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japanese sewing books

Book Reviews

Book Review – Fashionable clothes girls like

March 7, 2012

Ok I’m really guessing the title here. The Japanese title is おしゃれが好きな女の子の服 which literally means Fashionable – like – girls’ clothes. Which doesn’t make sense right? So Google translate tells me it’s Girls like fashionable clothes. Which makes more sense but I prefer Fashionable clothes girls like 🙂

Whatever the title, this book is a really cute one. It is laid out in the standard fashion as most books are. Meaning, contents -> yummy photos -> Some instructions on how-to-make, and then the how-to-make for each project.

What I like about this book is the clothes are not the usual girl frilly stuff, but the quirky, minimalistic clothes that the Japanese are famous for. Think Muji! In fact, the clothes look like they are designed for adults but downsized for kids, which could be the reason why I like this book so much. I could wear one of these!

The book contains projects for spring+summer as well as autumn+winter, which means you’ve got the whole year covered!

At the end of each section, there are also suggestions on how you co-ordinate different pieces together in different combinations for different looks.

Unfortunately, this book does not include any step by step photos, and the how-to-makes are in the standard diagram format. Where the numbers pointing to the garment indicate the order of sewing.

A close up view of the diagrams. Not too difficult to understand right?

Here’s what I made from this book! (It’s dress B from the two diagrams above) I made some additional embroidery details but will post it on my other blog when I’ve taken photos with the model in the dress 🙂 Updated! I’ve added a new post with more pictures of the dress below. Go on and have a look!

Title : Fashionable clothes girls like おしゃれが好きな女の子の服
Author : まのあきこ (Akiko Mano)
Project sizes : Girls clothes sizes 100-130cm
ISBN : 978-4-579-11289-0

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Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books Ladies Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Sewing Recipe

February 8, 2012

 

Today’s book is the adult version of one of my previous reviews – Sewing recipe for Girl’s

It’s by the same author, but with designs, lessons and techniques catered to adult wear. This book covers 6 basic styles (as shown above and below)

When I saw styles 5 and 6, the collars on the shirt-dress and shirt just threw me off. I’ve never attempted a collar before. Not that there are no girls’ patterns with collars, just that I’ve never tried. Wondering if it’s too complicated to do.

Above is an example of a “how to make” page for each of the basic styles. Seems rather short and lacking in instructions, it follows the usual format of diagram + procedure in numbered steps. Description of the numbered steps is also in point form. So, how to make???

Thankfully, the rest of the book covers all the basics and advanced techniques you need for the steps in all the garments included 🙂

Starting from basics, and I really mean basics…. like how to thread your sewing machine!

After covering the basics, she moves on to cover Techniques. The pictures below shows the process of making gathers.

Not all the lessons are in photographs though, some are in diagrams, but as you can see below, it is pretty clear cut. I would say most of the time I don’t have to reach for my dictionary to understand it.

Oh, and for those of you (like myself) who have a great phobia of zips, there are a few good tutorials showing you how zips are inserted in a few ways. The one below shows the way to insert zips into a skirt.

There are also techniques for inserting side pockets, collars, yokes, all the baffling sewing techniques for advanced sewers, but showing in step by step photographs. Armed with this knowledge, you can build all 6 garments showin in the contents page!

This is a great book for learning everything from basics to advanced techniques. And a great beginner book to start making clothes of your own.

Book Title : Sewing Recipe
Author : 月居良子
ISBN : 978－4－579－11180－0

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Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns – fil e-book

February 6, 2012

Today’s link is a really amazing find. I stumbled upon this website from a list of links on a Japanese site, so it was really a by-chance thing and not directly from any search engine.

This website is by the company Fujix Ltd which apparently is a sewing thread company. Makes sense doesn’t it? 🙂

The subsidiary site  and the name on its banner is called sewing.com (translated) but this is not the domain name. The real link is http://www.fjx.co.jp/sewingcom/filcatalog/index.html 

Basically it displays all the e-books which are called called fil – Enjoy Sewing.

To view each e-book, you can either click on the thumbnails, which will bring you to the flash e-book reader. Below is an example of a page in the e-book.


The pictures and “how to make” sections (with diagrams) are within the e-book. There are two ways to download the patterns for each project.

1. Click on the link in the e-book. (See the link below)

2. Alternatively, from the main page, click on the purple button (see below). This will bring you to the “more details” page of that particular issue.

On the details of the e-book, you can click on thumbnail to view individual projects, and most importantly, there is a little greenish button beside each project with the words 型紙 which means pattern paper. This is where you will click to download the pattern.

Again, Flash is needed. A full page view of the pattern is seen (shown by the left hand photo below), click on any part of the image, and the PDF piece (A4 size) will be loaded (see example on bottom right). You will need to print the different pieces and piece them together. A little work. but it’s all free! 🙂

 

Even if you don’t make anything or find the pattern downloading too troublesome, just browsing the free e-books is really inspiring. As usual, beautiful Japanese styled photographs, cute projects, it’s a fabulous site to check out!

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Guides Translations and Help with Patterns

Understanding the instructions – working example

January 27, 2012

It’s been a quiet week on the blog, because we are celebrating Chinese New Year over here in Singapore. Only two days of public holidays but many people have taken leave because there is so much partying to do. 🙂 Will be back in full force next week.

In the meantime, one of my friends needed help translating a pattern. She borrowed a book which doesn’t provide step by step photographs, but do not be afraid of buying these books, especially if you really like the patterns in it. I’m going to show you how to understand the instructions, simply by using key words from the dictionary of sewing terms

The pattern is from this book called Girly style wardrobe.

The instructions included the material list as well as the list of steps on how to make, seems like not quite enough information when you are just given the following.

So I asked her to look for the words 作り方 (How to make) which is always usually under the 材料 (Materials) list.

Note that the instructions usually consist of nouns and verbs. If you can make sense of these, everything is easy peasy 🙂

So the english translation for this pattern is

  1. Sew shoulder seams
  2. Sew side seams
  3. Make frill (for sleeve) and attach
  4. Cover raw edges of armhole with bias fabric
  5. Sew side seams of skirt
  6. Sew bodice and skirt together
  7. Sew the back middle portion, attach the fastener (zip)
  8. Cover collar with bias fabric
  9. Make the frill for the hem and attach.
  10. Attach the loops for the belt cord
  11. Attach hook and eye loop for back of dress
  12. Make cord and pull through loops.

* For instructions on covering armhole, refer to pg. 50 (garment “h”),
For attachment of fastener (zip) pg 80 (garment “s),
For attachment of cord loops, refer to pg 56 (garment “k”)

 

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Book Reviews Girls Sewing Patterns Japanese Sewing Books

Book review – Sewing Recipe for Girls

January 18, 2012
Sewing recipe for girls

This was a great find from Kinokuniya in Sapporo. It is a book that covers almost everything you need about sewing. Yes, including how to thread a needle. Included are 8 basic patterns, and each of them comes with at least one applied pattern, which means they will make a variation using the same template and make it look like a whole new garment.

Sewing recipe for girls

The book is by 月居良子 who has written many  lovely sewing books.

Included in this book are 8 basic patterns, some of the projects include detailed step by step photographs.

The projects in this book are meant for girls from 100cm-140cm tall. Please refer to the above chart to gauge the size to make. If your child is a smaller or larger size compared to the sizes on her corresponding height, you can choose it based on the bust/waist/hip size and adjust the length of the skirt/blouse/pants accordingly. I’ve made the mistake before of selecting the size based on the height, but my girl is tall and thin so the dress turned out too wide even though it’s the right length. So now I would use the correct bust size (if making a blouse or a dress) and lengthen the garment to fit her height. Similarly for pants and skirts, select your size based on the waist or hip size and adjust the length accordingly.

Before we start on the projects, she begins by providing a basic lesson on dressmaking, including tools you will need, and step by step pictures of how to trace the patterns and cut out the fabric. Precision is what makes your garment look perfect!

For each of the 8 projects, there will be a basic pattern, as well as an applied pattern. The applied pattern uses the same pattern template but with different details such as length of sleeves/type of sleeves, which makes it look like a different garment altogether. So with one pattern you get 3 designs, which is great for people like me who are lazy in tracing patterns 🙂

For some of the patterns, there are step by step photographs showing you exactly how to make it. For example, the first project has 8 pages worth of photographs and it covers everything from attaching pockets, gathers on sleeves, bias binding, hemming, practically everything you need for the other projects!

And as if that wasn’t enough, she adds on a section on how to do basic hand sewing. Start by threading a needle, then learn how to sew a button. Then basic stitches like blind hems for the invisible hemline look, great for hemming pants! Oh and the list goes on and then look what we have here…..

Learn how to smock! The right way to smock, is to do it with precision. Oh and using a check patterned fabric helps. 🙂

This is an extremely useful book, great for both projects as well as reference. If you were to pick one book to invest in, I would strongly recommend this one. The projects are all quite easy and versatile pieces and the instructions and clear and detailed.

Book title : Sewing recipe for girl’s
Author : 月居良子
ISBN : 978-4-579-11352-1

 

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