Monthly Archives

June 2012

Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books Ladies Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Daily Comfortable Clothes

June 29, 2012

This week’s book review is from a book I bought on my recent trip. It’s not a new book judging by it’s published date (Feb 2012). The title of the book is 毎日の心地よい服  by  櫻井悦子 (Etsuko Sakurai).

I love the mood of the photographs in this book. Everything has a light and airy feel to it.
Very dreamy… There are also illustrations superimposed on the photographs on some of the pages. Continue Reading

Translations and Help with Patterns

Translation Request – V-neck Straight Dress

June 27, 2012

Today’s translation request is from Ritisha, who needed some help with the following nani IRO pattern. I love nani IRO fabrics, but have never sewn with one (because I cannot bear to cut that single piece I have stashed away), and it was only after doing this translation that I realized it was slightly narrower than the usual fabrics (106cm vs 110cm). So there are two cutting diagrams depending on which fabric you use. Interesting!

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Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Pattern – Make a felt cake

June 25, 2012

Happy Monday! It’s back to school for us today and I had to wake up in the dark again. I miss the holidays already!
Here’s something to cheer us up on a Monday. Another free pattern! Today’s free pattern is great for people who don’t have sewing machines as well, as it is a hand sewing pattern.

The pattern is from this site called http://yummy.ciao.jp. You can browse through her website and her gallery to see all the items she made. It’s amazing!

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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

Translations and Help with Patterns

New Translation Terms – Patterns and Colors

June 20, 2012

One of the more important translation terms that I have yet to add, is the list of pattern names (e.g. polka dots/stripes) as well as colors. Most of the time you will be making the garment out of your own choice of fabrics, but for certain crafts/designs/patterns, it does matter what colors or prints you use .

So today I will be adding on to the list of terms, some of the colors and pattern names I have come across. I hope it will be useful to you.

 

Colors

  • 白 – White
  • 黒 – Black
  • グレー – Grey
  • 緑 – Green
  • 青 / ブルー – Blue
  • 黄土色 – Yellow Ochre
  • こげ茶 – Dark Brown
  • ベージュ – Beige
  • 山吹 – Bright Yellow
  • 赤 – Red
  • ネイビー – Navy
  • グラファイト – Graphite
  • 茶色 / ブラウン – Brown
  • ピンク – Pink

Patterns

  • プリント – print (any prints in general)
  • リバテイプリント – Liberty print (from UK fabric brand Liberty which appears frequently in many Japanese sewing books)
  • 水玉 - polka dots
  • ボーダー Border / Mainly used to refer to horizontal stripes
  • ストライプ – Stripes in general (of any direction, vertical,diagonal etc)
  • ピンドット – Pin Dots
  • ドット – Dots
  • 花柄 – Floral pattern
  • 小花柄 – Little Floral pattern

The list is of course not exhaustive but these are the ones that I come across frequently as they are very commonly used. Will add on as I learn new terms! 🙂