naniIRO fabric – Page 2 – Japanese Sewing, Pattern, Craft Books and Fabrics

nani IRO – different types of fabrics

March 22, 2013

Another long post to write. I’ve been at it since this afternoon and still not done yet. Why? I kept getting distracted and ended up fabric shopping instead!

Anyway, we’ve been looking at mostly ダブルガーゼ double gauze fabrics from nani IRO so far. But do you know about the other types of fabrics available in the same gorgeous prints? Unfortunately, not all the designs and colors come in the same fabric variations. Some of the designs have only one or two colors produced in a different fabric type.

綿麻キャンバス – cotton linen canvas
Before you think that Canvas is only for bags and accessories, look at this gorgeous skirt made by Karyn from the blog Make Something. Makes me want to make one myself! And so I searched the net for the same fabric. Can’t find any in stock! Not even on Rakuten. So sad 🙁 There’s a little bit of the blue one left in Miss Matatabi’s store if you fancy any.

コンパス –
This was a difficult one to translate. The direct translation of the word is “compass” but I simply can’t find an english equivalent to this. It is a 100% cotton fabric and as you can see from the close up, the weave is pretty loose. If I search in Japanese, the fabric descriptions point to a light weight fabric used for handkerchiefs and bandannas.

接結ニット – Double knit
I’ve had a chance to see the fabric in the picture on top in Japan, and now I regret not buying any. The problem is, the width of the knits are all 80cm, which made it difficult to estimate yardage when I had no project in mind. So beautiful. There are some available here.

ビエラ起毛 – brushed cotton flannel.
Frances made herself a dress with this fabric and it looks amazing!

わたガーゼ – Cotton gauze. Only available in certain designs and colors. For example the woodblock pocho print on the top, only 2 colors out of 5 in the same print is in gauze. The rest are double gauze. Gauze is simply a thin cotton fabric with very loose weave.

綿麻モーリー Cotton Linen blend. Another puzzling one. I get the first part of the fabric name – 綿=Cotton 麻=Linen but the second part モーリ is “mo-ri” and Google translate tells me is Morley, which sounds more like someone’s name? There is no english fabric name that sounds like Morley though. But the fabric is basically a 55% Linen + 45% Cotton blend so I’ll just call it that.

ダブルガーゼキルト – Double gauze quilt.
This is really just double gauze pre-sewn into a quilt for you. Very nice on bags and blankets. I guess you could make this yourself with the same double gauze fabrics, but so much more convenient to have it done for you.

Other than those above, I remember seeing some laminated nani IRO fabric as well. But I just couldn’t track them down either on the main nani IRO site nor the other Rakuten sites. Oh well, one less thing to worry about (not having it in my stash ;P)

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Finished Projects Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns Japanese Fabrics

nani IRO pocho smock – completed

March 22, 2013

So I finally decided to use this fabric from the 2012 collection – Peaceful cooing Madobe It was such a big thing to me because this is the first time I’ve actually cut into a piece of nani IRO fabric! So I have to blog about it. 🙂 Just a couple of pictures as I’m still trying to finish up the sewing video for next week as well as one more post about nani IRO fabrics.

FRONT

BACK

Close up of neckline

I have even decided on the perfect pair of jeans that will go with this top! (Jeans are from Uniqlo)

Did you notice that the patterns run differently on the front and back? It was because the pattern was too wide and I didn’t have enough fabric since I bought 1.5m only without knowing what I was going to make with it. So I had to cut the front straight grain and the back cross grain. Turned out pretty good! 😛

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Translations and Help with Patterns

Translation Requests – 2 nani IRO patterns

March 18, 2013

Translated project #1 – Pocho Smock

I was asked to translated this pattern for a smock (nani IRO 2009 recipe No. 3) sometime end of last year. Finally got around to making one for myself! Before I sew with very precious fabric, I usually make a muslin first just to be sure the size and cutting is right. I made this out of clearance $3/m cotton lawn which was light and airy and perfect for this pattern. So I decide to finish it up properly and actually wear it!

There is supposed to be some embroidered detail down the front opening, but I’ve decided to leave that out. Here’s a close up of the finishing around the collar.

And the sleeves. It’s a loose fitting smock so it’s quite forgiving when it comes to the fit. Love it!

Click image to view.

Project number 2 that was translated is the Apron dress.

This was requested by Jaya recently and unfortunately that is the largest size of the finished picture I could find. It’s basically an apron layered dress. Size 110. This pattern is from the 2006 collection of patterns.

The original pattern link is here
http://naniiro.jp/textile/pattern-making/pm2006

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Japanese Fabrics

nani IRO 2013

March 14, 2013

Browsing through the entire catalogue of nani IRO 2013 is rather painful for me…. Simply because I want to buy everything! It’s also really difficult to try to compose a blog post while I’m really itching to be shopping instead. I’ve got 1 yard in my cart right now and I just hit the “Keep shopping” button, but I stopped to get back to writing this. I’m not telling you which fabric I’m eyeing, and I will checkout my cart before I publish this post, just in case it gets sold out! 😛 Anyway, this blog post will be boring, because I will just be gushing about how much I love every single fabric.

I love nani IRO’s catalogues. They give me soooo many ideas.

Coule you have imagined this fabric to be used on a child’s dress? I find that I kind of get carried away when fabric shopping. Always veering towards the too cute or too pink or pastel stuff for the kids. I would have picked this blue fabric out for a skirt or dress for myself. But look at how adorable it is on the kids!

This is really special. The fabric design is called dear mother’s girlhood. In the fabric’s description, there is a part that says “刺繍タッチを水彩で描き上げ” – Google translate tells me that it means “Raised embroidery touch paint in watercolors” So does it mean there is some embroidery on it? It certainly looks like there is some 3D effect but I can’t figure out if the effect is painted on or embroidered. Can someone who has seen this fabric in real life let me know? I’m really curious!

More ideas on how to use the fabric. The woodblock pocho is a really cute design. There are so many different parts to the fabric that you can play with because of the way the pattern is repeated. You can be sure every single garment you make out of it is unique! 😛 Does this fabric look familiar? That’s because it’s one of the designs for the giveaway! Enter here (if you haven’t done so already)

One of the sweet sweet designs that i will always fall for. I love the one in yellow and blue stripes on the borders most and I can see it being used on a dress. Just can’t decide if I should use the blue on top or below, or maybe even at the waistline!

I browsed through all the different color combination for this and the yellow+navy combination really caught my eye. I just want to hang it up on the wall like this. But then I saw how they used it on skirts (see below) and I changed my mind. Maybe it will look better on a skirt.

The shirts are made from the next design below, called nuance MUJI. Awesome water color blocks. You can make really simple A-line shift dresses out of this to bring out the beauty of the fabric and every single dress will be different depending on how you cut it.

To be honest, when I first saw these two dresses, I didn’t like it very much. Probably because the pink checks remind me of a kindergartener’s uniform. But on the website you can see a close up picture of the border, where the colors blend so beautifully.
My favourite color combination is the one in the middle. The beige checks are not too obvious and I love all the colors used on the border. This will be really nice for a skirt. I’m not too big a fan of having checks all the way through so making an entire dress out of it will be too much. Imagine a solid co-ordinating fabric bodice and this for the skirt!

The last design is called the herring bone pencil. At first glance you can’t tell why it’s called herring bone. But when you see it closeup, you can see the very subtle herring bone pattern on the fabric. Love love love the one with the green stripe!