Book Review – Dresses and Coordinates Lesson

Today’s book review is about a book that was published in October last year. Not exactly new but I’ve been sitting on it for a while since I got distracted by other projects. I bought this book almost as soon as I saw it listed online. I just fell in love with the title and the dress on the home page!

I hope I got the title right though, because of the way the hiragana is written. Google translate gives me two different answers for the first line – “Clothes to wear or Clothes that make you lose weight!”. I think the second option is more likely, since it ends with an exclamation mark, and the sizes included in the book are from S all the way to 3L. So I shall assume that the patterns are designed to help us look slim.

I’m sorry about the yellowish color in the photos. I tried my best to adjust the color without affecting the original garment photos too much, but as I could only take the photos at night and the lighting was really bad, this will have to do for now. I need to find a way to take photos in the day without my 2 yr old trampling over my books 🙁

A quick glance at the contents shows that there are 4 basic patterns for dresses/tops. Using this 4 basic patterns, there are at least 4 variations per pattern.

There is also a Gaucho pants pattern E which is shown on some of the pages.

Let’s look at pattern A for example to see what kind of variations there are for each basic pattern.

A1 is a basic dolman sleeve dress. Simple, classy, dress-up or dress down, anytime dress don’t you think?

A2 is a tunic length, V-shape neckline, and it suddenly looks like a totally different outfit but it is actually made from the same basic pattern as A.

A3 is a blouse with frill sleeves.

A7 looks even more different from A1 with cap sleeves and an additional waist sash.

Each pattern starts with a basic description with the design points. Garment B’s special design feature is the pleat at the shoulder seam.

B3 is B transformed to a dress with a waist belt, with long sleeves and contrast piping detail along the cuffs and belt.

C is a waist yoke dress in color block dress

D2 is a sleeveless dress with slanted darts.

Use the same pattern for a Gilet (a light sleeveless padded jacket)

Wait, is it the same pattern? Yup, same pattern transformed into a bolero style jacket.

There is a whole section devoted to coordinating the garments for different looks.

There are 2 detailed lessons for A-1 Dolman sleeve dress and B-1  Shoulder tuck blouse.

The sizing table is as follows :

The above is based on your body measurements and not completed garment size.

An example of a typical how-to-make page. Note that there is an extra table on the top right hand corner. This is for the completed garment dimensions.

2 sheets of double sided printed patterns.

and here’s the book flip through video.

Buy yours now at cdJapan (affiliate link)

Title : Clothes that make you look slim! Dresses & Coordinates Lesson
Author : Izumi Koko
ISBN : 978-4579115853