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Book Reviews Girls Sewing Patterns Japanese Sewing Books in English

Book Review – Girls Style Book in English

October 30, 2013

Those of you who visit my blog regularly may have realized that I have been slow to update recently. My eldest was having her exams and I know it sounds ridiculous but it meant that I was not able to blog and sew as often as I liked since our “work areas” are next to each other and whatever I was doing distracted her from her revision (which was obviously a lot less interesting that whatever I was doing). The good news is, the exams are officially over and it means I’m back to regular schedule from next week onwards.

Anyway for this week I wanted to review another translated book by Tuttle. I once borrowed the Japanese version of this book from my friend, just to trace the pattern of the dress on the front page. But I never got around to making it because I did not have the right fabric, and somehow time went by and patterns get piled up faster than I have time to sew. I don’t even know where the pattern is now 🙁 Looks like I will have to trace it again because every time I see this cover I feel like making this dress!

The book is called Girls Style Book and it includes 24 patterns for girls in the following sizes.

 Size 2-10 for heights 100-140cm. I’m so used to using cm so I’m really glad that they provide both sets of measurements even after translating. One reason why I don’t like sewing with english patterns is that I have to keep converting the units back to cm.

Let’s have a look through the book now shall we?

Dress with frilled collar. From the length it looks like a blouse but the title says dress. I guess you cane make it longer or shorter, it will work both as a blouse, tunic or a dress.

 Smock-like blouse with front tucks. Notice the gathered details on the sleeves and the scalloped edge lace on the hem. So so sweet!

 This is actually a variation of the blouse in B but in a longer length and in linen.

 Classic dress with a linen ribbon tie and rounded collars.

 Balloon dress with ribbon rosettes. Pattern for matching headband provided too! There is also another sleeveless balloon dress pattern (instead of straps) in the book so if you are a fan of the balloon dress, and have always wondered how to make it, you have to get this book!

 Puffed-sleeve A-line dress. You can vary the fabric used to give it a more casual or formal look. This fabric is a summer weight wool, and the trim is made using Liberty fabric.

Patterns for the open back camisole, pants and the oh…the super cute hat are all provided!

 Blouse with front and back gathers. You can’t really see it from the picture because of the printed fabric, but it is a really pretty blouse with front pockets and frills on the sleeves. There is also a ribbon tie at the back enclosure.

 Blouse with gathered high waist, V-neck and frills on the shoulders. Do you like to use classic large floral prints on your little girls? It’s a really nice match for this pattern.

 Straight line sundress. The sleeves and top edge of the dress is made really pretty with some eyelet lace and a length of ribbon weaving through it.

A very classic high waist gathered dress, a staple pattern for anyone sewing for little girls.

 A-line sleeveless dress. Easy to wear, and easy to make!

 Dress with embroidered front smocking and little bag. This pattern teaches you how to make the smocking pattern. Like in the real traditional needle embroidery method. It is tedious work but so pretty when finished.

 An interesting dress made using a decorative edge fabric. The edges are used for the sleeves and neckline panels as well as the skirt edge of the dress. You could even adapt this pattern using a plain fabric with a co-ordinating fabric for the neckline panel behind the V-shape bodice panels for a completely different look!

 For formal occasions, there is the long dress. The petal sleeves are beautiful! Be sure to use a fabric that has a bit of shape to help the petals stand out. The dress above is made in linen, but you easily create a more formal look by using a different type of fabric.

A black linen bolero and pinafore ensemble. Wear it separately or together for a more formal look. The bolero pattern on its own will also be useful for cold weather wear or an extra touch to a formal dress outfit.

Each of the patterns come with a set of instructions like the ones in the picture above.  I don’t follow the cutting layouts strictly because I find that for smaller sizes, sometimes it is possible to use a lot less fabric than what is stated. But always refer to it before cutting out your patterns because you need to transfer the correct seam allowances to your patterns!

The patterns include diagrams for instructions. A close up of one of the diagrams is shown above.

 Like all Tuttle books, there is a handy envelope at the back cover for storing your patterns.

 Title : Girls Style Book
ISBN : 978-0804843270
Author : Yoshiko Tsukiori
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing

If you were to pick a pattern from this book for a sew along, which would it be?

 

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Book Reviews Girls Sewing Patterns Japanese Sewing Books

Sewing Books for Toddler Girls by enanna

August 5, 2013

Kamille left a comment on one of my blog posts recently asking me about sewing books for toddler girls. Specifically for a 12 month old little girl. I have not sewn for anyone so little for years, since my baby just turned 5 (growing up way too quickly!)

I did buy a book recently for the range 80-100cm which is just about right for a 12month girl to maybe 2-3 years old? I actually bought the book by mistake as it was a book on Mama+child matching patterns which I wanted, and the girl on the cover looked about 4 or 5? I somehow failed to see the large purple circle on the cover that said 80-100cm. It also says M and L sizes for Mama.

I might be putting this book up for sale since the sizes don’t fit my girls. But I’m still half hearted about it since the Mama patterns are quite nice.

 

The book is by 朝井牧子 the lady behind the online shop enanna. The shop specializes in clothes for girls 80-110cm.

Just some of the patterns included in the book. The clothes for Mama + girl are thankfully not completely identical, but rather, runs along the same fabric theme,

or sharing the same shape, with different details and design elements.

A very nice jacket for Mama

and a matching hooded jacket for the girl.

 

There are two patterns that come with detailed step by step photos like the ones above.

I like how there is a scaled down diagram of the pattern sheet and the pieces you need is highlighted in blue. Really helps with locating the pattern pieces.

For the rest of the patterns without detailed photographs, there are colored diagrams like the ones above.

Actual size paper patterns included. 

Title : 女の子とママのおそるい服
Matching clothes for Girls and Mama 
Author : 朝井牧子
ISBN :  978-4528013025
Sizes : Girl (80-100cm) Mama (M,L)

There are two other books written by the same author that I thought should be good for a toddler girl too since she seems to specialize in toddler patterns. I am using these images from Amazon.co.jp because I don’t have the actual books on hand. I have included the ISBN numbers and titles below each book so that it might help you with your search for the books online. 

There are 18 projects (from A-R) for sizes 80-90cm.

 Title : 80~90センチサイズのかわいいお洋服
(Cute clothes of 80-90cm sizes)
Author : 朝井-牧子
ISBN :  978-4528012981
Sizes : 80-90cm

 

 

Title : 80~100センチサイズのかわいい春夏お洋服

Cute Spring and Summer Clothes
Author : 朝井-牧子
ISBN : 978-4528013070
Sizes : 80-100cm 

Hope this helps those of you looking out for cute toddler girl patterns. Happy Sewing!

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Free Patterns Girls Sewing Patterns Sew-along Sewing Tutorials Sewing Videos

Free Pattern, Tutorial and Sewing Video – A simple dress

February 27, 2013

I said this would be up on Monday, and now it’s Tuesday, almost Wednesday. What happened, was that I had to do a little housekeeping on my mac as I was running out of space on my startup disk, and to my horror, all my previous backups disappeared because of some spotlight indexing issue. I shall not go into so much technical details right now as my brain is half fried, but I had to re-run Time Machine and recreate a new backup. It took up the most of Monday and while it was doing that, I was afraid to tax the system further asking it the process the movie (which was 1 hour long before editing!) That’s the story in a nutshell. Back to the pattern.

This month is all about Girls’ Dresses. So I decided to draft from scratch, a simple dress (I am really not good at fancy names) that can be used to create many different looks. A dress is simply a bodice + skirt combined. My pattern shows you how to make a round neck bodice with a gathered skirt. Change the gathered skirt to a pleated skirt, or even a circle skirt, and the dress is transformed. Add a ribbon sash, or add in some frills around the shoulders, make it with cotton, double gauze, make it with stripes, prints, solids, co-ordinating quilting fabric, you get a thousand and one looks.

The patterns were drafted following the measurements in a well known pattern “textbook” Metric Pattern Cutting for Children’s Wear and Babywear by Winifred Aldrich.

 

Click here to download the tutorial

I’ve drafted the patterns in the following sizes. The approximate ages and body measurements the patterns are based on are listed below each size. I have only tested two of the sizes (110 and 122) since my kids currently fall into that size range. So if you are using the other sizes for the first time, do a quick muslin (something like a mock-up using a cheap fabric) before actually using it on your actual fabric. Not everyone will fit into the standard size and the ages provided by the book are approximate, so choose the one closest in terms of chest and waist sizes, and alter the length accordingly. For example my daughter is actually closed to 130 in height but being very skinny, the 122 size fits her better but needs to be lengthened for her actual waist and skirt length. The length of the skirts I’ve included on each bodice is based on knee length skirts, but that can be easily modified to your liking. Do give me your feedback in the comments below if you have tried any of the other sizes! I would appreciate it 🙂

Here are the sizes available and their key measurements.
18mth/Chest:52cm/Waist:49cm/Waist-Knee:30cm (skirts are based on knee length)
3yrs/Chest:55cm/Waist:52cm/Waist-Knee:34cm (skirts are based on knee length)
5yrs/Chest:59cm/Waist:56cm/Waist-Knee:38cm (skirts are based on knee length)
7yrs/Chest:63cm/Waist:60cm/Waist-Knee:42cm (skirts are based on knee length)
10yrs/Chest:72cm/Waist:63cm/Waist-Knee:48.6cm (skirts are based on knee length)

Click here to download from my PDF pattern store – PorcupinePatterns.com
all the sizes are combined into 1 zip file

And last but not least, here are the sewing videos! It was too long so I had to split it into two videos, and I’ve speeded up some of the boring parts, hope it’s not too fast to follow.

Just a word or two about the sewing videos. My methods of attaching a zipper may be a little unorthodox and certainly the “textbook” way, but I find this method a lot faster than the traditional method. If you have your own preferred method, by all means do it your own way! The other thing is with regards to the sewing down of the bodice lining. It is done this way to quicky encase the raw edges of the zip and bodice+skirt seamline, which sometimes irritate little girls with sensitive skin. My girls don’t really get bothered so sometimes I sew both layers down with the skirt after gathering, serge and topstitch it flat. When I made bridesmaid dresses for my baby niece though, I even took the extra step of hand-stitching the bodice lining down with a blind stitch so that the seams won’t irritate her (and cause her to want to yank the dress off halfway while walking down the aisle ;P) It certainly took a lot more time and effort but the end result was worth it. So it’s really up to you!

Well, that’s the last of my Girls’ Dresses blog posts. Next month will be exciting, I’ve already got the theme planned out months ago. Can’t wait to show you guys!

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Girls Sewing Patterns Japanese Fabrics

Japanese Fabrics – Border prints

February 21, 2013

On Monday I reviewed two single pattern sets for Girls’ Dresses. Did you notice the fabric? It looked as if there were ribbons sewn on to the bottom skirt hem. But it was actually a printed fabric.

This type of fabric print is called a border print　ボーダープリント (bo-da-pu-ri-n-to) The print repeat runs parallel to the selvedge. Note that in Japanese, it also refers to horizontal stripes. So if you search using the Japanese term don’t be surprised to find lots of stripes in your search results.

There are many interesting things you can do with border prints. You can use different parts of the fabric for the bodice of a dress and another part for the skirt, you can use it in tops, skirts, even pants to create an interesting effect. Some border prints are designed specially (such as heavier weight fabric for bags) so that you can use the different parts to co-ordinate the different parts of a bag. But since this month is Girls’ dresses month, lets look at a few border print fabrics suitable for girls dresses!

I have this fabric in my stash. I can’t even remember how much of it I have because I cannot bear to cut it up. So it stays in the stash 😛

This fabric was featured in Cucito, Spring 2012. It’s really sweet and I like how the bottom border is beige instead of a pink or red. I would love to use this fabric for myself!

Looks like flowers is a very popular theme on border prints. I like this one because the flowers look like they are from a watercolor painting. This was featured in Cucito 2012 Spring too.

Flowers again! But I had to show you this one. It’s so colorful and the flowers look like they are embroidered on. I love the colorful strips near the selvedge. Very folksy and happy fabric! Would be lovely on a girl’s dress!

This one has flowers too but it is a little different, because it has a scallop lace edge. I saw this fabric last year, with the pattern by Yuki Araki. The fabric alone looks more suitable for an adult. It’s cotton lawn and a little thin, but it does look cute on the girl’s dress too.

Something a little less flowery. This one is called piano polka, if I’m not wrong I have seen this in Cucito too.

I know many of you have asked about buying fabrics online from Japan especially the fabrics I have featured on my site. I hope to post a guide soon about how to buy from Rakuten shops that do not ship out of Japan. I am waiting for my fabric order to arrive so I can tell you all about it!

Next week will be the last week of February, so there will be a free pattern+tutorial+video for you to sew-along to. See you back here on Monday!


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Book Reviews Girls Sewing Patterns Japanese Sewing Books

Pattern Reviews – Girls Dress Patterns

February 18, 2013

Today’s review is not from a book, but single patterns sold in little packages like this one. I’ve always been curious to know what the “insides” are like, so during my Dec trip I made it a point to buy a few. Well, a few became 5 or 6. Some for bags and women’s tops. These are the ones I bought for Girls’ Dresses.

The one on top is by Polka Drops and the one below is from m-pattern. The first dress is a simple dress with square neckline, front enclosure, and frills on the sleeves.

The packaging is very simple. An A4 printed sheet that, when folded in half, acts as both the cover and the back. So that makes the package A5 size. The instructions and patterns are sandwiched in between this printed cover. The one from polka-drops is 550yen, and it contains the patterns for sizes 90-120cm. If you consider the usual price of the book which is usually from 1200yen and gives you at least 10 patterns, this may not seem like such a good deal. But it’s easy to get carried away as these are sold in the fabric shops, usually in a rack conveniently located near the fabrics suitable for the project, and sometimes just below the sample end product. ;P
All the sizing and material information is listed on the back. Handy reference when you are shopping for fabrics.

And here’s what it contains. Two pieces of instruction sheets with diagrams, and one large pattern sheet.

Close up of the instruction sheet – the cutting diagram.

There are no photographs, and the instructions are mostly in text, but there are diagrams to every step, like the ones above.

Instructions sheet 2, more of the same thing, I think there was just not enough space to fit them on sheet 1.

Close up of pattern sheet. The pattern pieces are actual size and because there is only one design, it is easy to locate the pieces you need, unlike those from a book where you have to squint and follow lines very closely to spot the correct patterns. 😛

This is the second pattern I bought. A tiered dress that you can use to create 3 different styles. This pattern was more expensive at 787 yen. I like to think of it as buying 3 patterns (since there are 3 slightly different variations)

Style I – stand collar, 3/4 sleeves, tiered dress.
Style II – no collar, cap sleeves, tiered dress.
Style III – no collar, 3/4 sleeves, tiered dress.

Size chart. For sizes 85cm-133cm. The terms on the left hand column (corresponding to the rows of numbers) are : –

  • Chest (chest circumference) – bare body measurements
  • Chest (chest circumference) – garment measurements  (approximate)
  • Height
  • Length | Garment dimensions (approximate)

Pretty similar to the first package, 1 instruction sheet, 1 actual size pattern sheet, and a questionnaire  postcard.

The instruction sheet was larger, but with alot more words and diagrams.

General overview of procedure. Indicated using diagrams and in point form.

Compared to the polka drops instructions, the paper is thinner and the instructions are more cramped. Have to follow the numbered steps carefully or you might get lost.

The pattern sheet is quite good quality though, it’s slightly glossy and thick. There is even a glossary of symbols used in the patterns.

Closeup of the pattern. I like how the numbers for the different sizes are indicated along the curves as well. Harder for you to make a mistake and end up following the wrong line while tracing.

These patterns are available in fabric shops in Japan, I have not seen them in bookshops before. There are no ISBN numbers for searching. If you know of any online source, do share in the comment below!

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