing from different patterns/books to see different approaches to construction and process. This one is so cute, and the tubular arms and legs make it a lot more delicate than the bunnies from the A Year Between Friends book that I make for friends’ babies. Even something as small as stuffed animals have so many layers of process and function and utility and preference to play with!

A M Y: In the midst of slowly drafting the new all well kids patterns, I’ve been enjoying some bursts of personal sewing. I made a long-stashed pattern, the Merchant and Mills Swing Top. While I was sewing it, I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but in the end I found I really loved it! I might even make another. This pattern has a very limited size range, only up to a 41.75”/106cm bust measurement, something I really wish Merchant and Mills would address. But since I’ve owned it for a while, I’m really glad I gave it a try. It reminded me how much I love “swingy” tops and gathered back yokes — something we might riff on in a future garment pattern, who knows!

I’ve also super slowly been knitting a cardigan — the Traveler’s Cardigan by Ozetta. I got it pretty much halfway finished last winter, then put it away for the summer, and now I am slowly adding rows here and there. I’m not a very focused knitter, probably because I don’t have much idle time, and I’m too exhausted at the end of a long day of taking care of my kids to even knit! But I really enjoy the process. Knitting feels like a true hobby to me, whereas sewing is sort of wound up in work even when I’m doing it for pleasure. I really want to knit a hood, but I don’t think I’m up for two knitting projects going at once if I can barely make progress on the first. Maybe that’s a goal for next winter, or, even better, a summer knitting project to prep for next winter. I love the new Sophie Hood by Petite Knit. The Weekend Hood by The LongWeekend looks easier though, and I think I already own yarn that would work for it. Mulling.

I had a lot of fun making hats this Christmas! That was a surprise! The pattern is Bala Hat by Allotment Clothing. It is very fast and satisfying to sew, I made like four in just an hour using fabric I had sitting around. Some sherpa and some golden yellow polar fleece. I made the longer version the first time around, and now I’m thinking about cutting out the shorter version, which I think may work better for my head. This was great for gift sewing — fast, fun, warm, useful!

Links & Recs

This reddit thread asks: where are you getting inspiration besides IG now / what are your thoughts on IG? We’ve been wondering the same. Newsletters? Are.na? Threadloop?

Indoor exercise recs since we’re in deep winter here: Amy’s been into Range, a movement platform by Kara Duval with new live and on-demand classes every week. Kara’s warmth and commitment to creating challenging but nurturing (and very poetic!) classes has been just the invitation Amy needed to step back into a very needed movement practice. Amelia’s been repeating these two particular peloton obsessions: a 10 minute core strength, and a 10 minute barre, both where you’re laying on the mat the whole time. Plus lots of yoga.

Music without words. Gia Margaret, Adrianne Lenker’s “Music for Indigo”, Hermanos Gutierrez, Thom Yorke “anima”, others. Plus Beirut, Andrew Bird: which technically have words but the same vibe.

Mutual Aid LA — It is horrifying to watch the climate crisis taking families' homes, endangering so many people and wildlife, and causing catastrophic damage in a place so many hold dear. This is a great resource for supporting people in need.

Drinking London Fogs and rooibos chai. It’s tea season! Embrace it!

Amelia’s essay from last year about how to make a winter happiness plan!

25 things to do instead of buying new clothes in 2025

Milwaukee folks: Amelia (and Adam!) will be part of Ruth Foundation for the Arts (325 W Florida) “Happiest Hour” event with 10+ Risographers from the Midwest and beyond. Join us tomorrow (Thursday, January 16th!) from 5–7 pm for a showcase of Risograph art books, prints, and ephemera! Meet the artists and enjoy cocktails by She Was a Public House and tacos and tamales provided by Las 7 Estrellas. Free, just show up. More details on Instagram or online.

Thanks for reading, sewing friends!

Feels good to be back! See you next month!

— Amelia & Amy