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Book Review and Giveaway – Patchwork Quilted Bags

August 6, 2016

Today’s book review is a yet to be released title named Patchwork Quilted Bags, and this is your favourite part – it’s in English! The author/designer is Reiko Washizawa, 鷲沢玲子, a famous and well-published Quilt designer in Japan. She has been quilting for 40 years and has published many Japanese quilting books. This book is not about making patchwork quilts though, it is a book dedicated to incorporating your patchwork creations into everyday bags. This will be a great way to bring your creative showpieces around with you since it is quite impossible to bring your quilts wherever you go.

Honestly I have never made a proper full size quilt, but I have been hoarding a whole box of handmade dresses that my girls have outgrown and planning to make a keepsake quilt out of the dresses, so I have been reading up on hand piecing and it seems kind of daunting, especially when it comes to creating a full size quilt. This book came just in time and gave me some new ideas on smaller projects I can start with, and furthermore, it combines the patchwork quilting with my love for making bags!

Let’s have a look at this book shall we? Before we jump to the details of the giveaway 🙂

cover

There are 19 projects to be made in this book and they are divided into 5 chapters. There are also additional sections in between the chapters that teach you all the basics you need to know about patchwork making. From materials, to drafting of basic quilt patterns, and even a little showcase of the author’s quilt-making story.

 

draftinginstructions

 

Before the first chapter begins, there is an introduction tutorial on how to draft the different shapes you will need in the book. This is the basis of the book, you will need to know how to draw the different shapes and how they are pieced together before you can apply them to your bags.

Now, we are ready to make some bags!

The first Chapter : Basic Bags

basicbags

The first project is the beautiful pieced Little Bird Bag that you see on the front cover. I was surprised that this bag was called a basic bag because it certainly looked complicated to me! Upon closer scrutiny, it turned out that the birds were actually part of the fabric print and were quilted on to the batting. The patchwork portion is only the strip in the middle, which is made up of hexagonal pieces.

 sewinginstructions

There are detailed instructions for every step, not just the making of the patchwork, but also to show you how to assemble the bag.

The second Chapter is about Out & About Bags

 dressedup-bags

There are beautifully embellished bags for a night out,

squarepatchworkbag

Casual basic square patchwork bags for running a quick errand,

 bowlbag

cute bowl shaped bags, perfect for carrying knitting supplies I say!

 Chapter 3 : Shopping bags

shoppingbag

Roomy bags with lots of space for shopping and marketing. Note the beautiful pattern which is called a Lemon Star Patchwork. Looks challenging to me!

 Chapter 4 : for Moms and Little Ones

 mamabag

Mother’s bag and Baby Bottle Case

lessonbags

Lesson Bags for kids

 The last chapter : Cute Little Pouches
Creative patchwork designs and small scale projects that are suitable for beginners like me!

 sewingcase

Sewing Case and Scissors Case

strawberrypouches

Strawberry Pouches

 yoyopouches

Mini Yo-yo Pouch. These pouches are made out of lots of tiny yo-yos. Amazingly cute and I love the color explosion!

 unionjackpouches

Union Jack pouches. Fashioned after the Union Jack using Liberty fabrics for the stripes. How apt!

 sampleinstructions

 Sample of detailed instructions for each project.

 There are also two large pattern sheets attached for all the appliqués and templates you will need to make the projects in this book.

Thanks to Tuttle Publishing, I was provided a free PDF book preview for this book review, and they are also,  giving away one copy of this book to one of you lucky readers! Win a copy of it before it is even released! Contest is open worldwide and will run for a week. Enter now!

To enter the giveaway, please fill in the form below. Contest ends 12th August 2016. Extra chances for those who share this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Good Luck!

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Japanese Sewing Books in English

Book Review – Stylish Remakes

December 18, 2015

It’s the end of the year and time to declutter! Amidst the frenzy of sewing Christmas presents and getting ready for the New Year, I’ve been trying to declutter the house. Actually, I’ve been meaning to ever since I read the book – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. It’s hard to do so with a baby always attached to me, but I’m trying.

Old clothes used to be an easy thing for me to get rid of. But after reading this book sent to me from Tuttle (another Japanese Sewing Book in English to add to your collection) , I now have to consider every piece before deciding – to throw or to upcycle?

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This book is all about upcycling. The author “Violette Room” is actually a brand of casual wear in Japan. Excerpt from their website

The history begins in the fashion academy.The violet room is the name of the common room existing there.
So that a bird returns to the den,
It is the important place that always exists in the place of our heart. Thus, it became a brand name.
more about Violette Room

A word upfront – there are no patterns included. There are drafting instructions but based on one set of measurements. It is also not a sewing instruction book with detailed step by step photos or diagrams. The finished product dimensions will be provided so you can estimate what adjustments you may have to make. After all, it really depends on what “raw materials” you have to work with. To me, it’s more of an idea book and inspiration than anything else. Let’s have a look!
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The book is divided by the following categories, my favorite has to be the T-shirts section, since I’ve been sewing knits more often for my kids and there are lots of Tshirts to be thrown out.

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Some simple ideas to start off with – embellishing an existing Tshirt with a bow. Don’t worry, it gets better 🙂

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Up the street fashion vibes by attaching a lace skirt to an old retro shirt. I think the retro-ness of the shirt is important to the look. It’s a Chicago shirt!

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I like this one. Combine a baggy T (just use the interesting print bit on the Tshirt) and a fitting tank top, add a sweetheart neckline and it looks like a one-of-a-kind designer tank top!

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This upcycling idea will help you get rid of your stash quickly, for it uses 3 shirts at once. I’m not sure why the tank top has to be attached to the shorts though. The shorts was made up of 2 different t-shirts, so you can play with different color tshirts for a more dramatic effect!

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This has to be the cutest little remake. The original shirt was cute enough and converting it into a romper just makes it even cuter! It did give me lots of ideas to reuse old Ts for my little boy’s clothes. The romper is too large for my boy though, so I used an old Tshirt, with a baby tank top pattern from Cucito, and made this! The orange knit bias was cut out from another t-shirt. Now I have an old stack of Tshirts waiting to be turned into kids bottoms, tanks and to be used for knit bias tape.

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The second section was all about Flannel shirts, but of course you can use normal shirts if you don’t have any flannel ones.

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Here’s what you can do, make a dress out of 2 different shirts.

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or, make a baggy shirt more feminine and fitting by shortening the length and adding cuffs and gathers.

The next section is on borders (Borders here means a striped pattern print)

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If you have lots of college sweatshirts, you may find the next section interesting as well. Since they are mostly oversized and baggy, it makes a great “fabric” for upcycling, like this cute little dress here.

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Garbadine Coats, at first glance, it looks like nothing more than adding embellishments to a normal coat. This was actually a very plain, long and shapeless typical trench coat, which was transformed into a more fitting, short and cute feminine coat. Makes a great little outfit for rainy days.

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The last section is on Bandannas, which is by definitely the most versatile item to upcycle, after all, it is nothing more than squares of fabric. The interesting thing about using Bandannas for upcycling, is that the prints are usually confined to a square repeat. So how you piece the bandannas together will make a difference to how your garment turns out.

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This camisole and skirt number reminds me of the batik dresses I used to wear as a kid!

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If you don’t have that many bandannas lying around, you can also turn it into a cute drawstring purse.

The following shows you how a typical set of instructions will provide. The drafting pattern is blurred out intentionally, but you get the idea. the drafting dimensions are also based on one set of measurements anyway, so the best way is to base your pattern on an existing shirt that fits.

stylishremakes17a

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I like the fact that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to upcycling. You can remake using existing material (less waste), you don’t have to buy new fabric (save money), and you get a unique look everytime. Those of you who are wondering what to get for your sewing friends as a Christmas present, this will be a great idea!


Buy now from Amazon (Affiliate link)

Title : Stylish Remakes
Author : Violette Room
ISBN No: 978-4805313657

Disclosure : I received this book from Tuttle to write this review, but all opinions are my own. 

Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books in English Ladies Sewing Patterns

Book Review – Stylish Party Dresses (Now in English)

August 27, 2015

It is always exciting to see newly translated Japanese Sewing Books, hot off the press, in my mailbox! A big thank you to Tuttle who not only sent me these two books for review – Stylish Party Dresses: 26 Easy and Inexpensive Sew-It-Yourself Dresses for that Special Occasion & Stylish Remakes: Upcycle Your Old T’s, Sweats and Flannels into Trendy Street Fashion Pieces, but is also sponsoring a book giveaway for this book that I am about to review right now. Yes you heard me right! GIVEAWAY!

Before we all keel over in excitement, let’s take a look at this lovely book shall we? After all if you are not lucky enough to win it, you will want to buy one for yourself. This book is named Stylish Party Dresses by our favorite Japanese Sewing Book authors – Yoshiko Tsukiori. If you are not familiar with her, she’s the author of many many sewing books. Quite a number have been translated into English as well. Just click here to see all her books that I have reviewed.

cover

I did not recognize the book initially as a different dress was used for the original book cover, and the title was also changed from Formal & Little Black Dress to Stylish Party Dresses (see below).

formalblackdress

There are 26 projects you can make in this book, but not all are for dresses. Included are 3 bolero patterns that you can use with the dresses as cover-ups.

contents

The contents page is a lot more descriptive and detailed compared to the original one (below), which was rather minimalistic.

japanesecontents

Now let’s have a look at some of my favorite pieces from this book. There are just far too many pieces to cover in one blog post!

dress_a

The book starts off with the dress on the cover. A simple dress with a midi tulle skirt. The dress itself is made of satin backed shantung fabric which gives it a touch of class and elegance despite its simple lines.

dress b

This black lace dress is made using black lace fabric overlaid on a grey polyester crepe de chine. A quick search for crepe de chine gave me this definition “Crepe de Chine, also spelled Crêpe De Chine, (French: “crepe of China”), light and fine plainwoven dress fabric produced either with all-silk warp and weft or else with a silk warp and hard-spun worsted weft.” – Britannica.com 


dress_c and bolero_d

Beneath the Cape Sleeved Bolero is a simple sleeveless dress. The bolero is made of a georgette fabric which is lightweight and drapes really well. Perfect for the soft flowy look.

dress_e

This was the dress featured on the Japanese version of the same book. I always felt it was a little plain for a book named Stylish Party Dresses, but check out the back of the dress…

dress_e_back

So apparently the details are in the back of the dress. A large ribbon tie! This dress is made from silk striped chiffon and is lined.

dress_f

I am not usually a fan of these big shapeless dresses, but I do love how the choice of the fabric – CD Shantung, has on the overall effect. First the sheen, as well as the structure of the dress. In the dress description, it is noted that the fabric has a little more body and visible fibres than regular Shantung, and different levels of “shine” on different sides, so you can choose which is the “right side” of the fabric when making the dress depending on the level of shine you want. But what is CD Shantung? I have no idea, and it doesn’t seem to be a regular term. I am guessing it is a slubbed version of shantung? I do think that tafetta can achieve the same effect too if you can’t find the exact same type of fabric.

bolero_g

Another bolero, this time in black lace, used over the same shantung dress above.

dress_h

A Wrap-Look Dress in Liberty Jersey.

dress_h in black

The black jersey version of the same dress. For a moment I thought it was a velour fabric as it does have a velvety sheen to it.

top_i

Another one of those look so simple dresses but the beauty lies in the design of the draping of the fabric. The sleeves are cut extra wide at the end, same goes for the main bodice and back. The skirt is just a simple skirt made in the same fabric of silk jacquard. But wait till you see the back view of this top.

top_i_back

Love this ribbon tie detail on the back! In this picture, the same top is matched with a long chiffon skirt in print. A totally different look, from the full two-piece set, but nevertheless very elegant and pretty.

dress_m

A very cute and youthful dress made with satin backed shantung. The detachable collar is made using organdy and attached on using snap fasteners. Just to clarify, the dress itself has a regular collar in the same fabric, the organdy collar sits on top of it and snaps on the inner neckline (so the snaps can’t be seen if you are not using the detachable collar.

dress_o

This dress is called the Dress with Pin Tucks, but you might be wondering, where are the pin tucks? It’s a little hard to see as they are obscured by the Liberty print fabric. There is a black version in the book which shows off the pin tucks really nicely, unfortunately the photos I took can’t quite display the pin tucks well so I’ve left it out.

dress_r

A Two-piece set in Georgette fabric.  The blouse and skirt are actually separate pieces, and you can wear the blouse tucked or untucked. The skirt has two interesting horizontal tucks across a section of the front and back panels that gives it an irregular hem.

dress_u

This must be my favorite party dress of all the dresses in this book. A Tafetta two piece dress. The blouse has a ribbon detail while the skirt is embellished with diagonal ruffles. Love the color of the pretty tafetta fabric on this.

dress_x with bolero

One more bolero pattern – A bolero with frilled front edge in georgette. The frills drape nicely along the front giving it a more three dimensional look. The bolero is seen here with a long chiffon dress.

sample how to make

An example of the pattern instructions. Units are provided primarily in inches, with the metric equivalents in brackets. Most of the instructions are simple enough to understand. The steps that require more explanation are usually accompanied by diagrams.

sample diagrams

A close up of the diagrams included in the book.

patterns

A handy pocket is attached for storing your pattern sheets. There should be 2 double sided pattern sheets enclosed.

otherbooks

More sewing books in English from Tuttle Publishing. To see my reviews of  Japanese sewing books in English, click here.

backcover


available on Amazon for pre-order now

Title : Stylish Party Dresses
Author : Yoshiko Tsukiori
ISBN No. : 978-4-8053-1366-4

 

This book will only be released on Amazon on the 15th of September, but here is your chance to win a copy of the book before it is released!

Tuttle Publishing will be kindly sponsoring TWO copies of this book. So there will be two lucky winners! Just enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter app below with either your Facebook account or your email address. You can get additional entries from liking Tuttle Publishing on Facebook, Japanese Sewing Books on Facebook, or tweeting about the giveaway. Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Japanese Sewing Books in English

Survey – What type of Japanese Sewing Books would you like to see in English?

July 29, 2015

As mentioned last week, I am running a survey to find out the type of Japanese Sewing Books that you would most like to see translated to English. I have compiled a list of the major categories, based on how the popular genres of Japanese sewing books available out there.

Many of you, may find it hard to choose just one category. I find it hard to narrow down my favourite type of sewing too. So you are allowed to pick up to 3 options, but you can only vote once. So choose wisely! The people in charge of deciding which books to translate may just be swayed by your vote so make your voice heard today and you can make it happen!

This poll is closed! Poll activity:
start_date 2015-07-20 09:48:12
end_date 2015-08-05 23:59:59
Poll Results:
What kind of sewing books would you like to see translated to English?

Book Reviews Japanese Sewing Books in English Ladies Sewing Patterns

Book Review – She Wears the Pants (Now in English)

March 11, 2015

As promised, another book review of a soon to be released English translated Japanese Sewing Book. I know I promised it would be up last week but I have a good excuse. An excuse that explains why getting a blog post photographed and written is taking more time than is used to. I will try to improve on that but more details about that in my next book review. 🙂

Back to this book. The original book in Japanese was first published sometime in 2013 which is really not too long ago, and the original title of the book was “She has a mannish style”  Do you remember that book? I fell in love with the book because, despite loving dresses and girly stuff, the truth is that as a Mum my wardrobe is literally navy, black and grey + shorts/pants.  The draw of this book is that the designer has taken wearable daily clothes and added some really cool designer touches to them.

shewearsthepants1

Yuko Takada is also the author for I love Tops  (click to see my review on the Japanese book) and I love Pants. She is an award winning designer who graduated from the famous Bunka Fashion College with a major in Fashion engineering. This book has been translated to French as well with the title “Féminin masculin” which I am guessing means Female Male? or is it the other way round as Google translate tells me “male Female”? So now there are 3 very different titles for the 3 versions, but I think you get the point what this book is about. The author herself says it best, when describing the inspiration behind her creations….. see the little paragraph below the Contents page.

shewearsthepants2

“Sometimes you want to dress cool and boyish, in special, unique pieces that are only for you…”

In the Japanese version review, I did share a number of the pictures with you but let’s have a look at them again just to refresh your memory. I’ve also added some new shots of those not shown previously.

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Oval coat with a round collar. Interesting attachment of grey knit fabric as part of the sleeves from the elbow down. It is sewn on as part of the coat.

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Jumper skirt with a false fly, decorative side panels and lined skirt.

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Mini Dress in stretched wool. The dress has a baggy top with a V-shaped neckline. The model is wearing another layer inside the dress which explains why you can’t quite see the details. I’ll try to describe it as best as I can. A decorative bow is sewn to both sides of the front V, and on the back there are criss cross straps sewn to the back V. The skirt is like a short elastic tube skirt attached to the baggy shirt.

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Top with Epaulettes. What’s an Epaulette? A shoulder decoration. In this case there are two fabric strips attached to the shoulder seams and fastened down with buttons.

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A velour blouse that I had did a translation for. Chance for me to check how accurate my translation was!

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Square Top – named after the squarish pattern pieces it is made out of. It’s one of those designer pieces that you need to figure out how to put on but so worth it cuz it looks so stylish and edgy. You can wear it in two different ways. Thrown on like a jacket…or like a blouse (below)

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Fleece Jacket – the knit lining makes for an interesting contrast when you turn up the sleeves.

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Sarrouel Trousers – are these technically the same as harem pants? I am not familiar with the terms but when looking at the how-to-make for this pair of pants, be warned that it looks like tricky business. I’m used to having two or four symmetrical pattern pieces when sewing pants, but this particular design calls for different size panels and pattern pieces, that will be pieced together to form the pants.

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A casual unlined long jacket with welted pockets.

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Pompom blouse – one of the simpler patterns to make but with an interesting neck binding that accentuates the neckline and the shoulder seam. The pompoms are actually from ready made pompom trim.

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Draped Mini Dress – From the instructions this dress looks really easy to make. The drapes will form naturally thanks to the shape of the pattern piece and the knit fabric used. The material list calls for Cotton T-cloth, which I am assuming means T-shirt material (knit jersey) made of cotton? A google search turns up either cotton fabric, one even said it’s grey sheeting fabric but in the Japanese versions the term used is 綿 (which means cotton) and 天竺 (which means jersey). All the image searches in Japanese turn up some kind of knit fabric and it makes sense given that the dress has no other enclosure and a plain cotton fabric will not create such nice drapes nor allow you to get in and out of the dress with ease. So my conclusion is when they say T-cloth in Japanese sewing books, it means jersey.

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Tapered trousers. Learn how to make a proper pair of pants with the full works – waistbands with belt carriers, side pockets with pocket bags, back patch pockets, zip fly. The design details are in the back waistband, where there is a interesting design feature as well as a decorative belt.

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Semi-flared culottes with tucks and decorated with a waist tie made with the same fabric.

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Draped cardigan – Another interesting piece in terms of pattern design. This cardigan is constructed out of 3 irregular pieces of fabric and the pockets are cleverly designed as part of the pattern piece so that you don’t actually have to make the pockets but just sew up the edges and the pockets will form naturally. It’s hard to describe. You have to see it the pattern to know what I mean!

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Decorative Tippets that you can drape over any plain shirt/outfit to jazz it up.

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This blouse is called the Gathered Blouse, it looks really simple but the design details are in the back. There were two photos of this in the book but both were showing the front and not the back! The back bodice piece is gathered where it meets the yoke. There are also pleats where the sleeve meets the cuffs and the cuffs come with a slit opening secured by a button.

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The last piece is a knitted belt stole. What’s a belt stole you might ask? A belt + a stole combined in one piece. You fasten the belt around your waist and wrap the stole around your neck. Prevents it from slipping off. Brilliant eh? This is actually a knitting pattern with actual instructions on how to cast on and off, knit,purl and even how to make a fringe. The whole stole is made of rib stitch and stocking stitches which are essentially different combinations of the knit and purls. It does not tell you exactly what a rib or stocking stitch is, so you have to find that out for yourself. In any case, using diagrams to learn knitting/crochet has always been difficult for me to visualize, all the arrows give me a headache 😛 So I always fall back on youtube videos. Once you pick it up, it’s easy to follow this pattern to make this gorgeous belt stole.

The patterns in the book are for sizes XS-L, according to the measurements below. As usual, measurements are in inches and cm equivalents in brackets.

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There are a couple of pages devoted to basic sewing tips and techniques, text+photographs included. In my previous review I did mention that they were not so useful as a lot of the photos needed explanation from the accompanying text. Now it’s all in English so no more problems with that! The sewing tips cover the preparation of fabric, choice of needle and thread, sewing seams, finishing edges, and even sewing on stretch fabrics and edge binding.

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The how-to-makes are presented in a similar way as in the Japanese version.

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A close up of the diagrams in the book.

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Unlike the Japanese versions where the pattern sheets are stuck on to the last page, there is a handy pocket on the back cover. I wish they would do this for all Japanese sewing books because I hate tearing the patterns out of the back page.

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The back cover of the original book was a cool cement gray wall+floor. Very minimalistic. This new back cover makes more sense because you get to see more of what is in the book. Oh and this book includes a quote from me as well! In case you are wondering, I don’t get paid for this at all! I’m just a fan of the book! 🙂

In summary, some of the pieces do seem a little complicated to make but there are also easy pieces that look really unique and stylish so I guess there’s something for everyone in this book, whether you are a beginner or advanced sewist.


available now for pre-order on Amazon.com

Title : She Wears the Pants: Easy Sew-it-Yourself Fashion with an Edgy Urban Style
Author : Yuko Takada
ISBN No. : 978-4-8053-1326-8