I just realized, that even though my bio (on the right sidebar) says that I’m a fabric addict, I have never blogged about fabrics! Why? I’m not sure but I can always start now. Since I have on board, some new sponsors that specialize in Japanese fabrics and crafty bits. 🙂
So today, I’m starting a new category of blog posts on Japanese Fabrics. And who better to start with than one of my favourite fabric designers – Naomi Ito.
Picture from Pochee 2007 Summer
Those of you who have been following my blog from the early days may remember my first post on free Japanese sewing patterns . That was from the brand Nani Iro. The Nani Iro line is designed by this lady – Naomi Ito who is an artist and designer.
I love her fabrics because every single piece is like a piece of art. Especially for those prints with very large pattern repeats, you can even hang them up on the wall like a piece of canvas. On my first fabric shopping trip in Tokyo years ago, I bought 1m of a turqoise and red polka dot print. Till today, I have not been able to use it yet because I can’t bear to cut it up.
Once in a while I will take it out to admire it, then fold it up and keep it stashed away 🙂
Anyway, while fabric shopping in Japan in June, I picked up these free brochures.
The first one was to announce the opening of her new atelier in Osaka. If you are ever in that area, you might want to pay a visit. Click here for directions. It is basically a shop and sewing workshop as well as event space.
The other catalogue I received is a fabric catalogue for 2012.
Examples of completed projects using Nani Iro fabrics and related products.
Ready made Bias tape. If you have every tried making bias tape with double gauze, you will appreciate this.
Laminated fabrics.
Double gauze fabrics from the 2012 collection – patterns for these dresses are available for sale.
Correction : These patterns (the pictures above and below) and more are available for free on nani IRO’s website.
Made from the Waltz range
On the reverse side, all the fabrics in the 2012 collection.
Visit http://naniiro.jp/textile/ for the latest collection. It looks like she is about to release the 2012 Autumn/Winter collection but I can’t find any pictures of it yet.
There is also an online shop on her website but it’s in Japanese and they don’t ship overseas at the moment. Thankfully, there’s Etsy! One of my lovely sponsors has quite a collection of Nani Iro 2012 and some of the 2011 collection in her store. Check out her store here – Miss Matatabi
Next week, I’ll be featuring Kayo Horaguchi. Stay tuned!
P.S. Some of you who follow my blog regularly might wonder if the Translation requests feature that used to be on Wednesdays has been taken out of the blog schedule. No worries. You can still email me if you need any help with translation. And I will post them up on Thursdays instead (so that I can call it Translation Thursdays? Sounds better? ;P ) as and when I receive them. I don’t receive requests every week and I thought it was a lot more mood-lifting to do some fabric shopping mid-week! I always need a mood-lifter halfway during the week and online shopping helps ;P
Hope you liked today’s post. Happy shopping!
14 Comments
Ooohh!!! They’re soo sooo gorgeous!
I know. I was tasked to buy 1.5m of pink waltz for a friend. So after picking hers out. I stood there for a very long time trying to decide what to get for myself. I really like the melody sketch and little letter but it wasn’t available in the store then. looks like I have to buy online too!
So pretty. My fabric shopping is almost 100%online so I’ll have to check her out 🙂 Thanks for the information!
Cindy
It’s easy to go crazy shopping online! But so mood-lifting when the postman comes with the goodies ;P
I totally get wat you mean when you say you take out her fabric roll it out to look and in my case I like touching it too. And then I dream of the project that I could do and decide I can’t cut it yet, fold it neatly and keep it! Ha ha.
I like buying from Frances too, she’s nice! She cuts the fabric I buy with love!
You mention that Naomi sells the patterns too, where? I hope the site is in English!
Looks like you are influencing me to buy more fabric while I’m influencing you to buy more books 😉 I just bought knits from Yunsuk!
Gorgeous fabrics! All those polka dots are so sweet! I’m curious as to what you eventually make with your dot material!
I’m crazy over polka dots. I have lots of different polka dots stashed away. I love Nani Iro polka dots especially because they look like watercolor paintings. I think the Pocho range comes in different colors every year. Mine was the 2010 range and according to Kokka website it’s all sold out! Makes it even harder to use 🙁
Wow love this post. Just bought the dark blue “little letter” and it arrives tomorrow!
Wow! Show us what you are making! 🙂
Thank you very much for mentioning my shop! 🙂
The dress patterns you mentioned are available for free here :
http://naniiro.jp/textile/pattern-making/pm2012
There are two patterns available for sale but they are both baby / small child sizes (can be seen on the nani iro online store).
I also have pictures of 2012 A/W samples on my facebook and flickr pages if you would like to see 🙂
Hi Frances! 🙂 I didn’t know they were for free ;P I remembered seeing some patterns that were for sale in the fabric store. Thanks for the links, I will put the links up in the main post.
Hi,
I have just spent quite a bit of time trying to find more of the Naniiro fabrics online. It is frustrating that her site doesn’t ship to the US. I have looked at some of the Etsy sites but the selection seems to be limited thus far.
Hi Kathy, Actually even when I was buying her fabrics in Japan they usually only have the most current season in stock. So it could be hard to track down the popular ones or the basic line/past year designs. Which ones are you trying to get? You should try to convo some of the Etsy sellers especially those in Japan to see if they can track down the designs even if they don’t carry it in their store?