Monthly Archives

February 2012

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns – Bee Factory

February 27, 2012

How many bags does a girl need? How many bags does a girl want? How many bags have I made?

Not enough 😉 Today’s free pattern link is from Bee Factory.

There are lots of free patterns out there for little items like bags and pouches but not many with such detailed photographs and diagrams. Just the thing if you can’t understand the instructions. Here’s an excerpt of the photo instructions.

And here is an example of the free pdf patterns you can download. Looks a little bit more complicated when it’s reduced in size to fit the screen 🙂 but its basically rectangles with dimensions and markings.

Have fun making your own bags and pouches!

Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books Kids Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Kurai muki no kodomofuku : Simple+one

February 22, 2012
Cover of simple+one

It’s Wednesday and time for another book review 🙂

Cover of simple+one

Today’s book is called Kurai Muki no Kodomofuku : Simple+one. (クライ・ムキの子供服 Simple+one)
The author is 倉井美由紀 but she is known as クライ・ムキ Kurai Muki. She has written lots of books on sewing! I first came across this book at a friend’s place and was so besotted with one of the dresses that I had to get one of my own. I’ve already made two of the same dresses and received an order for another dress. You can read about it on my other blog here.

The book covers 6 basic patterns and provides multiple variations of each style. The variations are really creative, and not just attaching pockets, ribbons or frills, but real variations. For example, the dress above that I made was from a simple bodice and dress pattern. One of the variation is the one above, and another is shown below. It is an organza party dress with a real poufy skirt!

The techniques covered in this book are pretty advanced, and assume that you know the basics, so there are no instructions for beginners. But I like it because it really allows you to utilize one basic pattern (tracing patterns is the most tedious part of sewing for me!) and make many different garments.

There are patterns for boys too!

Cargo bermudas or jeans? Up to you, all with the same pattern. Sometimes being creative doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but this book will inspire you to explore using the same pattern with different materials, different finishes, to make a completely different garment. These two pants are basically cut from the same pattern, with the length adjusted to the height of the child, but with slightly different belt loops, different hemming methods, external pockets on the left but side pockets on the right, contrast overstitching on the right but not on the left. Play around with your own ideas and make more out of one pattern.

And check this out. A full set of formal wear for both boys and girls. All with the patterns from this book. Each outfit is made with a combination of two different base patterns. So basically this one book can cover all your clothing needs. From t-shirts, shirts, blouse, pants, dresses for both casual and formal wear.

As I mentioned earlier, there are no in-depth step by step photographs as this is not a beginner book. But there is a special how-to-make for the organza party dress as it is a little more difficult and requires the use of a serger/overlocker. There are 5 pages in all with detailed photos on how to make the organza dress. I need to make 4 bridesmaid dresses for my cousin’s wedding in december… so maybe a new serger is in order??? 😉

The rest of the book covers the pattern for each design variation featured in the yummy photos from the first half of the book. Most of them have diagrams, but also note that some of the how-to-makes cross reference to other pages for certain steps. For example, the dress I made included 3 references to other pages.

 Book Title : クライ・ムキの子供服 Simple+one
Author : クライ・ムキ
ISBN : 978-4-418-05124-3

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese sewing Patterns – Handmade Kokoro

February 20, 2012
handmade kokoro

Today’s free pattern site is by a mother of two young children. Which explains why the patterns are mainly for babies. Very cute and useful things to make! Comfortable shirts, pants, onesies, dresses, even a diaper cover and toys! For mothers, there is even a baby carrier and bag pattern.

handmade kokoro

Her main blog is at http://mcrafts.blog15.fc2.com/ but the patterns are on this page http://handmadenokokoro.web.fc2.com/katagami_index.html. There are almost 50 patterns to choose from. Click on the project you wish to make and you will see the details for each project (see below)

Click on the green button which means download, this will link you to the PDF pattern, which is for A4 print outs. Some prints will need to be enlarged.

Happy Sewing! Will be back on Wed with another book review 🙂

Book Reviews Girls Sewing Patterns Japanese Sewing Books

Book Review – Fashionable clothes for girls

February 16, 2012

This week’s book review is about pure eye candy 🙂

The book title is 女の子のおしゃれ服, by 荒木由紀。Google tells me it means Fashionable clothes for girls.

I love the pictures in this book. The little girl is so cute!

When I flip through books to decide if I will buy it, it almost always depends on whether there are dresses in there that will catch my eye and make me want to make it, or something I know my girls will wear. This one is a different style from the usual dresses I make, but I know my girls will like it. It’s so smart looking. They’ll probably prefer tights with it though 🙂


And this dress is the reason why I bought this book. Ever since my daughter read the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (my fave books!), she’s been wanting a brown poplin dress just like Laura’s. I bought the perfect brown with white polka dots fabric (supposedly Japanese fabric) from Spotlight a few months ago, but never knew which pattern to use. This looks perfect!


Not just dresses, there are blouses, pants, and  even a nice padded long jacket for the colder months.(Doesn’t apply here in Singapore so I guess I won’t be using this) But it’s cute!

So the reason why I said this book is eye candy is because it has not much instructional photos. Not like the previous ones I’ve reviewed. However, for the dress on the cover, there are a two pages of photos showing you how to attach the floral fabric to the shirt collar.

The rest of the how-to-make’s are shown like this below. Instead of numbers pointing to one diagram, there are actually separate diagrams for different steps which is pretty easy to understand. I guess that makes up for the lack of photos.

Altogether, the book covers 6 tops, 5 dresses, 3 skirts, 4 pants, 2 coats, 1 bag, 1 hat, 1 corsage, and as an added bonus, 2 mama sized matching garments (1 dress and 1 blouse)

Book Title : 女の子のおしゃれ服
Author : 荒木由紀
ISBN : 978-4-529-04526-1

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns – Studio Clip

February 13, 2012

Studio Clip is a company selling zakka and clothings. They have both an online store as well as physical stores in Japan. Today I discovered one of their blogs – which is a huge library of “how to make” patterns for zakka goods!

To date (it was last updated early Feb), there are 116 patterns available. The zakka goods include bags (all kinds and for both adults and kids), pouches, cozies, baby goods, placemats, aprons, tissue box covers… whatever you can think of!

Most of the site is in Japanese, and if you use Chrome or any browser which does auto-translate, it should be possible to understand the important points such as what supplies are needed and how much fabric to use. At the end of each post there will be a PDF file (look for the words “PDF” in the link. That will be the pattern you need. Below is an excerpt from one of the patterns. Most of the “how-to-make”s are in diagram form so it is pretty easy to understand.

So what are you waiting for? There are 116 projects to browse, lots of ideas for making your own zakka goods. Have fun!

Here’s the link! http://www.apalog.com/studio-clip_craft/