Monthly Archives

September 2012

Bags or Zakka Sewing Patterns Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books

Book Review – More! Handmade Wallets

September 28, 2012

Hot off the press! This book is kind of a “sequel” to an earlier book called  ハンドメイドのお財布 . The book is appropriately titled : もっと!ハンドメイドのお財布 which means “More! Handmade wallets”.  I just saw this book listed a few weeks ago and decided I liked the cover of the newer book better 🙂 I’m also assuming the patterns or designs will be more up to date? I didn’t buy the first book, but it was on my wish list for a long time. I made a couple of wallets before and I never managed to do it very nicely, so hopefully this book will teach me the proper way to construct a wallet, especially all the inner pockets!

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Buying Guide

Fabric and Book shopping in Singapore (and other cute Japanese stuff)

September 26, 2012

Instead of talking about fabrics today, I am writing an ad-hoc post on where to buy Japanese sewing books and fabric shopping in Singapore. I have been asked this quite a lot both on this blog and my other blog, so I thought I would use this chance to list down the places that I know, so that it may be useful for those of you either living here or if you are stopping by for a visit. I have listed the nearest MRT station to these places, because it is generally alot easier to get around on the MRT.

For Japanese sewing books

Kinokuniyawww.kinokuniya.com.sg

There are four branches of this giant chain of Japanese bookstores, but I highly recommend the one at Ngee Ann City (Orchard MRT Station) which is on the main Orchard Rd shopping belt. It is the most convenient for tourists especially if you are at Orchard Road for a day of shopping, plus it is huge and has a great selection of Japanese books. It is also the one I go to the most due to its location.


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The second one is the Liang Court branch (Clarke Quay) –


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located a bit further from the main stretch of shopping, this branch is a lot smaller in size but as this mall is frequented by lots of Japanese expatriates, the books here are usually available for browsing (i.e. not wrapped up in plastic) and there is also a good selection of Japanese books. Both of them have a stationery section that is run by NBC bookstore that may be a major source of distraction :P. Lots of cute characters from Sanrio, San-x, and even Shinzi Katoh. There is also a fabulous Japanese supermarket at the basement of Liang Court called Meidi-ya which sells alot of imported Japanese foods if you are looking for that too.

The other two branches are at Bugis and Jurong East (the new JEM mall). The Bugis one is quite small, and I haven’t been to the JEM one at all since it just opened and Jurong East is kind of too far out in the west for me (Yup it’s on the Western part of Singapore)

For Fabrics (both Japanese fabrics and other fabrics)

  • People’s Park at Chinatown– (right outside Chinatown MRT Station)

    image used with permission from Malin Textile's Facebook page

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Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Pattern – Kabanhime

September 25, 2012

Sorry for the late post. Was trying to (obsessing) finish up a dress. Do you know that feeling? 😛

Anyway, today’s title is not strictly correct, because today’s free “patterns” site doesn’t provide any patterns, but shows us how she  made the following items out of simple shapes and rectangles. The website is called Kabanhime – an original handmade bag pattern shop. She has a shop selling patterns but she has also listed some for free.

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Translations and Help with Patterns

Translation Requestion – Chinese Dress

September 20, 2012

Today’s translation took a long time! When I first saw it I thought it was quite easy. But it turned out that, as I was unfamiliar with the construction of a Chinese dress (it’s actually called the qipao or cheongsam here),  there were several steps that was not quite understandable. I hope it will make more sense while sewing though, and I really want to learn how to make this because I have always wanted to make one for myself! 🙂

The pattern is from the book called おしゃれはシネマから ― お手本はシネマファッション (By 文化出版局 ISBN : 9784579111350)

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