Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books Ladies Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Female Magazine

August 3, 2012


Today’s review is about a magazine and not a book, but there are so many patterns included (and more) that it could be even better than a book!

Female magazine is a magazine published by Boutique-sha, same publisher as Cucito. This is the Summer 2012 edition.

The first part of the magazine covers dresses.

A whole range of retro dresses, in interesting choice of fabrics. You can’t see the details here but the top and bottom right dresses are made from ローンリップル (lawn ripple). A ripple-y lightweight lawn fabric that looks it doesn’t need much ironing 🙂

Doesn’t the yellow dress look familiar? It was on the cover of Cucito Summer 2012!

Then there are some tops.

I thought this was meant to double up as a skirt but I might be wrong. See how the advertisers make themselves useful by advertising and giving free patterns as well. These two tops were obviously sponsored, because in the picture below,

in the cute Manga style instructions, see the sewing machine setting? Got to use a Bernina for this! (disclaimer : they are not sponsoring me to mention that, although I wish they would! ;P)

More summer-y tops.

Fabric sources with their prices, and information about the store.

Almost all the clothes here have fabric sources listed, and they are all linked to either physical or online fabric stores. I like that, because sometimes it’s hard to create the same effect with a different fabric. Just knowing the brand or fabric type can make a difference to the end result.

Now we move on to  bottoms.

For the price of this magazine (800Yen in Japan and SG$11.33 here which is approx US$9), you really get your money’s worth of patterns. Look at the number of bottoms. From straight pants to wide pants to culottes.  As for the Sarrouel pants (Sarouel seems to be the correct spelling), erm…. I can only say, it’s good to learn a new word because I can’t quite understand these pants! ;P

Sheer skirt! Simple to make but nice. I like the sheer black fabric.

This is cute, but I think you need long legs + cute stockings to carry it off.

Another cute skirt ボリユームスカート which literally means Volume skirt. There are little pockets at the sides which stick out and add to the “Volume” of the skirt?

Yukata. Quite the staple pattern in all Summer editions of sewing magazines. What caught my eye though is the panda fabric used for the obi (sash).

Other than dresses, tops and bottoms, there are bag patterns too. Most magazines are featuring Marine style clothes and accessories for Summer season this year. This magazine included. I didn’t feature the marine style clothes because there were too many pictures to upload but here are the bags.

Now for the other interesting bits in the magazine.

Other than the usual fabric and sewing machine advertisers, there are new products to discover. Like this one.

It’s a crescent shaped plastic looking device on a stand. Turns out to be a bracelet maker. Use your leftover strips of fabric to make a bracelet.

Another informative advertisement. This one by fujix, which is a thread manfacturer. The two pages shows you the different types of thread that should be used for different projects. Even color matching when using prints is something to consider.

There is also an interesting section called Design Grandprix, where readers submit the designs and the top 3 winners get their design featured in the magazine. Patterns of the top three winners are included!


One more example of advertising+project combination. Learn how to sew knits with a babylock machine.

Babylock with jet-air threading. If only they didn’t cost an arm and a leg over here.

Other interesting things included in this magazine include a book in book on latest fashion trends, and some articles about fashion school students in Japan. Oh, and there is also a map of Nippori Fabric town which is in Tokyo and it’s one of the places I really want to go next. Streets and streets of fabric and craft shops!
Some more information about the patterns and instructions included in the magazine.
How to make. Some of the projects have step by step photos like this one.
Closer look at the photos
The rest of the patterns are in diagrams.
2 pattern sheets included.
I think for this price, this magazine is really a steal. Since it is a periodical, the patterns have to be updated and keep up with the trends. Looking forward to the next edition which is the Autumn edition coming out Aug 11.
Title : Female フィーメイル nO. 407 2012 Summer
Publisher : Boutique-Sha
Pages : 112

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4 Comments

  • Reply Gaye August 5, 2012 at 1:27 pm

    Omg there are quite a few pieces that I really like. Do they include the pattern of all the pieces? Did u buy this at kino?

    • Reply Japanese Sewing Books August 6, 2012 at 9:02 am

      Hi! Yes I bought this at Kino, but it was placed at the English magazine section where the craft magazines are. The patterns are all included. 🙂

  • Reply stacey August 10, 2012 at 11:09 am

    Thanks for the recommendation. I grabbed the magazine from kino and it is reallly worth it!

  • Reply Japanese Sewing Magazine Review – Female Autumn 2012 » Japanese Sewing, Pattern, Craft Books and Fabrics November 5, 2012 at 8:54 pm

    […] actually on the verge of converting the bodice of one of the dress patterns (from the last magazine Female summer 2012)  into a Peplum top. With this I wouldn’t need to, but for a change I might try to make it […]

  • Leave a Reply to Gaye Cancel Reply