Book Reviews – Page 5 – Japanese Sewing, Pattern, Craft Books and Fabrics

Book Review – Aoi Koda’s Pattern Lessons for Autumn and Winter wear

November 4, 2015

It’s been a while since my last book review and I need to start working on them (before I will let myself buy new books). For the past two weeks I have been busy as it was the exam period for my girls and it was busier with usual trying to coach my kids while running after a baby who keeps trying to crawl away. Their last papers ended yesterday so now I have a little sliver of time in the mornings once again to do some blogging, and hopefully some sewing as well!

Today’s book is by Aoi Koda 香田あおい. You may recognize some of her older titles, such as these?

but today I will be reviewing her latest book. Aoi Koda’s Pattern Lessons for Autumn and Winter wear. Just in time for your Fall and Winter sewing! I bought this book because I fell in love with the blue coat on the cover. 🙂

Included in the book, are patterns not just for jackets and coats, but also blouses and dresses and even pants, for sizes 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15. Refer to the size chart below. The terms in the first column are Bust / Waist / Hip / Height. All unites are in cm.

The patterns are grouped into 5 main lessons. Each lesson is based on a set of basic patterns that can be further adapted into other garments.

The first pattern is a basic long sleeve blouse with facing. The blouse below is made with the facing on the right side and used as a decorative feature for the vertical row of buttons.

and then with the wave of a magic wand, the same pattern transforms into a….

Melton Peacoat! Can you tell what changes were made?

A simpler collarless coat made with checkered wool.

You can convert the same basic pattern into a dress as well.

The lessons are given in diagrams and not photographs, but it seems quite easy to follow.

Lesson 2 features a raglan sleeve (where there is a slanted seam line from the neck to the armhole) and also a wider hemline.

The basic pattern is a casual blouse with a elastic waistband.

Whereas 2-A is a really cool jacket made with knit fabric featuring slit zip pockets.

2-B is a collarless coat which has a more casual appearance than the one in pattern 1 due to the raglan sleeves. The 3rd variation (2C) of this pattern is the long blue coat featured on the cover of the book.

Lesson 3 is based on a dress pattern, which can be modified to make blouses, tunics or just a basic dress.

Lesson 4 features a basic shape from which you can make long coats and vests.

Hooded coat

Hooded sleeveless vest

Some ideas for accessories made with leftover fabric

Lesson 5 features 2 basic pants patterns. The first is a tapered pants with elastic waistband, and the second is a wide leg version with side concealed zip.

See what you can do with the basic pants pattern?

The basic wide leg pants can look formal if you use a fabric like wool, but the same pattern can be shortened to make culottes too! This third variation of the wide leg pants involves widening the pattern to make a pair of gaucho pants which will be great for lounging in.

2 sheets of Full size patterns included. The patterns are almost always printed double sided so if you can’t find any patterns, look on the other side!

buy now from cdjapan.co.jp (affiliate link)

Title : Aoi Koda’s Pattern Lessons for Autumn and Winter wear
香田あおいのパターンレッスン秋冬の服
Author : Aoi Koda 香田あおい
ISBN : 978-4-579-11537-2

Have you started sewing for winter yet? I have been sewing some cute little fleece jackets for my baby boy and I will post them up when I have time to take photos. Next week, I will also be announcing a very interesting giveaway for my blog’s 4th birthday! You won’t want to miss it!

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Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books in English Ladies Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Stylish Party Dresses (Now in English)

August 27, 2015

It is always exciting to see newly translated Japanese Sewing Books, hot off the press, in my mailbox! A big thank you to Tuttle who not only sent me these two books for review – Stylish Party Dresses: 26 Easy and Inexpensive Sew-It-Yourself Dresses for that Special Occasion & Stylish Remakes: Upcycle Your Old T’s, Sweats and Flannels into Trendy Street Fashion Pieces, but is also sponsoring a book giveaway for this book that I am about to review right now. Yes you heard me right! GIVEAWAY!

Before we all keel over in excitement, let’s take a look at this lovely book shall we? After all if you are not lucky enough to win it, you will want to buy one for yourself. This book is named Stylish Party Dresses by our favorite Japanese Sewing Book authors – Yoshiko Tsukiori. If you are not familiar with her, she’s the author of many many sewing books. Quite a number have been translated into English as well. Just click here to see all her books that I have reviewed.

I did not recognize the book initially as a different dress was used for the original book cover, and the title was also changed from Formal & Little Black Dress to Stylish Party Dresses (see below).

There are 26 projects you can make in this book, but not all are for dresses. Included are 3 bolero patterns that you can use with the dresses as cover-ups.

The contents page is a lot more descriptive and detailed compared to the original one (below), which was rather minimalistic.

Now let’s have a look at some of my favorite pieces from this book. There are just far too many pieces to cover in one blog post!

The book starts off with the dress on the cover. A simple dress with a midi tulle skirt. The dress itself is made of satin backed shantung fabric which gives it a touch of class and elegance despite its simple lines.

This black lace dress is made using black lace fabric overlaid on a grey polyester crepe de chine. A quick search for crepe de chine gave me this definition “Crepe de Chine, also spelled Crêpe De Chine, (French: “crepe of China”), light and fine plainwoven dress fabric produced either with all-silk warp and weft or else with a silk warp and hard-spun worsted weft.” – Britannica.com

Beneath the Cape Sleeved Bolero is a simple sleeveless dress. The bolero is made of a georgette fabric which is lightweight and drapes really well. Perfect for the soft flowy look.

This was the dress featured on the Japanese version of the same book. I always felt it was a little plain for a book named Stylish Party Dresses, but check out the back of the dress…

So apparently the details are in the back of the dress. A large ribbon tie! This dress is made from silk striped chiffon and is lined.

I am not usually a fan of these big shapeless dresses, but I do love how the choice of the fabric – CD Shantung, has on the overall effect. First the sheen, as well as the structure of the dress. In the dress description, it is noted that the fabric has a little more body and visible fibres than regular Shantung, and different levels of “shine” on different sides, so you can choose which is the “right side” of the fabric when making the dress depending on the level of shine you want. But what is CD Shantung? I have no idea, and it doesn’t seem to be a regular term. I am guessing it is a slubbed version of shantung? I do think that tafetta can achieve the same effect too if you can’t find the exact same type of fabric.

Another bolero, this time in black lace, used over the same shantung dress above.

A Wrap-Look Dress in Liberty Jersey.

The black jersey version of the same dress. For a moment I thought it was a velour fabric as it does have a velvety sheen to it.

Another one of those look so simple dresses but the beauty lies in the design of the draping of the fabric. The sleeves are cut extra wide at the end, same goes for the main bodice and back. The skirt is just a simple skirt made in the same fabric of silk jacquard. But wait till you see the back view of this top.

Love this ribbon tie detail on the back! In this picture, the same top is matched with a long chiffon skirt in print. A totally different look, from the full two-piece set, but nevertheless very elegant and pretty.

A very cute and youthful dress made with satin backed shantung. The detachable collar is made using organdy and attached on using snap fasteners. Just to clarify, the dress itself has a regular collar in the same fabric, the organdy collar sits on top of it and snaps on the inner neckline (so the snaps can’t be seen if you are not using the detachable collar.

This dress is called the Dress with Pin Tucks, but you might be wondering, where are the pin tucks? It’s a little hard to see as they are obscured by the Liberty print fabric. There is a black version in the book which shows off the pin tucks really nicely, unfortunately the photos I took can’t quite display the pin tucks well so I’ve left it out.

A Two-piece set in Georgette fabric. The blouse and skirt are actually separate pieces, and you can wear the blouse tucked or untucked. The skirt has two interesting horizontal tucks across a section of the front and back panels that gives it an irregular hem.

This must be my favorite party dress of all the dresses in this book. A Tafetta two piece dress. The blouse has a ribbon detail while the skirt is embellished with diagonal ruffles. Love the color of the pretty tafetta fabric on this.

One more bolero pattern – A bolero with frilled front edge in georgette. The frills drape nicely along the front giving it a more three dimensional look. The bolero is seen here with a long chiffon dress.

An example of the pattern instructions. Units are provided primarily in inches, with the metric equivalents in brackets. Most of the instructions are simple enough to understand. The steps that require more explanation are usually accompanied by diagrams.

A close up of the diagrams included in the book.

A handy pocket is attached for storing your pattern sheets. There should be 2 double sided pattern sheets enclosed.

More sewing books in English from Tuttle Publishing. To see my reviews of Japanese sewing books in English, click here.

available on Amazon for pre-order now

Title : Stylish Party Dresses
Author : Yoshiko Tsukiori
ISBN No. : 978-4-8053-1366-4

This book will only be released on Amazon on the 15th of September, but here is your chance to win a copy of the book before it is released!

Tuttle Publishing will be kindly sponsoring TWO copies of this book. So there will be two lucky winners! Just enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter app below with either your Facebook account or your email address. You can get additional entries from liking Tuttle Publishing on Facebook, Japanese Sewing Books on Facebook, or tweeting about the giveaway. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Bags or Zakka Sewing Patterns Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books

Book Review – Natural Cute Bags and Pouches

August 7, 2015

Did you participate in the Poll for the type of Japanese Sewing Books would you like to see translated into English? I hope you did! The poll is closed now and leading the pack is sewing for Ladies, followed by kids and bags sewing tied at #2.

I can think of quite a few girls sewing books, but only 1 kids book – Sew Chic Kids (for both girls and boys). But hardly any bag making books, it’s strange since there are so so so many gorgeous bag making books in Japanese. I must have at least 10 bag/purse/pouch sewing books in my collection, that number does not include periodicals like Cotton Time, Cotton Friend, Sewing & Crochet, where there are even more bag sewing patterns. I love Japanese bag sewing books because of the clear, precise instructions provided, either in diagrams or photographs. I also love the amazing photography and choice of fabrics. It always makes me want to go fabric shopping.

So guess what, today’s book review is a bag making book! One that I bought without browsing simply because of the cover. 😛

Oh, and I was talking about fabric shopping! This bag sewing book is produced by Kamakura Swany. A fabric shop in Kanagawa. If you have not heard of this place, just check out their very beautiful website. They also have an online shop which is in Japanese. Some of you may find many of their fabrics familiar. That is because they sell lots of imported fabrics, like Clarke and Clarke, Cabbages and Roses, Tilda, Lotta Jansdotter to name a few. There are also Japanese fabrics of course, as well as their own Swany line of fabrics. The 15 projects in this particular book are all made using fabrics from Clarke & Clarke, and feature patterns for bags that you can use on a daily basis.

The very clever thing about this book is that you can go to their online store, not only to buy the fabric, but to purchase the kits for making each project in the book. You can also browse the full range of projects and additional pictures through the links on each kit.

This bag a medium size bag with pockets in the front and back as well as an internal metal frame at the bag opening for a nice structured look.

This bag is called an Outing bag, with contrast fabric details for the handles, closing strap and…check out the little upturn corners on the base of the bag, and the big red button accents. How cute!

This bag is called a Cube bag. You can’t really tell from this picture, but imagine the pink side fabrics being pulled upright, you will see that the bag is actually made up of a boxy shape. There is a detailed sewing lesson with step by step photographs for this bag.

The next bag is a simple tote with leather straps. I love the fabric on this one and the leather straps go perfectly with the color scheme.

This round little bag is aptly named the Circle bag. There is a zip enclosure on the top of the bag. This fabric combination is too sweet!

The direct translation for this bag is the Body Bag, but no it’s not THAT kind of body bag, but a bag meant for carrying cross body. The strap is detachable at the bottom end so that you can switch sides depending on which shoulder you are more comfortable with. There is piping sewn along the edges of the front and back pieces of the bag, which help to give it a nice structured look. A full sewing lesson with step by step pictures is included with this pattern. More pictures of the bag here.

This bag is a backpack but with an open top (with a magnetic button) and shorter handles so that you can carry it like a tote as well.

I love this cute little bag with the irregular straps. This bag is simply called the Round bag. There is a zip running across the top of it.

This next bag is a flattish bag, but with a little depth for carrying stuff. I can’t figure out what the actual translation for this bag is but you can see from the pictures here that it is kind of a pear shape. There is a zipper running across the top of the bag.

There are also a few small projects like these hidden frame purses as well as some kiss-lock coin purses.

As mentioned earlier, there are two detailed sewing lessons (for the cube bag and the cross body bag), as well as some bag making techniques. Installing the magnetic buttons, sewing on leather handles, adding a bag base etc.

For the rest of the patterns, some include color diagrams like the ones below, and some of the patterns are in grayscale diagrams. Even the grayscale diagrams are clear and easily understandable as they use fabric pattern and shades to denote the different orientations of the fabric (right sides/wrong sides).

The diagrams are large and clearly labelled, so I don’t think there should be any problems following them.

One large double-sided pattern sheet included.

Title : Kamakura Swany’s Natural Cute Bags and Pouches
鎌倉スワニーのナチュラル可愛いバッグ&ポーチ
ISBN : 978-4-528-01145-8

There are other books published by Swany, including one that was just released a few weeks ago. Check them out here.

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Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books

Book Review – Textiles that are loved around the world and dresses

July 1, 2015

Today’s book review is a relatively new book, published in March by Bunka Publishing. The author of the book is Norio Nakanishi and the title of the book is Textiles that are loved around the world & Dresses. Well, at least that’s the official English title on the cover. It is a book about famous textiles from around the world, and includes dresses (and their patterns) that are made out of these textiles. There are 12 dress patterns in featured fabrics and 8 variations in basic solids/prints, patterns are available for sizes S-LL. Let’s see how many fabrics you can identify by just looking at the dress!

The first dress in the book is the one shown on the cover. I actually bought this book for this pattern. I love the structured look of this dress and you can see how the fabric is used with the line of symmetry down the centre front of the dress. Do you know where the fabric is from? Click on this link to find out.

The second dress is a wrap dress with a ribbon tie belt. The belt is separate from the dress by the way, and made with printed fabric on one side and solid black on the other. This should be a much easier fabric to guess. It’s a fabric also from the UK, found very frequently in Japanese sewing books. Answer here

The next dress reminds me of the 1920’s…. movies like the Great Gatsby. The notes accompanying this dress tells us that the fabric is from UK Harlequin Arkona collection. Unfortunately the only link I found was to a Japanese website which appears to be down.

Another dress that I love, though I would not necessary pair it with blue tights. This should be an easy fabric to guess. It’s from a craft brand by a Norwegian designer Tone Finnanger. You may even have one of her sewing books. Her fabrics are sweet and beautiful.

Can you name this next fabric? This retro looking fabric was designed by British designer Fiona Howard for UK Sanderson. The dress looks like two separate pieces but it is actually sewn together. The hem of the white blouse is gathered, and at the waistline of the skirt there are many tucks. It does help to spread the fabric out nicely.

This retro fabric is by Swedish designer Mona Björk, and was first released in the 1960s. You can still buy this fabric. Imagine how popular it must be! You can see all the colors of this fabric here.

I love this dress and the fabric is perfect for it. The colors are muted and not loud, yet when you take a closer look, it is full of fine details. The notes says that it is Guerino from Liberty Art fabrics, but I just could not find it anywhere by searching in English. I finally found it on Rakuten Japan, and noted that it is made in Japan. So I guess it is a Japan only print? The image on Rakuten doesn’t seem to do it justice though, someone seemed to have overcontrasted the colors on the image. From the book it looks a lot more muted and full of details. If you have seen Liberty fabrics in real life you will know what I mean. The dress itself is a V-neck, drop waist, gathered skirt. Very feminine and soft looking, perfect for the fabric which is a tana lawn cotton. I’ve heard this term used with Liberty fabrics all the time, but never really knew what the term Tana Lawn meant. Till I found this blog didyoumakethat.com which gives a great explanation. Now I know why Liberty fabrics are so soft and so expensive!

Another Liberty fabric, excerpt from the Liberty UK Blog – Floral Eve – this design is taken from a large botanical painting called ‘The Herbarium Specimen‘, painted by Rachel Pedder Smith, which is over five metres long and took seven hundred and sixty six days to complete. This project brought together art and science, depicting one specimen to represent each flowering plant family painted in the order of a contemporary DNA-based classification system. We chose the most floral elements of the painting for this design.

Could not find this on the main Liberty website as well, but found it on Rakuten.co.jp

This particular textile is actually a light upholstery fabric with a woven leaf design. KALLIANTHI collection by Clarissa Hulse for UK Harlequin. I love the sheen of the fabric and I guess the fact that it is thicker than regular cotton, means that it will hold the shape of this particular dress better than a soft cotton.

The book also includes variations of the same patterns but in solid colors or simple prints. This helps you to visualize the dress patterns in alternative fabrics.

This dress is actually using a very fine polka dotted print, isn’t it pretty!

There are a couple of pages on general dress sewing techniques, with black and white step by step photographs. The main lessons are for sewing a concealed zip, finishing the edges of a round neckline with bias or facing, as well as finishing a V-shape neckline.

I must say that the instructions seem to be rather wordy, but the good thing is that for each dress pattern, there is a separate size chart that indicates the measurements of the completed garment.

As for the illustrated steps, only the steps that are unique to the dress are displayed in diagrams. Common steps like sewing of shoulder seams, side seams, hemming etc are not shown and are instead listed in the text instructions.

There are two full size, double-sided pattern sheets attached.

Title :　世界で愛されるプリントのdress
Textiles that are loved around the world & Dresses
Author : 中西教夫　Norio Nakanishi
ISBN : 978-4-579-11521-1

Sekai De Ai Sareru Print No Dress / Nakanishi Norio / Cho

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Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books Ladies Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Ladies Pants and Skirts

May 2, 2015

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Ladies sewing pattern book. Time for some selfish sewing!

Today’s recommendation – Ladies Pants & Skirts. This is a compilation of Ladies pants and skirt patterns by Nihon-Vogue and it features the work of 9 different designers. Sizes include : 9,11,13,15 and 17.

The book begins with patterns for pants, and here they are grouped by the works of the different designers.

The first two patterns A and B are designed by 大川友美 author of Clean and Natural . The first pair of pants is a Linen denim Easy Pants and the second is a pair of tapered denim pants. Both come with elastic waistbands, concealed side pockets as well as back pockets. There is even a full color sewing lesson with step by step photographs. Great for those of you tackling side/back pockets for the first time, because it really goes into details of how the pockets should be attached.

Check out the close up details of sewing on the pockets. Once you learn this, you can apply it to any pair of pants/skirt.

Pattern C is a pair of Neat Cropped Pants designed by Enanna

Skirt? in the pants section? No it’s actually a pair of Full length Wide Pants. I love this design by Nanatone. It looks very feminine because it looks like a long skirt, yet it offers you the convenience of a pair of pants. Not too girly too, because of the drop waist ribbon tie.

If you found the full-length version too cumbersome, the same pattern is offered in 3 different length variations. The above picture shows the 3/4 length option.

and the shortest option which is probably more like a pair of culottes.

Pattern E is designed by muni, and is a modern day 3/4 length Jodhpurs pants. Jodhpurs pants are supposedly for horse riding, flared at the hips and thighs and tight at the calves. This particular pair of pants was made in knit fabric, with 2 side pockets along the side seams.

The second pair is a full length variation, almost the same construction as the first pair, but with a slight design twist for the side pockets.

Pattern F is a pair of Ribbon tie straight cut pants designed by Enanna .

The next section of the book is all about skirts.

The first pair of skirt is a below the knee flared skirt. This skirt comes with a yoke panel around the tummy area and only flares out from hip level onwards. I find this rather flattering for ladies because if you wear a flared skirt that flares from the waist line, the fabric bunches around the tummy and makes you look rather thick around the middle. Having a yoke panel (especially if you make this in a slightly heavier fabric) actually gives the illusion that your tummy is flatter.

The second variation is a mi-mollet skirt or a midi skirt. This refers to a skirt length that ends below the knee and before the calf.

The second sewing lesson in the book is for the skirts G1, G2, and G3. Which is pretty much a basic yoke skirt with an elastic waistband.

The next skirt – A Knee-length Tuck Skirt, was designed by Lilla Blomma. Lilla Blomma is not the name of the designer, but the brand name of a Pattern and Fabric shop helmed by two ladies, Megu and Mayu. H-2 (below) is the longer version of the same skirt.

The next skirt is a gathered skirt with yoke. The design is by LUNANCHE (Tomoko Tanaka) It is not a fitted yoke but one that is gathered slightly at the elastic waist band with a ribbon tie. I love the soft green color of the fabric which is a Cotton linen chambray in Muscat color. The variation is a tiered skirt below (Cotton voile in Provence print)

This is a really cute skirt by AN Linen – an Apron style Salopette Skirt in Ramie Linen.

A much simpler variation – a drawstring skirt. But I am loving the draping of this fabric. This is made with a linen knit. I seriously have no idea where to find linen knit but it sure looks comfortable.

An extra pair of jeans lying around can be remade into a brand new denim skirt! Design by La la happy.

Here are the sizing details.

The column on the left says “size / height / waist / hip”. All the patterns are made based on height of 160cm, but for your reference, the model in the picture is 170cm tall and wears a size 9.

1 full size, double sided pattern sheet included.

Title : 大人のパンツとスカート Ladies Pants and Skirts
ISBN No. : 978-4-529-05359-4
Publisher : Nihon Vogue

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