Bags or Zakka Sewing Patterns – Page 3 – Japanese Sewing, Pattern, Craft Books and Fabrics

Bags or Zakka Sewing Patterns Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books in English

Book Review – Handmade Bags in Natural Fabrics (Now in English)

November 21, 2014

Christmas is around the corner, and if you are thinking of making some handmade gifts, this book will help you make some one-of-a-kind Christmas presents! You can even buy this book as a Christmas present for someone crafty!

This book has been translated to English by the lovely folks at Tuttle Publishing (Yay!) and is all about handmade bags, by Emiko Takahashi, who is more well-known in the sewing “circle” for promoting hand-sewing. Most of her book published (she has published 76 books according to her website!!!) are hand-sewing books. She has published books not only on making bags and small goods, but also adult and kids wear. Yup! All Hand sewn! You can have a quick look at all her books here.

This book includes easy patterns and instructions for hand-sewing, so it will be great for beginners or those who do not have a sewing machine. Naturally you can speed things up a little and make these bags using a sewing machine as well, then add on your hand-stitched details for a personalized touch.

This book includes 60 Easy-to-make Purses, Totes, and More. Do note that out of the 60 projects, a few of them are multiple design variations of the same pattern, e.g. different embellishments on the same bag pattern. Patterns are included unless the design is based a simple rectangle, in which case you will only need to measure out the dimensions of the rectangle and cut accordingly. There are no complex curves construction/drafting required. All patterns that require anything other than a rectangle will be provided in the pull out pattern sheet.

The projects are divided into Shopping Bags, Everyday Bags, Fashion Bags, 2 Sewing Lessons (with full color step by step photographs) and everything else you need to know about hand sewing (basic stitches for construction + fancy stitches for decoration) and bag making (interfacing, handles, attachments etc). Let’s now have a look at some of my favourite projects in the book!

Spruce up your weekly grocery trip with a pretty shopping bag… I love the combination of knit fabric with tweed!

This is a really interesting foldable shopping basket bag. Quick and easy to shop and go!

Foldable Eco bag for carrying around as a spare shopping bag, you never know when you are going shopping! 🙂

These are both reversible bags. Both bags have round bases which make them nice and roomy.

These tote bags have a gusset base for a more roomy and spacious bag.

Flat totes are great for carrying around lesson books, document files or just as little bags for the little ones.

A lunch tote. Simply love the matching of light blue gingham check fabric with the pale leather handles.

A great beginner hand sewing project.This is a simple drawstring purse that you can quickly whip up as a present. A great choice when you need to make multiple gifts since all the different design variations provided will mean each and every purse is unique. Lovely way to make use of scrap fabric as well!

A sweet and dainty bag with a purse frame and crocheted handle.

A really delicate looking bag made with cotton voile, embellished with lace, and glass beads. The strap is made from lace as well.

Make a sturdy bag with zip enclosure with a leather handle and matching leather flower embellishments.

Very quirky and interesting Vase shaped bag that will be a great conversation topic.

Tucked bag with corsage.

As mentioned above, there are two detailed sewing lessons included in the book. The lessons are for the Flat bag, but it also comes with instructions on sewing a Gusset (which converts your Flat bag into a Gusset bag). The other sewing lesson is for hand sewing the little drawstring purse.

Close up of instructions

There are also basic tips of bag making, as well as explanatory notes on the different materials you need for making bags.

Since this is a hand sewing book, hand stitching and decorative embroidery instructions are also included.

A typical pattern how-to-make is shown above. Every step is shown in a diagram form.

Close up of instructional diagram.

Patterns are included in a convenient pocket inside the back cover.

This book will only be released on November 25th, but you can pre-order it on Amazon.com
Handmade Bags In Natural Fabrics: Over 25 Easy-To-Make Purses, Totes and More (Tuttle Sewing Books)

Title : Handmade Bags in Natural Fabrics
Author : Emiko Takahashi
ISBN No : 978-4805313169

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Bags or Zakka Sewing Patterns Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books

Book Review – Handmade Bag Basics

August 20, 2014

I picked up this book from the Kinokuniya sale over the National Day weekend. It is a book about the basics of handmade bags and it’s great for beginners!

This book is split up into 3 main sections. The first section is more like a textbook, and goes through all the basics you need to know for bag making.

There’s everything you need to know here. From selection of tools like needles, thread types, fabric selections, patterns, preparing your fabrics, sewing around curves, finishing of raw edges etc.

The second section provides 11 different sewing lessons from the most basic tote bag, to the boston bag (complete with zips and leather handles). The lessons are ordered in increasing order of difficulty, so you can work your way through the projects. By the end of the book, you will be an expert at bag-making! 🙂

Here are some of the bags you will learn to make in this book.

Petanko tote bag. What’s Petanko? I have no idea and there doesn’t seem to be a direct translation, but it seems to refer to flat tote bags.

For each of the sewing lessons, the instructions are presented in large, clear graphics like the ones above.

This bag looks like the previous tote, but it is made using laminated fabric. Anyone who has made bags using laminated fabrics will know that these fabrics are not easy to sew with. This lesson will show you how to work with laminated fabrics.

Mini Tote bag

Simple Pochette

Classic Canvas Tote bag

Eco Bag

Messenger Bag

Boston Bag

The third section is a chellenge for first time sewing Mamas! Make a set of school accessories for your child!

The standard 3 piece set – Lesson bag, Drawstring bag, Shoe bag

There are no pattern sheets included, since all the bags are constructed using simple rectangles and easily constructed shapes.

However, as a bonus, there is a little booklet at the back that you can detach for reference. It is a handy handmade dictionary for frequently used sewing terms and techniques.

An excerpt from the handmade dictionary

Title : Basics of Handmade Bags
手作りバッグのきほん
ISBN No.: 978-4-405-07182-7

This book is great not only for beginners who have never sewn a bag in their life, but also for people like me. I’ve made many many bags before but there are certain steps where I just wing it, mostly due to shortage of precise instructions. This book breaks down the process to the smallest detail, so I believe that by following it I will finally learn how to create the perfect bag!

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Bags or Zakka Sewing Patterns Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Magazines

Magazine Review – Cotton Time May 2014

May 26, 2014

The covers of Cotton Time magazines never fail to brighten up my day. Look at this pretty and super colorful mix of bags, zakka, accessories…. Yes, all these projects and more are included in this month’s edition.

Fabric freebie! A 40x26cm wide piece from Sweet Charms fabric design range by Cosmo-tex. It’s the same fabric used on the bag on the cover. There are patterns for making the round bag on the cover, or a shell shaped zipper pouch, or a metal frame purse. There is probably only enough fabric to make one project of course, so choose wisely!

The next section is all about using the “House” as a motif for all kinds of zakka goods, starting with this sweets pouch. The photo shows the pouch being used to literally carry sweets, but at 10.5cm x 7cm x 5cm it will be perfect as a little pouch for carrying keys,tissue paper, or just a little bag for your child.

House shaped Pin Cushion

Stationery organizer

Mini Felt Cases for holding jewellery and small knick knacks.

It’s Summer, and it’s time for picnics! The next section covers a whole bunch of projects for making your own co-ordinated picnic accessories! There are two different themes. The Lovely theme,

Or the Sporty theme. Patterns included – Bottle case, Cup case, Dish case, Leisure mat and Lunch bag.

Next up, a very popular and often revisited theme in Japanese sewing books, the Granny bag pattern.

Other than the basic version, there are 5 other suggest variations of the granny bag that you can try. Here’s one example – where tucks are added to the opening. The other arrangements include – sizing down for kids, using different types of materials for the handles, and adding detachable long handles.

There are always lots of bag patterns in Cotton Time. I can’t show them all here so here are just a few that I really like – Canvas tote with round base.

A colorful patchwork tote designed by quilt artist Akiko Endo.

A really useful pattern to have – A vanity bag that is designed to slip over the handles of your suitcase.

Other than bags, there are lots of little accessories and useful objects to make.

Like these hair accessories,

Hair band decorations, necklaces

Cute Cord rolls in the shpae of macarons, and bears! – for neatening your cables and electrical cords, and beautifying your desk too!

Get ready for summer with these summer hats!

Matching flower hats for mother and daughter

Step by step instructions for making the hats.

I just wanted to cover one last section. This is a little late for mother’s day, since I only received this magazine after mother’s day, but nevertheless a cute matching set of accessories you can still make for Mum (or even yourself!)

Father’s day is coming in a few weeks time, so you can still make this in time! There are a couple of projects, all centred around the use of leather. Like this key holder,

Small accessories tray, and even a book cover.

One large sheet of actual size patterns included. You can see that there are large number of patterns included based on the list below.

I know that many of you are big fans of the Cotton Time magazine, and many of you have asked me where to buy this from. Those of you who prefer a English shopping experience can buy it from cdjapan (or click on the image above). Those of you who already know what you want and want to buy other Japanese sewing books as well (that are not found on cdjapan) can opt for amazon.co.jp. The descriptions are in Japanese but the checkout process is very much like the English site. Both of these websites ship internationally to most destinations. You may want to compare the shipping rates and see which is better. I hope this will help you find your copy of Cotton time and other sewing magazines. Good luck and happy sewing!

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Bags or Zakka Sewing Patterns Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books

Book Review – Pouches of various shapes and sizes

February 24, 2014

I haven’t been buying many books lately, as most books during the winter season are devoted to knitting and crochet. So I turned my attention to sewing books for bags and purses. I kind of stopped looking for a while because I had too many books on bags already, then I spotted this book with a really cute cover! Look at all these metal frame purses!

The full title is いろんな形&サイズが作れるがま口がいっぱい which loosely translates to Making pouches of all shapes and sizes. There are 35 projects to be made in all, with 3 lessons covered in full with step by step photos. There are also basic technical lessons ranging from pattern tracing, tools, even embroidery stitching. I thought it would be really useful to have pictorial instructions because I have tried making one of these before but failed terribly. Well, at least in my opinion because my finishing was not perfect and there were dents in the metal frame (which was probably due to using the wrong tools). So I wanted to learn how to do it properly.

Here’s a look at the contents page.

For each design, there are a few variations, which totals up to 35 different purse designs in all.

The book starts off with the basic metal frame pouch, in two variations.

Followed immediately by a detailed lesson on making the basic pouch.

Close up of the photo instructions.

Full page view of the step by step instructions.

Now that you know how to make a basic metal frame purse, you can move on to make the following…

A mobile phone case (with darts at the base)

Card case, Lip balm/Lipstick case

Pencil case, Spectacles case

Gathered pouch

If you can find these large handbag metal frames, you can make this too! This is so pretty! I actually saw many of these handbag frames being sold in Japan but as I’m not the type to carry dainty purses, I didn’t buy any. 😛

Plump purse (the title says that literally!)

Close up of the base of the “plump” purse.

There are some very interesting designs, like this box purse, where the clasps meet at the side and the purse is in a box shape. Perfect for storing earrings and rings.

Or make a larger one like this – Vanity purse

Long wallets/purses. This pattern includes a zipped coin compartment in the middle which also acts as a divider.

This purse is cute both inside and out! It uses a mother-daughter type of metal frame. I don’t know what this type of clasp is called in English, but the book says it’s a mother and daughter metal frame.

A more unique type of frame – the L-shape frame, where the clasps are located in the top corner instead of the middle.

Another interesting way of applying a simple metal clasp on a handbag.

Other than the 3 fully detailed lessons with step by step photos, the book includes basic technical knowledge lessons such as this one – tracing, cutting and marking the patterns. There are also lessons on embroidery, fabric treatment and even special tools that will help you create a better result when making a metal frame purse.

The how-to-make pages are located after the lessons, and they look like this.

Personally, I feel that the layout is a little cramped. See the close up below, the size/materals and pattern info are listed with the 4 lines of text, there are no steps written down in point form as everything is in diagrams. On some pages, they’ve even managed to squeeze two patterns in one page. But I guess this is because most of the projects are constructed in similar ways so there is no need to repeat some of the information.

1 sheet of actual size patterns attached.

and for those of you who are wondering where to buy the different metal frames, especially the really pretty ones with colored beads on the clasps, look no further! http://www.inazuma.biz Website is in Japanese though.

Title : がま口がいっぱいいろんな形&サイズが作れる (Heart Warming Life Serires)
Publisher : Nihon Vogue
ISBN : 978-4529052344

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Bags or Zakka Sewing Patterns Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Magazines

Magazine Review – Cotton Time Magazine

January 2, 2014

Happy New Year everyone! It seems that I gave myself a much longer holiday than I planned to, and here’s why. I was back last week of December but had to deal with a number of issues including a mountain full of laundry, getting ready for the new school term, lots of Christmas and New year get-togethers and way too much feasting. On the technical side, there was also a problem with the server, which happened just before I left. So when I came back I had to hold back on posting till the files were migrated to the new server and the blog software upgraded. So far everything has been running ok (hopefully) and it’s time to get back to posting!

What better way to begin the year than posting about the latest issue of Cotton Time Magazine, Jan edition (No. 112), which is all about sewing and crafts for the New Year!

The cover is so colourful and cheery, it brings a smile to my face. 🙂

Freebie alert! : A free calendar….

that includes gorgeous photos featuring handicrafts…

as well as the instructions on how to make them!

FREEBIE #2 : A free sample piece of 40cm x 26cm fabric with a cute kitchen print , from the Le Ciel collection by Daiwabo-tex.

They even give you ideas on how to use the fabric.

You can cut out the printed bottle shapes and use them to make jar labels, or apply as an applique on your kitchen towels.

This year is the year of the horse, so there are lots of cute horsey crafts too!

There are also some Mount Fuji inspired crafts. This is too cute!

More sprucing up for the home. A quilted floor mat in the shape of a snow pea pod.

It’s hard work spring cleaning for the new year, so you have to cheer yourself up doing the chores wearing a cute little apron.

Instead of using disposable wiper sheets, use microfibre cloth and make a dog cover for it instead. You can pretend you are walking the dog while cleaning the house.

Other than household zakka projects, there are always a number of bags and accessories patterns included in every issue of Cotton Time.

I love the structured look of this bag (below).

Pretty wallets to make.

Other than sewing projects, there are also a number of craft projects with really interesting applications. The following is a feature on making tassels and how to use them for accessories or embellishments on your other sewing projects.

There is another special feature on cardboard weaving….

with step by step instructions to show you how to make your own hand weaving loom out of pieces of cardboard.

Can you guess what these cute thread holders (below) are made out of?

Same material as these colorful earrings below.

There are all made from プラ板. I’m guessing it is a direct translation of plastic board. I found some references online that call it Shrink Plastic or Poly shrink. I’m not sure if you have played with it or seen it before but It’s basically a plastic board that is thin enough for you to draw and cut out shapes from, then after you shrink it in the oven it will harden up and become much smaller than the original size. You can use it to make all kinds of arts and crafts. They sell it here in the $2 shop but I’ve never tried making anything out of it because I am not sure it’s a good idea to shrink plastic in the same oven that I use for food. But it certainly looks like a lot of fun if you have a spare toaster oven to use.

One of my favourite features in sewing magazines – peeking into the sewing rooms of other crafters, especially how they store their sewing supplies.

Since it is the beginning of the year, there is also a school goods special. The official school year in Japan doesn’t start in January but I guess it is always a good idea to get started early since there are so many pieces to make!

This particular feature is targeted at Mum’s who are beginners, so the designs are simple and there are also step by step photos to follow along.

Some of the other cute school goods – bento cover with matching lunch mat.

1 large size Pattern sheet for all the patterns in the book.

Cotton Time is published once every two months by Boutique Sha.

Get your copy now from cdjapan

Next week, I will be posting up some patterns that I am considering for the sew-along. It will be a girl’s dress because I really need to get my sewing for my girls done before the Lunar New Year comes around (31st of Jan!) Help me decide which pattern to make and you will get to see it as the sew-along feature for this month!

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