Sunday 18 January 2015

Japanese sewing patterns

After reading a lot about Japanese sewing patterns I purchased the book 'Stylish dress book: wear with freedom' which is a Japanese sewing book that has been translated to English. There are 26 patterns for dresses and tunics accompanied by simple line drawing instructions. 

I had heard that Japanese patterns come out quite large for size with lots of built in ease so traced out the smallest size for dress E. Even then I had to take the side seams in by about an inch or two to get a good fit. 

 
The dress is great with no zips or buttons needed. I altered the hem to make it more like a long shirt with a dipped hem and used French seams throughout to make the insides as pretty as the outside. Instead of the neck facings included in the pattern I used bias binding to finish the hem and neckline. I find neckline facings irritating, and they always seem to flip to the outside a little even when they are edge-stitched in place. The fabric, a medium weight cotton chambray is a coupon I picked up in Paris-and I think I still have 2 metres left for another day :) 


The back of the dress is made from two sections - a yoke at the top and the 'skirt' portion. The skirt section is supposed to be gathered to the yoke but given the weight of my fabric I thought it would look a little much to have lots of fabric gathered at the top of the skirt. I think this was a wise decision for the fabric, but if I make it again using a fabric with more drape I think I'd add the gathers back in. 

I love how simple the patterns in this book are, lots of them have made it to my sewing list. For now though maybe another dress E in a different chambray type fabric will have to move towards the top of the list. Perhaps I'll add the pockets included in the pattern to the next dress, because who doesn't love pockets in a dress! 

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