Browsing Tag

kids goods

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns – Nunotoiro

August 13, 2012

I’ve been doing alot of sewing this weekend, in preparation for my daughter’s birthday party next weekend. I had a lot of IKEA fabric leftover from my fabric stash. Bright colorful animal print that I really wouldn’t use in the house, so I used it to make goody bags! I found a site with free patterns for bags, pouches, tissue pouch, school totes. What I really like about her projects is that she uses the nicest fabrics. And the finished product is photographed so beautifully.

The navigation is a little tricky though, there seems to be two different sections

The first is called free sewing recipes and it includes some tutorials on basic techniques  http://nunotoiro.web.fc2.com/tutorial.html
And the second section is a  Back to school sewing special – http://nunotoiro.web.fc2.com/kinchaku2.html

I love how clear the instructions are,  and the photos are beautifully taken. For some of the patterns, she shows us how to vary the fabrics for different looks. And I love the fact she uses liberty fabrics! Very pretty!

Happy Sewing!

Oh, and look out for a new feature on Japanese fabrics starting on Wednesday!

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Pattern – Kizuqueen

July 23, 2012

There are lots of free pattern resources out there, but there are also many with more text than pictorial instructions. Which makes it hard to understand given the way Google auto-translates, which tends to be inaccurate when the grammar pattern of the target language is not similar to English. So when I come across a site with good free patterns with lots of pictures, I just had to post it, even if there are only a few projects listed. 😛

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Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books Kids Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Cucito Summer 2012

June 22, 2012

Cucito is a kids sewing magazine published by Boutique-sha. The same people who publish Lady’s Boutique and Cotton Friend. They also publish a lot of other craft books and magazines. This is one of the magazines that I will buy regularly because not only is it cheaper than a normal sewing book but also for the projects using new fabric lines, so it keeps me “aware” of the latest fabrics of the season 🙂

This is the latest Cucito for Summer 2012. Perfect for the hot weather here!

Cucito magazine is a “kids boutique” magazine, so naturally, there are patterns for both boys and girls. A plus for those of you who have little boys!

Some of the projects featuring both boys and girls.

 Some of the featured projects include step by step photographs for instructions, and they look like this…

Other than kids patterns, there are also quite a number of patterns that feature matching Mama and kid sets. Nautical is in again this summer (again? ;P)
Hence the stripes and anchors you are about to see.

Even the bags and accessories are matching!

Summer yukatas! Super cute on kids. My kids got to wear them at the onsen, and they are super comfy.

 This book includes projects for babies as well!

Baby boys and girls both included.

Summer yukatas in baby size too. Even cuter! Boys pattern on the back of this page, I forgot to snap a picture of it 😉

I might be wrong about this but somehow projects for girls still outnumber the ones available for boys. There were 4 or 5 additional dress patterns just for girls.

And check this one out. Its a Yukata dress which is actually composed of a top and a skirt (which can be worn on it’s own).

Looks complicated to make, but luckily this pattern has 4 whole pages of step by step photograph instructions.

For the rest of the projects that do not have step by step photographs, it is the usual how-to-make pattern with instructions in point form and diagrams such as the one above. Pretty clear and concise pictures so it shouldn’t be a problem understanding them.

And now we move on to hats! 4 whole pages on hats, and 2 more on crochet hats.

This is what the instructions for crochet hats look like. I only know how to crochet using written instructions, not sure if this diagram is in “universal crochet language”.

Some extra craft ideas. This is a macaroon shaped case which is really cute!

 You also get to see the latest books available from the same publisher. KIV for future book shopping! 🙂

Title : Kodomo Boutique CUCITO 2012 July Issue
Publisher : http://www.boutique-sha.co.jp/
No ISBN number but there is a JAN (Japanese Article Number) code : JAN4939459402072

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Pattern – UneUneGoroGoro

April 30, 2012

What a cute name!  Today’s blog is called UneUne GoroGoro うねうねごろごろ ( 日々をうねうね 日々をごろごろ)

Google translate tells me it means Winding Purring (Winding everyday, Purring everyday). I don’t understand winding is but I am guessing this lady likes cats? 🙂 It doesn’t matter because she makes the cutest things!

I was drawn to this site because my little one likes cats. So when I saw the little cat pouch above, I had to make one for her 🙂 The little bear is cute too, I can put in some beads and make it into a paperweight!

First of all, her website link is here http://cyocorune.cocolog-nifty.com/unegoro/ where you can see all the beautiful things she has made. She has also provided a page with links to her free patterns here – http://cyocorune.cocolog-nifty.com/unegoro/cat21754769/index.html . Some of them require you to download a PDF template. Just look out for the file extension .pdf and click on it. (See below)

The others that do not require templates are like simple bags and pouches, which are basically constructed from rectangles, so just click on the blog post and the detailed instructions will be there. I used Google translate on the how-to-make page and it gave me this. Comparing to the original Japanese Instructions :

頭用の布 7×7cm 5枚    (Cloth for head – 7x7cm 5 pieces)
耳用の布 3.5×4~5cm 2枚
ボディ用の布 7×7cm 5枚  (Cloth for body – 7x7cm 5 pieces)
3mm紐 8cm 4本 (3mm cord, 8cm long, 4pcs)
ウッドビーズ 2個(上記紐が通る物)
目鼻用ボタン(刺繍でも可)
フェルト 2.5×1.5cm 1枚

Google translate messed up the body, head and cord translations by trying to translate them into sentences and rearranging the numbers, so sometimes it might be better to use a combination of both, just to decipher the part (i.e. head/ear/body in this case) you are making, but use the dimensions from the Japanese version to avoid confusion.

The rest of the pattern is quite easy, because she has  step by step photographs for some of them.

And scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will find more archived free pattern links.

Happy Sewing!

Giveaways

Mother’s Day Book Giveaway

April 20, 2012

So I’ve been thinking about a book giveaway for a while now. Seeing that it may not always be easy to buy a Japanese sewing book you’ve seen online, especially if you are not near a bookstore that stocks a large selection of hobby and craft books in a foreign language 😉

I’ve been seeing a lot of new friends liking my Facebook page as well as new friends visiting the site, so I would like to welcome everyone and hope that you guys can keep leaving me comments so that I can improve on the content and make this site a more useful one for all of us.

For my first giveaway, I have a brand new copy of Pochée Kids Special that I reviewed a few months ago. This book is great for Mums because there are step by step photographs for some of the projects (great for beginners), plus there are patterns for BOTH girls and boys!

 

So here’s what you have to do….

  1. Like my Facebook page …if you haven’t already 🙂
  2. Leave me a comment below this post and if you have any suggestions, let me know what new features you would like to see on the site.
  3. If you have twitter, follow me and spread the word with the hashtag #jpsewingbks
Edited to add: I will be picking a winner from the list of people who have commented below, and not from facebook and twitter, so you have to sign up for the book giveaway here!

That’s it! The giveaway ends 25th April (Wednesday) at 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time. I will announce the winner here on 26th April. So check back then to see if you are the lucky one 🙂

Good luck!