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free japanese sewing patterns

Back to School Sewing Patterns Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

New Year, New Schedule

January 7, 2013

This is my first post of 2013. I’m sorry it has taken so long. This year we took our holidays one week later than usual. When we got back, there was only 1 week to finish preparing everything for the new school year, not to mention having to do it in between meeting up with friends and family for the holiday season.

For the first post of the new year I would like to share with you some changes in the blogging schedule as well as what I hope to achieve this year. For the whole of last year, I stuck to a 3 blog post a week schedule. Those of you who are bloggers will know that preparing for a single blog post, including the research and photographs, will take at least a few hours. When it comes to preparing free patterns and tutorials, it takes even longer than that. But I have always wanted to include more free patterns and tutorials because it would be more meaningful to have sew-alongs. In order to do this, I have decided to cut down the number of blog posts a week to 2. This is so that I can devote an entire week to preparing a sewing video and free patterns for download.

Also, to make the blog posts more organized, I am also going have different themes for each month. All the sewing projects, free patterns, book reviews and fabrics (and even some giveaways) will be related to the theme of the month. I will be posting mainly on Mondays and Thursdays, and the posts will rotate between free patterns, book reviews and fabrics as usual. I will still be taking in translation requests so keep them coming. In addition to that, on the last week of every month there will be a free sewing tutorial/pattern/video based on the theme of the month. I hope I can find time to pull it off. Wish me luck! 😛

For this month’s theme, it was a no-brainer. I have been doing nothing but back-to-school sewing for the past one week. I made a new pencil case, new wallet, new art apron and a new lunch bag is in progress. So the theme for this month is Back to School. 🙂

And to kick this off, here are some free patterns I found on back-to-school projects. These patterns are from a craft shop called Pirol that is located in Kyoto.

 

This is the link to the free pattern list. http://item.rakuten.co.jp/pirol/c/0000000475/  There are tote bags for art, shoe bags, bento bags, water bottle carriers, simple drawstring pouches, rucksacks, pianica cases, messenger bags etc.

Browsing is easy, just click on the thumbnails of the projects you want to make and you will be directed to the individual how-to-make page. The patterns are usually simple geometric shapes so you can just draw them out directly on your fabric like I do, or you draft them out on paper first using the measurements given.

The instructions are not always very consistent. Some are quite brief like this one below, with most of the steps in point form and some diagrams. There are also some simpler patterns that have clearer diagrams. But if you have had some experience in sewing, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out?

I know that not all of you are preparing for the new school year but this should come in handy sooner or later. You can’t have too many bags! 🙂

Well, that’s my post for this Monday, see you on Thursday with post about fabrics suitable for kiddy bags!

 

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Patterns – Making small goods out of an old kimono

December 3, 2012

Today’s free pattern find is not from a free pattern or sewing website. It is actually some kind of magazine website where they introduce interesting products (and also the link to the online shop where you can buy them). The website is called 毎日が発見 (Daily Discovery).

The free patterns are excerpts from books sold on their website. The patterns above are mostly from a book called きものをリフォーム (Remodelleing a kimono).  I only found this page by chance because one of my readers wrote to ask me if I could locate a pattern for a cross back apron. This was the closest I found to a pattern for an adult size cross back apron.

The other two projects are rather interesting as well. The first bag is a really cute Japanese drawstring bag, and the second pattern is for a beret with a matching corsage. You can make them with any fabric of course, doesn’t have to be a spare kimono. I’m not sure if many of us have a spare kimono lying around waiting to be remodelled. 🙂

The bag on the top right is from another book  どんな布も生かすリメイク (Remaking using any cloth) and it’s basically a flower bag using two pieces of square fabrics. It can be handkerchiefs, fabric remnants, even kimonos. It is really pretty!

Instructions are provided in step by step pictures. Some drafting and measuring has to be done, since there are no actual patterns to download. But the measurements are provided in diagrams, so it shouldn’t be hard to follow.

The link to the free patterns for the 3 kimono fabric patterns is here http://www.mainichigahakken.net/hobby/hands-03/01.html

and the link to the cloth recycling flower bags is here – http://www.mainichigahakken.net/hobby/hands-11/01.html

Hope you like these patterns!

 

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Patterns – Patternshop Snowwing

October 29, 2012

Another busy week, and it’s only Monday! This week is exams week and so there is very little time for surfing and posting in the day. But finally the girls are off to bed and even though all I want to do is to kick back and watch Running Man ;P but duty calls, and I need to share my free pattern find of the day. Oh, and I also need to draft out some new patterns to finally get started on 4 flower girls dresses for my cousins wedding that’s happening in a month’s time! I have four different sizes to make!

Anyway, back to the free pattern find. Today’s free pattern is actually from an online patternshop called Patternshop Snowwing. Link and details after the jump.

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Free Japanese Sewing Patterns Links Free Patterns

Free Japanese Sewing Pattern – Tamanegi Kobo

October 1, 2012

Today’s free patterns are from a site that sells PDF patterns, called Tamanegi-Kobo. They have patterns for both adults and kids, and there are even some PDF patterns in English! They sell to international customers but they do not ship the paper patterns internationally. So you will have to download the PDF patterns after purchase and piece them together.

There are some free patterns provided as well and although they look really simple, these are really useful everyday wear items and I must say that this is the first time I’ve come across free patterns for an under-dress, which I think is really useful if you are making a sheer dress and need a specific co-ordinating color for the under-dress. The tank top is also a simple shape which can be used as the basic bodice block and adapted for other garments as well.

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