Monthly Archives

December 2012

Buying Guide Japanese Fabrics

Fabric Shopping in Sapporo

December 17, 2012

My third trip to Sapporo and I think I should write about my favourite fabric shop in Sapporo.

The shop is called カナリヤKanariya. They have shops selling fabrics as well as ready made clothes. There are quite a number of branches but today I will be talking about their main store that is near Odori Park.

The Odori park station is just one stop after Sapporo station. Sapporo station is like the main interchange for trains, similar to what Shinjuku is in Tokyo. Sapporo station which is where you get off if you take the airport express from New Chitose airport, you will then need to get out of the JR train station (which is something like the intertown/city train network), and get into the local subway system.  Once you are at Sapporo station, you can either take the subway (1 stop to Odori Park) or walk the entire way (takes about 15mins) since the the two stations are connected underground. If  you choose to take the subway, you will still need to take a 10-15min walk to exit 36. Fortunately, this is entirely underground, so even in freezing weather it was perfectly easy. Exit 36 joins to the Kanariya building at its basement, so you can really get there without getting out of the station at all!

In warmer weather, the nearest station is actually the next stop called Susukino. The shop is a 10 minutes walk from the Susukino station if you don’t get distracted by other shops along the way. 🙂

Once you enter, it is like entering fabric heaven.

There are 5 whole floors of shopping in the building. From the basement to level 4. Each level is pretty big and so stuffed with goodies you will need to spend a long time shopping here! The basement houses some designer lines, like Green Gate and Nani Iro. The first two floors are mainly fabrics. Anything from interior, designer, organic, as well as the plain solids, checks, stripes, and even denim, jersey etc. There are also cute character fabrics, seasonal fabrics, suiting fabrics, all types of fabrics for bags, laminated or nylon fabrics, costume and dance fabrics. Literally, anything you need, or want, or didn’t even know existed.

The 3rd and 4th floors are devoted to machines, notions like ribbons, tapes, bag notions, interfacing felt, yarn, quilting fabrics + batting, fasteners, buttons, beads, stamping craft tools, stenciling, dressmaking tools etc. There are also bargain bins and craft books on every floor, and a corner where they conduct sewing lessons. When I was there they were having a bag making lesson. I was drawn to the samples of the clothes/bags samples that they hang everywhere, as an example of the end product. You can buy the fabric, notions as well as the patterns of the sample products from the store.

What I love about shopping here is how efficient everything is. The checkout was a breeze. There were a few cutting counters situated around each floor (for fabrics section) and you never have to queue for long. The staff in charge of cutting is fast and efficient but takes great care to cut the fabrics in straight lines. If it happens that he/she didn’t, she will measure the shorter portion (probably just a couple of cm off) and round down and asks you if the amount is alright, and charges you for the lesser amount.  The best part is, you don’t have to pay immediately, so you can go ahead and browse some more, looking for co-ordinating fabrics or notions to match your fabric. After cutting the fabrics, the staff writes down your purchases – length x unit price, and slips it in with the fabric. At the cashier, she just tallies the slips of paper and payment is done! No scanning of bar codes necessary.

There are a few branches situated all over Hokkaido. I visited another nearer to Sapporo station but it turned out to be just a corner in a mall, so the selection was much smaller. The main branch is really worth visiting if you every have the chance to visit Sapporo.

note : all pictures were taken from Kanariya’s website as I felt it was really rude to use my handphone camera in the store. Do check out their website for more pictures of their store! You will be amazed!

Basement – http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_bf.html
First floor – http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_1f.html
Second floor – http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_2f.html
Third floor – http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_3f.html
Fourth floor –  http://www.kanariya.co.jp/shop/floorinfo_4f.html

Giveaways

The Japanese Sewing Books Birthday Giveaway

December 13, 2012

One year ago on this day,  I posted the very first post on japanesesewingbooks.com.

Over the past year I’ve made a few changes to the original blog template, added new blog features, and a few great giveaways! But I’m glad to say that I’ve stuck to my original intentions, of sharing the beauty of Japanese sewing and craft books with you. Keeping up with blogging is not easy, and there are times when I’m feeling lazy and just want to skip a couple of posts :P. But when you guys leave me messages or email me telling me how my blog has helped you in your sewing, or just to tell me you that you love my blog, that keeps me going.

I would also like to thank my sponsors who have supported me as well as all you readers who keep coming back to read my posts.

Next year will be an exciting year, with more free patterns and hopefully a regular schedule for video and step by step photo tutorials.
And now for the most important announcement!
To celebrate JapaneseSewingBooks.com’s first birthday, I will be doing the great mystery giveaway! The winner will receive a mystery package of goodies compiled by myself. Can’t say what exactly yet because I’ve yet to go shopping, but there should be a pattern, fabrics! and notions that you will need to complete the project.

To enter the giveaway,
1. I will be posting this on FB, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest. Share,retweet or re-pin the post.
2. Get an additional chance to win if you share this giveaway banner on your Blog.
3. Leave a comment (1 comment per person please) stating your nicknames on whichever social media network you are following us on and your blog URL (if you are posting on your blog)
4. I will pick the winner from the list of people who “shared”, “retweet” or “re-pinned” the posts.

Contest closes on 25th December 00:00 GMT  Check your corresponding using the time convertor
(which is 26th December 8am in Singapore and 7pm on 25th of December for Eastern Standard Time EST)

The winner will be announced on 27th December on the blog as well as the usual channels.

That’s it! Good luck everyone! and Merry Christmas!

Free Patterns Sew-along Sewing Tutorials Sewing Videos

Free patterns, how-to-make and my first video tutorial

December 10, 2012

Finally as promised, the fleece jacket with free patterns, step by step photos and a sewing video! Unlike the previous few sew-alongs, I didn’t announce this before hand, because I just wanted to post it here for anyone and everyone to read and sew whenever they feel like it. It really doesn’t matter when you join in. I hope to make this a regular feature next year. In fact, I’m going to be re-organizing things a bit over here but more about that when I get back. As this project is rather timely for the cold weather, I’ve decided to post this up first.

Today’s project includes

  1. Free patterns for download
  2. A “how-to-make” with step by step photos
  3. A sewing video on youtube.
And we will be making this…

A fleece hoodie jacket

With a nicely finished neckline on the inside

All ready?

One thing I would like to say before we begin is that I’m not a professional, and I’ve not even been to sewing school (2 semesters of Home Economics when I was a teenager doesn’t count right?). Everything I learned about is from books, the internet, and the hard way. So the way I do certain things might break the traditional sewing rules (especially how I attach a zipper!) but I’ve tried many ways and this is my favorite way of doing it. If you have your own favorite method, by all means do it your way! 🙂

There are only two sizes available at the moment, because I only drafted these two sizes for my girls. The jackets are loose fitting though, as it is meant as an outerwear. So it can fit a range of ages from 3-8. (My older girl is 8, and taller than 116, but because it is loose fitting, I made 116cm and extended the hemline.)

Here are a few things to take note about the patterns.

  1. The patterns are larger than a single sheet of paper so they are created in multi-page PDFs. You will need to print them on A4 size paper and piece them together with scissors and tape/glue.
  2. ALL SEAM ALLOWANCES ARE INCLUDED (Don’t mean to shout it out but as this is not the norm in Japanese sewing books’ patterns, I thought it was best that I highlighted this point. It is one of my pet peeves to trace out patterns and manually add on seam allowances, so I really prefer having seam allowances included in my patterns. In the future I should be sticking to this format. I have also highlighted the seam allowance on the pattern in light gray so you can visualize the actual sewing line.)
  3. Remember to select A4 as your paper output size when printing, instead of Letter as the different sizes may truncate certain parts of the joining lines. Do not  select scale-to-fit option. It should print nicely at 100%
  4. Use recycled paper if you can, because you are going to cut most of it up.
  5. I spent hours putting this together, so please do not copy or redistribute it as your own. You are certainly welcome to link back to this post and credit the source to me 🙂

Please download the files from my PDF pattern store – PorcupinePatterns.com

Notes for printing

  • Size 104cm Fleece Jacket Pattern (Requires 11 pcs of A4 size paper)
  • Size 116cm Fleece Jacket Pattern (Requires 11 pcs of A4 size paper)
  • How to make with step by step photos (You don’t have to print this out if your computer is near your sewing table, try to save paper! Maybe you can even download the PDF onto your ipad as an ebook and use it as a reference. Using it digitally as a PDF also allows you to zoom in and take a closer look 😛 But if you must, it takes 8 pages to print.

Materials

Fabric
For this project, I used about 1 yard of polar fleece, with plenty left over. I bought this heart shaped polar fleece from fabric.com. I don’t know if there are more of the same, but you can find lots of different designs for both boys and girls.

Bias Tape
This is for covering the seam line between the hood and the bodice.
You can make your own out of scrap fabric or buy ready made ones like I did. If you are making your own, you can use bias tape makers like these I use a similar one from Clover and they really help get the job done much faster!

Open End Zips
These are also called Separating Zips / Jacket Zips. Here’s a listing on amazon for reference.(affiliate link)

One more thing I used in the video that I get lots of questions about. They are Clover wonder clips  and I use it all the time when sewing. They don’t leave marks or holes in your fabric like pins do, and there are also seam guides on the clip that help with clipping up seam allowances. Best of all, with young children in the house, clips are a lot safer than pins!

Got your patterns printed, materials complete, fabric cut out and ready to sew? Here’s the video!

Right now as this post is being published, I am on my way to Sapporo. So I will only be able to check and answer any questions when I get connected, sorry about that!

In the meantime, Happy Sewing! 🙂

 

Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books Ladies Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Skirt ala carte

December 7, 2012

We’re approaching the end of the year and it’s almost time to make new year’s resolutions! I would like to sew more for myself next year, with books like these that I’ve hoarded for years but never used. 🙁 Today’s book review is all about skirts! Skirt a la carte by machiko kayaki. It’s not a very new book but it’s full of skirt patterns. All the variations you can think of.

There are 20 skirt projects in this book. Continue Reading