I’m very interested in most crafts and have tried my hand at them to varying degrees of success. But I’m currently on a sewing kick, so let’s talk about that!

I love consuming sewing content on TV and online. My mother, sister, and I used to love watching this show called Project Runway, where contestants would compete to sew these jaw-dropping outfits under ridiculous time constraints and sometimes utilizing ridiculous materials in place of fabric. We owned a sewing machine and serger, and my mother had some experience making articles of clothing, but none of us were fashion designers or tailors in the least. It doesn’t mean I didn’t dream of sewing, though…

On occasion, I would sew small items in America. I hand-sewed some plushies for my sister. I remember hand-sewing cute, little hamster plushies when I was very young for whatever reason. Later on, I took some classes and watched a lot of YouTube videos. That’s when I started learning how to make actual clothing. Clothes are a much bigger, more expensive project than my previous endeavors, by far, but I’ve really been enjoying the challenge. In the sewing class I took, I sewed a pair of ill-fitting pajama pants, for instance. I learned a lot from that experience and I desired to tackle a pencil skirt next. I even bought a pattern and fabric for it! But I was never quite brave enough to actually cut the fabric and make the skirt, unfortunately…

Since moving to Japan, I’ve bought my own sewing machine and attempted to tackle sewing projects a bit more. I’ve made masks and 18th century Georgian stays and repaired damaged clothing. There is absolutely no consistency to be found in my choice of projects, haha. However, I live alone in Japan, so sewing is a far more solitary activity now than it was back in the US. I text-bomb my family constantly throughout the process, but it’s not the same as bothering people about it in the moment.

Luckily for me, my sister has given me a companion to bother at all hours: a stuffed octopus! I call her Lady Squish.

She’s so cute. She’s reversible, too. I usually have her on “angry” to motivate me to sew some more! But she can also reverse to “happy” when I finish a sewing project. I’ve got her perched on top of my sewing machine, and I couldn’t be happier. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to sew her a friend to also glare me into actually finishing my projects…