Japanese Fabrics – Cotton Kobayashi

November 7, 2012

Quite some time ago, I posted a review on a book by Kurai Muki called Simple+one. In the book there was a dress that I loved (I made 3 of them eventually!). I did not realize it when I first saw the picture, and it was only after I had the book for a while, that I realized that I had the very same fabric in the picture!

I bought this fabric about a year ago in Sapporo. I spotted it in the home furnishing section, if I remember correctly the sample piece was a bag or a cushion. You can’t really tell from the picture but the fabric is medium weight, closer to twill but not as thick. I only bought 0.5m of it, thinking that I would make a bag with it.

So after I realized it would look so much nicer on the dress, I wanted to buy more. The only information I had was on the selvedge, with the name of the manufacturer – COTTON こばやし (Kobayashi) . So I searched in Japanese, and found the manufacturer’s website, as well as some shops on Rakuten that carry fabrics from the same brand. But, I just could not find the same fabric as it was probably either sold out or out of season.

So in June this year, when I returned to Sapporo, and of course back to Kanariya again, guess what I found in the discount section?

I bought 4 metres of it. Just in case. ;P

In the same discounted fabrics section, I spotted this. Looks like raspberries from far, but actually clusters of red and pink flowers.

Comes in purple too! So I bought both, but now they are still waiting for me to decide what to do with them.

As for the fabric that I bought 4m of, I decided to make myself a dress instead! A non-traditional cheongsam (or qipao) with a flared skirt.

A close up of the chinese collar.

You can browse through their website for more of their current collection. Check this one out! It’s called Colony and it comes in penguin and Polar bear prints.