Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books Ladies Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Clean and Natural

June 24, 2014


I’m back from vacation! It was really great to get away for one whole week, not having to check my email from work was really stress relieving 🙂 and the cool temperatures of Adelaide was a welcome change from the searing hot weather we’ve been having for the past month. We stayed in a lovely seaside 2 bedroom apartment and really did nothing but hang out at the beach, BBQ, catching up on sleep and just a little bit of sight seeing. My kind of holiday!

After being separated from my blog and books and sewing machine for one week, I am really itching to sew again, and there are a couple of things on my list that I have to get done before school starts again in July. However, I was notified by my friends that Kinokuniya is having a sale (again) and of course I had to go check it out. I picked up only 2 books this time. Amazing restraint? 😛

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I first spotted this book when I did the New Releases post in March earlier this year. It is one of the few book covers that I liked, and the title sounded promising. But without a “look inside” or customer images available at that time, I decided not buy it online. Luckily I spotted this book and got to browse through it at the bookstore.

Here are some pictures of what’s inside the book. Please forgive the blur images as I had to take them with my mobile phone. My camera battery is completely flat after the trip and I forgot to charge it!

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There are 26 garments featured in all, for sizes S,M,L and LL. The stars below each item denotes the level of difficulty. Please note that despite featuring 26 different garments, some of them are actually slight variations of each other, either in fabric options or in terms of  length. Some of the patterns are actually used for more than 1 garment, so the total number of patterns you actually get is less than 26. For example, there are two fabric variations for the ribbon skirt, tapered pants, and kimono pullover.

Let’s look at some of my favourite projects in this book!

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Flared pullover. In a lovely lace fabric, this airy breezy piece is perfect for summer!

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Dress with balloon sleeves.

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Key neck pullover – I love this one!

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Frill collar pullover

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Crew neck robe

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Key neck robe  with a fabric belt. This is basically the long dress and longer sleeve version of the key neck pullover.

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Tapered linen pants

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Kimono sleeves pullover

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Ribbon skirt in linen

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All in one – the only 3 star project in this book!

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Tartan tunic

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Hooded coat

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Long flared coat

The general look and feel of this book is once again very clean cut, simple lines and silhouettes, as in most Japanese sewing books. It also has its fair share of long baggy shapeless pieces that I am not so fond of :P, but also lots of wearable pieces like the skirts and tapered pants. I also like the pullover tops for the easy sewing and easy wearing. They will be perfect paired with jeans.

Now for the technical bits – the size chart (units in cm)

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Terms indicated in the leftmost column – Height / Bust / Waist / Hip

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The format for the instructions is pretty much standard – Materials, Cutting Layout, Sewing steps in point form as well as indicated in the overall graphic.

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The steps are individually illustrated using graphics.

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Close up of diagrams

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1 large 2-sided pattern sheet included.

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Title : Clean and Natural いつもの服、きれいな服
Author : 大川友美
ISBN No :  978-4-579-11483-2

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15 Comments

  • Reply janet June 24, 2014 at 11:02 am

    thank you so much for this review. I must have this book!!! I’m glad you’re enjoying your vacation.

  • Reply sarah June 24, 2014 at 8:13 pm

    Thanks for the review! I absolutely love Japanese sewing books 🙂
    Do you know of any books that cover patters in the tween range? Size 10, 12,14 etc… I’ve been looking but have had no luck 🙁

    Thanks and I love your blog!

  • Reply Sewer June 25, 2014 at 6:21 am

    Yes, thanks for your reviews. 🙂

  • Reply Lily Zhu June 25, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    Oh, I’m so excited to know you came to Adelaide for vacation as I’m living here. I hope you like it.

    • Reply Japanese Sewing Books July 2, 2014 at 9:55 am

      Hi Lily,
      Yes I had fun! It was a very relaxing holiday and the weather was perfect. 🙂

  • Reply Clare Watters August 7, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    Hello,
    I just purchased this book and believe I am missing a few of the pattern sheets included. Can you please tell me how many pattern sheets were included with the book? I received two including pattern pages 1 & 2. Thanks so much for your help.

    • Reply Japanese Sewing Books August 20, 2014 at 9:31 am

      Hi Clare, There should be 2 large sheets labeled 1 and 2. They are printed on both sides for a total of 4 side.

  • Reply Perfectly plain ‘Flared Pullover’ blouse – Clean and Natural | Sew Busy Lizzy October 10, 2014 at 4:31 am

    […] Please pop over and visit Japanese Sewing Books – this is a great resource for these books. She has reviewed this book in full here. […]

  • Reply maya October 30, 2014 at 4:47 pm

    Hi!

    I really like this book and its sewing patterns, but I don´t know where to buy it!
    Is there an online store or anything?

    Thanks for your great reviews 🙂

    maya

    • Reply Japanese Sewing Books October 31, 2014 at 8:09 am

      Hi Maya,
      I just added to the link to the book on amazon.co.jp (click on the book title below the cover thumbnail near the bottom of the blog post). Just set your preference to English and the checkout process in Amazon will be a breeze. They ship internationally and very fast too!

  • Reply Book Review – Ladies Pants and Skirts | Japanese Sewing, Pattern, Craft Books and Fabrics May 2, 2015 at 6:38 pm

    […] first two patterns A and B are designed by 大川友美 author of Clean and Natural .  The first pair of pants is a Linen denim Easy Pants  and the second is a pair of tapered […]

  • Reply Flared Pullover | La Folie September 11, 2016 at 6:57 pm

    […] can see a more thorough review of this book over at Japanese Sewing Books blog here, but I took a photo of the project list to give you an idea. I want to make almost everything in […]

  • Reply Nana February 2, 2017 at 3:12 pm

    I just purchased this book after reading your review an see the pictures. Do you know if we can get an English translation of the directions

  • Reply Project Sew It – March | La Folie March 25, 2017 at 12:32 am

    […] This month the theme was Pants, which was scary because up until now I only had made one pair for myself (you can see them here). I quickly decided I wanted to try a Japanese pattern from the book “Clean and Natural”; ever since I got the book I wanted to try them in some sort of stable knit and as soon as I saw this gorgeous blue flamé jersey from NOSH (available here) I knew it was meant to be. You can see a review of this book over at Japanese Sewing Patterns (here). […]

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