Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books Japanese Sewing Magazines Kids Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Cotton Friend Kids

January 30, 2015


Before the excitement of receiving all the English translated books over the past few weeks, I had accumulated a number of Japanese sewing books that I’ve been wanting to share with you. I thought I had better review this before the season is over!

Cotton Friend Kids! is a special edition from the Cotton Friend magazine. Most Cotton Friend magazines are adult oriented with some matching patterns for kids. This special edition is the complete opposite. This magazine focuses on patterns for kids (both boys and girls), and a few matching patterns for Mum.

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All the projects included in this book!

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Before we begin, let’s look at the sizes included. There are 2 size charts. Sizes included are S-LL for the adults (top chart) and 100-130cm for kids (bottom chart)
and the measurements are for (in order of left to right)
Bust / Waist / Hip / Back length / Sleeve length / Rise / Inseam / Height
all measurements in cm

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The book starts out with a series of matching outfits for Mom and Kids. The awesome thing about this book, and probably due to the fact that it’s actually more of a magazine with advertisements, all the fabric sources are listed.

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A cropped sleeve tunic dress with a tie front.

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Tunic with elastic gathers made using the new cotton sateen range from Echino.

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Tunic dress/top with pleats

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Simple coat (without lining) made with fluffy wool knit and enclosed with snap buttons.

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Wrap apron made with Cotton+Steel fabric

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Matching skirts for Mom and Daughter

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The next section features a basic tunic pattern, and how you can make simple modifications to it to make various outfits.

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The above two outfits were shown in different fabrics in the Mom & daughter section

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A blouse length version of the basic pattern. The fabric is too cute!!! Double gauze fabric with blue raindrops on a chocolate background. See more color options of this fabric here

For this basic pattern, there is a 6-page tutorial with full colored photographs that show you every step of the making progress.

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Close up of the photos

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A Liberty x Hello Kitty special. It’s not the first time Liberty prints have featured Hello Kitty, but this range was created for the 40th anniversary of Hello Kitty. The blouse above is a round neck blouse with gathered sleeves and lots and lots of frills on the front (you will need 1.4-1.7m of fabric for this blouse alone!) That’s like a really expensive blouse!

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There are also matching collared shirts for Mom and daugther.

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Close up of the Mom’s shirt. This is my favourite print of all the 40th anniversary prints. This print is called Hatsune Garland.

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There are also patterns for accessories made using the same fabric. Which is great given that the fabrics are so expensive. I may be better off buying a small fat quarter and making accessories out of it instead.

The next section is on stylish Autumn & Winter outfits.  I know Autumn has long passed, but still valid for Winter yes? 🙂

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These cute hood jacket and vest are made using nylon quilt fabric.

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Another tunic style dress, but I like it because of the fabric – Autumn Woods by Moda Japan.

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These hooded parkas are made using waterproof nylon and have a slit opening in front. The front of the jacket is a high neck enclosure with velcro for easy wearing.

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Some straight sewing patterns – read – no pattern tracing yay! Love the cute fabric on the top by the way, it’s from Brita Sweden RUT in 05 Pink.

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Fashionable knickerbockers pants for kids

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The next section is on sewing accessories with Animal motif prints

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Panda Tote bags using fabric from Finlayson

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Detachable pocket pouch made with Walk through the forest – grizzly bear print

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Make a cute pair of ear muffs (I don’t quite see the animal motif/design in this one :P) and turn an ordinary pair of mittens into cute little kitten mittens!

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The next section is a really cute idea. I have actually bought fleece blankets for sewing projects, as they come with super soft textures and prints that are cuter than those you can find off the bolt. These fluffy blankets come in sizes of 100cm x 70cm, made of fluffy fleece and are already quilted. The two vests above are ingeniously placed cut so that the binding around the blankets doubles up as the binding on the vest, so the only bias you have to sew are around the armholes and neckline.

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Option 2 – make a hooded poncho. However, this particular pattern requires two pieces of blanket. One for the main body and one for the hood. You will be left with quite a lot of excess material from the piece used for the hood though. But you can always make a matching pair of socks or mittens or something?

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Some more cute accessories for kids – detachable pocket pouch (above)

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Hair accessories for girls

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Elastic detachable tie perfect for little boys

How-to-make

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With the exception of the full color step by step photos tutorials, the rest of the patterns are presented as above, in diagrams with color prints to indicate the orientation of the fabric.

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Close up of the instructions

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There are 2 sheets (4 sides) of patterns included. Note that there are many other projects using straightline sewing in the book, for those you have to construct your own patterns. But they are usually simple rectangles with slight deviations and are easy to make.

Title : Cotton Friend Kids! 2014-2015 Autumn Winter
ISBN : 978-4-8347-3885-8
Publisher : Boutique Sha

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1 Comment

  • Reply The Last Cucito Magazine » Japanese Sewing, Pattern, Craft Books and Fabrics March 28, 2015 at 9:32 am

    […] sewing needs. So do look out for those as well. I have already reviewed the first one, Cotton Friend Kids. Pricing wise, it is more expensive than the original magazine, at 972 yen compared to 880 yen for […]

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