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Book Review – Sewing Recipe

February 8, 2012

Today’s book is the adult version of one of my previous reviews – Sewing recipe for Girl’s

It’s by the same author, but with designs, lessons and techniques catered to adult wear. This book covers 6 basic styles (as shown above and below)

When I saw styles 5 and 6, the collars on the shirt-dress and shirt just threw me off. I’ve never attempted a collar before. Not that there are no girls’ patterns with collars, just that I’ve never tried. Wondering if it’s too complicated to do.

Above is an example of a “how to make” page for each of the basic styles. Seems rather short and lacking in instructions, it follows the usual format of diagram + procedure in numbered steps. Description of the numbered steps is also in point form. So, how to make???

Thankfully, the rest of the book covers all the basics and advanced techniques you need for the steps in all the garments included 🙂

Starting from basics, and I really mean basics…. like how to thread your sewing machine!

After covering the basics, she moves on to cover Techniques. The pictures below shows the process of making gathers.

Not all the lessons are in photographs though, some are in diagrams, but as you can see below, it is pretty clear cut. I would say most of the time I don’t have to reach for my dictionary to understand it.

Oh, and for those of you (like myself) who have a great phobia of zips, there are a few good tutorials showing you how zips are inserted in a few ways. The one below shows the way to insert zips into a skirt.

There are also techniques for inserting side pockets, collars, yokes, all the baffling sewing techniques for advanced sewers, but showing in step by step photographs. Armed with this knowledge, you can build all 6 garments showin in the contents page!

This is a great book for learning everything from basics to advanced techniques. And a great beginner book to start making clothes of your own.

Book Title : Sewing Recipe
Author : 月居良子
ISBN : 978－4－579－11180－0

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Guides Translations and Help with Patterns

Getting started with Japanese sewing books + patterns – choose the right one!

December 13, 2011

It goes without saying that even if you are shopping for a sewing book in your own preferred language, you should get one that is suited for your proficiency level. Similarly, for Japanese sewing books, there are books suited for different levels. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to tell by the cover, and it doesn’t help that all the covers look so interesting, you want to BUY every single one of them!

If you are lucky enough to be able to browse through the books before buying, look for one with lots of photographs. One of my personal favourites is this book

I love the list of projects page, where you can see all the finished products and even variations of each item of clothing.

Clear and concise step by step photographs

Step by step photos showing how the dress is constructed. When I first started, the first pattern I bought was from Spotlight, one of those brands that come in a little envelope and a few illustrated pictures of the few variations of the completed garment. The pattern was very thin tissue like, and it was hard to use, and the instructions were mind boggling! It was not till I got this book that I actually finally got the hang of making a basic dress bodice (with lining), and learned how to make a proper (and neat) facing with buttons.

This book is excellent for beginners because most of the dresses are simple, and are variations of a few basic styles, so by referring to the corresponding style but changing the sleeves/skirt, you can make quite a few garments out of this book.

I’ve also found a few other books that provide excellent step by step pictures. I will be posting reviews of the books I have, so do check back at my site regularly for new recommendations!

On the other hand, there are books that just show a diagram like this

The diagrams on the right have arrows pointing to them and are labelled with numbers. The numbers represent the order of sewing. Which is simple enough if you are experienced at sewing, and the steps are simple. Sometimes for a complicated garment like a jacket or a coat, it can get very confusing.

I will be listing various books in my blog with photos of the inside of the book, to give you an idea of the difficulty level of the book. Hope that will help you in choosing the right book to start with.

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