Monthly Archives

March 2013

Giveaways

Winners of nani IRO giveaway

March 29, 2013

Thank you all for your entries, likes and shares!

There were more than 100 entries so it did take some time to compile the list and pick a winner. Here’s how I picked the winner. First, I listed down the names according to the comments, then I gave multiple entries based on the number of items marked off on the list. After doing that, there were 307 entries to pick from. In an Excel spreadsheet, I jumbled all the names up in random order and then used a Random Number Generator to select two numbers, and these were the numbers picked.

The two lucky ladies are Debra Lee and Jamie! I will be contacting you both shortly via email to get your mailing address so that you can receive your prizes.

Debra will win the first fabric on the left (Nani Iro Woodblock POCHO Japanese Fabric – Geology – brown and cream) and Jamie will receive the fabric on the right (Pon Pocho – NIKO)
Congratulations to you both and hope you have a great time sewing with the fabrics.

Thank you once again to Frances from Miss Matatabi on Etsy for sponsoring the fabrics. 🙂

Have a good weekend!

Free Patterns Sew-along Sewing Tutorials Sewing Videos

Free tutorial and sewing video – The nani IRO reversible shoulder bag

March 27, 2013

Finally, the tutorial is up! It’s terribly late by my own standards because I was planning to release this on Monday but it’s already Wednesday. I tried to do something different this time and got too ambitious, but I think the results are worth it!

First of all, the tutorial is really more of a how to make, and dimensions are really entirely up to you. This tutorial shows you the basic steps to make this simple, reversible bag with a detachable strap. You can wear it cross body, or double up (like I did in the picture) on the shoulder. Remove the long strap and it will be a tote.

For the detachable strap, I used D rings on the bag’s main body, and for the hook I bought it locally, but it is called a swivel hooks/lobster clasps with a D ring. I’ve linked to one on Amazon (affiliate link) for your reference, but you should check to see if it is the size and color you want, in case you want to vary the width of  your strap.

Customize it anyway you want! Lengthen or shorten the straps, size of the bag, remove the D-rings and just make a tote, make it your own!

Last but not least, the gorgeous fabric that inspired it all.
Nani Iro 2013 collection HERRING BONE pencil in white and aqua – canvas.

One more thing. For this project I used the above (which is not quite heavy duty canvas but thicker than normal cotton), as well as an upholstery fabric (which is thick and has some body) for the lining. That’s why I did not use any interfacing. If you have made bags before, you will realize that interfacing is necessary to provide structure to a bag. So I leave it up to you, depending on your fabric choices, whether or not to apply interfacing. For a step by step on how interfacing is applied, you can refer to my previous sew along of the granny bag.

All right then, here’s the tutorial! I am still uploading the youtube video so I will update it here later on once that’s live. Leave me any questions you have in the comments below. Have fun sewing!

Sewing video on youtube

Japanese 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)

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! 😛

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