Browsing Category

Giveaways

All giveaways, books or fabrics or notions

Giveaways

Giveaway – Christmas Fabric from Modes4U

October 13, 2015

It’s the time of the year for Christmas sewing once again. How time flies! Our lovely sponsors from Modes4U would like to make your Christmas sewing even more fun with these super kawaii Christmas fabrics imported from Japan!

modes4u-giveaway-1

Up for grabs is this fat quarter bundle of the cutest Christmas prints

modes4u-giveaway-2

 

For details for the fabrics included in the giveaway, click on the thumbnails below for the detailed description of each fabric.

borderSanta Claus matryoshka stripe Cosmo Christmas fabric

creamChristmas tree ball decoration cotton fabric from Japan

greenChristmas wreath heart decoration Xmas fabric from Japan

pinkSanta Claus music Cosmo Christmas fabric

stampChristmas stamp Santa Claus fabric from Japan

The giveaway will be held on my facebook page  -> http://www.facebook.com/JapaneseSewingBooks

The giveaway is open worldwide and will run for two weeks!

The winner will be announced on the 27th of October. Good luck!

For more Japanese imported Christmas fabrics, as well as other Christmas goodies such as cute Santa erasers, greeting cards, craft punches, washi tape. Visit Modes4U.com It’s a one-stop shop for Christmas shopping!

Giveaways Japanese Fabrics

Book Review and Fabric Giveaway – Bags and Small Accessories using Echino Fabric

September 7, 2015

2015 marks the the 10th Anniversary of echino fabric. Designed by Etsuko Furuya, echino is one of the most well loved and popular Japanese designer fabrics. From quirky prints that include anything from animals to florals to vehicles, in a landscape of color explosion and geometric shapes, each piece of fabric tells a story.

“Since the collection started, I treated the ‘fabric’ as a place to tell a story. echino’s textile is loved by many people in even the slightest terms as something that brings excitement to their daily lives and moments. As a textile designer, I find this gratifying.”
by Etsuko Furuya
echino Designer
(from kokka-fabric.com)

Along with the ten year anniversary celebrations comes a sewing book devoted to sewing with echino fabrics. Explore the many different ways you can make use of these amazing fabrics. There are 26 projects in this book that not only include the tenth anniversary fabrics but also some of the more recent fabric collections.

And since we are feeling excited for Echino having reached a 10 year milestone, let’s celebrate with a FABRIC GIVEAWAY! Kindly sponsored by one of the best places you can get a wide range of echino fabric online – Modes4u.com – they ship worldwide!

echino1

echino2

First up, cushions. No better way to display art than on cushions right? It becomes part of your living space and adds a pop of color to your decor. You may find some of these prints familiar. That’s because as part of the 10th anniversary collection, a series of popular prints from the past were combined together as a panel print. so you can get multiple designs on one piece!

echino4

If you can bear to cut up the fabric, you can use different parts of the panel print for multiple small projects.

echino3

echino5

 A basic bag, unlined but comes with a inner pocket, with 4 different strap options. (Fabric from the parakeet collection)

echino6

Longer strap option – fabric from the landscape collection

echino7

Tote bag options with different length straps fabric from zon and samber collections

echino8

A 3 way bag with all straps options sewn in. Carry it with a single strap as a shoulder bag, or a large tote using the short straps. When you need a smaller bag, just fold in the top portion and carry with the short thin straps as a mini tote! Fabric from the arc collection.

echino9

A lined and structured tote bag with contrast canvas straps. Fabric from the parakeet collection.

echino10

Small box pouches in various sizes and strap/zip options. Fabric from the zon collection. I love how you can select a different portion of the fabric each time and make really unique pieces.

echino11

echino12

A dress or a skirt? Wear it anyway you want. Fabric from joy collection. This range is more of a wearable fabric with cotton (85%) linen (15%)

echino13

An rope bag. Fabric from the landscape collection

echino14

A rope drawstring rucksack. Fabric from the landscape collection

echino15

Easy pants made with fabric from the vista collection.

echino16

Big Bag as seen on the cover. Fabric from the camouflage collection.

echino19

An Apron made from the landscape collection I really love how this fabric appears in different projects throughout the book. It always looks different!

echino20

Make yourself some kitchen mitts and Babouche (traditional Moroccan slipper with no heel).

echino22

 A reversible hat, cute when worn either way. Love how the prints peek out from under the solid fabric. Fabric from camouflage range.

echino23

This is so beautiful! It really puts the artwork on full display. These are parasols though, meaning it is meant for sun protection and not waterproof. Scotchguard to the rescue for a waterproof version? 🙂 Also check out the beautiful parasol kit with a wooden handle. I’m not sure if you can find such beautiful parasol kits (See the exact one they used for sale on Rakuten) but maybe you can recycle an old umbrella for this?

echino24

 Be a trendy traveller with a boston bag, and matching travel accessories!

echino25

echino26

And for all those remnant fabric pieces and scraps, make covered buttons out of them. Each piece is unique. Jazz up your outfits or even use them as part of a display piece in your home decor.

echino27

The last project in the book is an eco bag – with a handy carry pouch. Can you tell how the pouch is made from the cut away piece from the main bag? Fabric saving idea! Fabric from the parakeet collection

echino28

All the fabrics used in the book for your reference.

echino29

Did you know that there are also solid color fabrics from Echino that are in co-ordinating colors with their printed designs. They have the same weight and composition 55% linen 45% cotton and will match the prints perfectly.

echino30

The pattern instructions are pretty typical of a Japanese sewing book with lots of diagrams.

echino31

echino32

A close up of the instructional diagrams.

echino33

1 double sided pattern sheet included.

echino34

Echino No Nuno De Tsukuru Bag to Komono Echino Designed by Etsuko Furuya / Aoki Eriko / Cho
available from cdjapan

Title : echino の布で作るバッグと小物 Bags and Small Accessories using Echino Fabric
ISBN No.: 978-4-579-11529-7

And now, for the GIVEAWAY!

Our kind sponsor, Modes4U, is sponsoring 1m of this fabric from the landscape collection in teal blue –

echinolandscapeteal

Will you be the lucky winner? Just enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. You can choose to login either using Facebook or just using your email address. You can get extra chances to win if you follow Modes4U or Japanese Sewing Books on facebook. The giveaway will run from 7th-14th September. Have fun and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaways

The 5000 Likes Giveaway

April 3, 2015

Last week, my Facebook page reached another milestone…. 5000 likes! I know my blog is more than 3 years old and it’s not that big a deal but it does feel quite satisfactory to know that it is still steadily growing and that there are so many people who love Japanese sewing patterns.

To celebrate this milestone, there will be a special giveaway! And why is it special? It’s because you will get a chance to receive this book that is not officially released on Amazon yet. However, we are fortunate enough to have it in stock in our local Kinokuniya. So I bought an extra copy just for the giveaway. It’s brand new, unwrapped, and full of cool projects. Those of you who have not seen the book, don’t worry, it’s not just about pants. Have a peek into the book here – She Wears the Pants (English) Book Review and here – She has a Mannish Style (same book in Japanese version) Book Review.

Want to be one of the first to own this book? Join the giveaway now! See below for details…

shewearsthepants1

As this giveaway is to celebrate the milestone of hitting 5000 likes, this giveaway will be held on Facebook ONLY. I will announce the start and duration of the giveaway contest on Facebook.

Terms and Conditions

1. This giveaway is open worldwide to anyone who has a Facebook account and is a Fan of my Facebook page.
2. Leave a comment on the Facebook page. Not here. One comment per person please.
3. Once the giveaway has ended I will update the post as well as post in the comments thread that the giveaway as ended. Comments added after that will not be eligible for the giveaway.
4. I will select a winner using a random number generator.
5. Please check your FB messages as I will be contacting the winners via FB. If I cannot get hold of the winner, I will perform a redraw and announce it again.

Easy Peasy…. so hop on over to my Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseSewingBooks and join the giveaway now!

 

Giveaways

Winner of the 3rd Birthday Giveaway

December 22, 2014

Thank you all for participating and your lovely birthday wishes 🙂 Unfortunately I can only pick one winner,
and the winner is… Kirsti!

She has won for herself a copy of the following book – Sew Chic Kids

cover

 

Congratulations Kirsti! I will be emailing you to get your contact details.

This week will be a busy one with Christmas celebrations and all, so here’s wishing everyone of you a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year! I’ll be back after Christmas with a new book review (another one that has been translated into English. Yipee!)

Happy Holidays!

Giveaways

Happy 3rd Birthday to Japanese Sewing Books!

December 13, 2014

It’s the time of the year again to think back about how far I have come with this blog.

1stblogpost_sm

First post ever! 13th December 2011.

Recognize this? Over the past 3 years, I’ve changed the theme a couple of times, and never thought to archive the very first “look” of the blog. Thanks to the internet archive Wayback Machine, I actually found the very first blog post!

It really just started out because I was buying more Japanese sewing books than I had time to sew, and I could find no information about these books online other than searching in Japanese. Since I was making to effort to learn a little (well, just enough to get by understanding the instructions and searching for more new books to buy) I thought of sharing this information online. Over the past 3 years, I’ve tried to include more content centered around Japanese sewing books, fabrics, and even attempted to have my own sewing patterns and videos. Family and work commitments have increased over the past half a year or so, which explains why I have not been able to create any new patterns/videos lately. However, I’m glad to know that the archived patterns are still being well used and many of you have left comments thanking me for the patterns and telling me how useful they have been in making that something special for a loved one. I read every single one of the comments and though I may not have time to reply them all thoroughly, the thought that my patterns have been useful to someone just makes this blog even more rewarding. Your kind comments and emails have kept me going. It is wonderful to meet so many people online who share my love for sewing!

Thankfully, a number of publishers caught the Japanese Sewing Books bug too and started translating some of the popular titles into English. Many of you have commented on how useful these books have been and can’t wait for more titles to be translated. There are more books on the way, this much I can tell you 🙂 and I will share them with you as soon (and sometimes even before) they are released.

So to celebrate my blog’s 3rd birthday, as usual, we MUST have a GIVEAWAY! And since many of you find the English versions so much more useful, I will be giving away one of the books that have been translated into English. To make this giveaway even more personalised, you are free to choose your giveaway prize from the following options.

A – Sewing For Girls

B – Sewing for Kids

C – Sewing for the ladies

To enter, just comment below and tell me your choice of giveaway prize A,B or C. Yup that’s it! This will be a simple giveaway with one chance per person, I want make it Sweet and Simple for everyone! 🙂 So please just leave one comment per person.

Giveaway ends 1 week from now – Midnight, between Friday 19th and Saturday 20th December (UTC) which will be Saturday morning 8am for me over here in Singapore.

Once again, thank you all for your support over the past 3 years and I will keep on blogging about Japanese sewing books, and hopefully find time to do more than that!