Tweed short jacket

I sewed a jacket.

The jacket is pretty casual and is like a heavier cardigan. I used an wool tweed, which was a gift from Chigu. When she mentioned that she was happily ready to give away the fabric, that she no longer wished to use, to someone who would really like to use it, I was coincidentally looking for an white tweed for this project. Though I was pretending to be calm as a cucumber typing my keyboard, I know my writing asking her to give me was screaming "me-me-me-me, here, please!" in the way of least modestly.

Anyhow, she kindly sent me the fabric. The jacket was finished quite quickly. Chigu, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, I feel just like I owe you hundreds meters of fabrics!

I used a jacket pattern with dolman sleeves from Annee-Patterns. It has a boxy silhouette, which I thought cute in the coarse tweed fabrics. There are elastic bands installed at hem and sleeve ends, which makes the jacket look casual too.

Today we took a walk in the woods and I took an advantage for photo shooting of the jacket. The red and yellow leaves on the trees were magnificent. I hope you're having a beautiful weather too.

Love,
yoshimi

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pattern: dolman sleeve jacket (hard copy pattern) from Annee-Patterns
fabric: wool/acrylic tweed, middle weight, a bit coarse, off-white, warm, fluffy
1.5m wide x 1.8m long
white beige cupra lining.
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Sewing for others, meeting with friends

Hello!

Though I am an old quiet lonely micro pipet user in the deserted laboratory room, I occasionally try to contact with other human beings. Actually I think I love other human beings more than I understand I do. Because I am shallow but I don't know what to do when I show my love to those whom I love, I tend to give them something I'd like. My plan is that they will like my "gift" and eventually they will like me as well. It's a completely one-sided primitive game, as you say!

So, recently,
I sewed a cardigan for my husband. I forced him to put it on and then I dragged him out for shooting pictures. Because I'd love it if it happens to me.

He seemed slightly and shyly happy when we were out for shooting those pictures. He's a man of slightest signs, and his gesture said he was pleased with it at least. I was pleased too! I wish the warmth of my love will reach to his heart, before the weather gets too cold.

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pattern: men's cardigan from Annee-patterns (PDF), provided as a special give-away pattern for customers in the past
fabric: probably wool/acrylic, jersey, rough, warm, soft, thick. Brown and ecru, wintry color
about 150cm wide x 1.6m long
18mm buttons
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Then I asked a friend of mine, Novita, to meet me for lunch.

I love delicious foods. I love chatting with Novita. So, my plan was that it would be nice if I could "give" her a chance to have fun chatting with her friend (me!) over some delicious food. Selfish and one-sided plan, as always. Anyway, she was very kind to come up and we met at Harajyuku in Tokyo. We had great sandwiches, visited a gallery for a small exhibition for handmade rings (the semi-private exhibition by the jewellery artist was really interesting and also inspiring. there are so many talented people out there!), and enjoyed unstoppable conversations for catching us up. She was pleasant as ever and time flew so fast. It was a good day. I hope it was same through her eyes, sincerely.

I know that I've been sewing quite a lot of easy garments these days. It was because I felt like wearing casual clothes. However, thanks to Novita's beautiful and well tailored coat and dress which were even better in 3D world, I now want to try something nice and elaborate. She gave me a ray of inspiration on that day.


*
And I went to my bed last night thinking I will never know how I can "give" anything to my beloved people. It seemed so difficult. They always give me very precious things in my heart instead of taking anything away from me whatever I try to give.

Thank you for being there, friends.
Let's sew!

yoshimi

fringed bag

I've been hoping to make this bag for about a year, and finally it was done! It's just another Hatoto bag, but with fringes all over. I used gray-ish silver ECSAINE (aka ultrasuede, alcantara, or artificial suede) which I had bought in Nippori for relatively cheap on the last visit.

I do love my Hatoto bags.

Because the fabric doesn't fray, it was very easy to make strips of fringes. I cut the long sheets in the needed length and widths, and then just sliced them evenly like fringes from one end to another with leaving one lengthwise edge uncut. Fringes were sewn on the body parts before assembling, except thet top row.

Apart from the fringes, the bag is basically same as my other Hatoto bags. The printed cotton canvas inner bag has a big pocket for my keys as always. Actually, there is not much to tell (as always),

except my green ruler.

I got this about 2 months ago and I've been so willing to talk about it to you. This is a "Bias Tape Cutting Ruler" from Clover. (Sorry for the language in the link but I didn't want to put the link to the particular shop other than the manufacturer. I know Clover USA sells same product, but the site contains only one picture of the ruler itself without showing how to use it by diagrams.) I think it is such an invention. It makes cutting tapes so easy! I know it doesn't look charming to your eyes, but I'm proud that I was courageous enough to purchase this pompless-looking plastic. You don't have to buy it, but do believe me, it's that useful.

It has a closed slit in the middle and fabrics can be cut by using the slit and a rotary cutter. It makes cutting strips so very easy! Because the both sides of the line to cut are held by the ruler pretty well, it is even more effective when the fabric is delicate, thin, slippery, or escaping. I found it useful for making fringes also, it was so carefree to cut fringes with leaving one side uncut when this closed slit was used.

I love this tool as much as my Slimflex Expanding Sewing Gauge. I hope you can guess how much I love it from my words.

I'd be happy if any of you are interested in it.
If you have something similar to this gadget in your countries, please leave a comment so that others can appreciate your kindness for the useful info. Thank you!

Love,
yoshimi


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Pattern: Hatoto bag (PDF pattern can be downloaded here.)
Handles were attached differently from the original.
Fabric: Ecsaine ultrasuede, silver gray,
about 110cm wide x 1.5m long
Cotton canvas for inner bag
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Fall is everywhere. We went out for yellow leaves in the woods.

2012 Autumn skirt

Hello!

I bought an unique fabric and made a simple skirt in the last weekend. The fabric looked exactly like a fisherman's black net with colorful wool yarns weirdly tangled. Can you see from the picture? Despite of sounding awful in my explanations, it was, in fact, beautiful. It's like a piece of artwork without any theme.

I'm happy to know that this unconventional fabric makes a pretty and wearable skirt almost unexpectedly. It seems there is no conventional problem with the skirt including durability. I'm happy! I know you understand how the fabric is elaborated and different from other plain wintry fabrics because you sew and saw my pics, but I guess no one around me noticed I was wearing a skirt in fishery equipment. It may have smelled in the air though! The skirt looks merely lovely but in fact it is actually funny when watched closely. I like that!

Have you tried something adventurous or playful in your projects these days?

see? no problema!

Wishing you a great day.

Love,
yoshimi

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Skirt
Pattern: "9Cavarie" from Annee-patterns
Lengthened by 8cm
My first 9Cavarie can be seen here.
Fabric: woven fabric, embroidered with colored thick yarns on see-through net textured delicate probably acrylic black fabric. Partially felted in a purposeful manner on the wrong side.

Cardigan
Pattern: Pris from Tamanegi-kobo
Chose bigger size for loose fitting.
Fabric: Plain cotton jersey, lavender-gray, stretches modestly, smooth like a peach skin
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Scout Woven Tee

Just a quick note!
I sewed Grainline Studio's Scout Woven Tee pattern with a very delicate silk fabric. This was an experimental sewing, to see how it looks on me when sewed with a flow-y light fabric. I think I like it very much! I'm usually not good at wearing blouses without darts, but I see great potential in this pattern now. I should have done the experiment earlier, I have to say.

By the way, you can be amused by the pocket, which you see on the right front of my tee. I saw the red sample in Grainline blog had a tiny pocket, and I thought it was lovely. I just regret that I wasn't sane enough to put it on the correct place when I was sewing it. I was struggling with the soft fabric and lost my mind. Of course it should have been put on the left. Pocket on the right, this is exactly
 The Offensively Glorious Sign of Handmade.

*sigh*

Have a very nice day!

Love,
yoshimi

Denim pants

I made a pair of cropped pants.

The pattern is 09-2012-110A, from the September issue of Burdastyle magazine. (I bought it from BurdaStyle site as a PDF download pattern, because I love chopping patterns to bits and pieces but never like tracing.) The pattern is for something called "leather pants", but I used it with a heavy denim that was heavy as much as the ones for retailed authentic mens jeans. It contained 2% of PU, but didn't seem stretching more than any non-stretching material at all.

Since the pattern warned me to use the fabrics with a fair stretch, I was worried about the sizing before started, but it was actually OK. I even had to pinch an inch around the thigh to make the pants fit. I think it is a bit difficult to choose the right size for the individual stretch fabrics(leathers) for the pattern, but it doesn't stop me loving this pattern! If you are one of the people who wondered if the sample picture was kinda trying to hide something questionable by making the model keep jumping, I do tell you that they're lovely on a human who is committing other humane activity too. They have a distinctive shape, but not too much. I think they particularly look pretty with tunics/tops with big silhouette.

Today, my husband took me out for hunting a view of Mt Fuji. It was a lovely morning, but I completely forgot to jump for the pictures. It was too bad!

Love,
yoshimi

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pattern: BurdaStyle 09-2012-110A "Leather pants"
Sewn as instructions suggested except the execution of waistline. Attached a facing instead of applying a peter­sham ribbon on the waistline.
fabric: cotton/PU denim without a noticeable stretch, deep indigo color, raw denim
thick and stiff.
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Nearly salvaged

Today let's begin with visualizing that she was frowning and sitting alone on her bed at the end of summer. She sighed and looked at the cardigan that she made a half year ago. It was made from lovely Missoni fabric. You can assume that she could use it lots of times in the last summer, but how many times in fact? The answer was no. No, it's incorrect, the answer was, less than lots of times. She wore it probably 2 times this year, if you really had to count how many times it was. She looked sad because she was aware that she wouldn't any longer love the slightly itchy cardigan for good but it was too difficult to ditch the garment because of her love for the fabric.

After a while, she seemed starting to think about refashioning. Then her face was loosened and now she looked slightly happier. Still, it didn't seem very easy to refashion with those small fabric pieces from such a small cardigan. Oh? Suddenly her face began shining and she was off to her sewing corner.

And after enthusiastic googling, bits of shopping, and some sewing, here you see two handmade camera bags in the recycled fabric. One of them is a test piece and the other is the improved one that is for actual use. Thanks for the complete rehearsal, she got a sturdy and well functioning camera bag, which may not be as good as the manufacturer's ones but is enough good for her camera. She spent so many hours in the local DIY store to find the best urethane sheets and other materials for the project, and things got more interesting day by day. She almost bought one from TAMRAC for disassembling and checking inside of the quality product to make her project perfect, but somehow she could avoid spending more money for mere destruction.

 I assume that she wouldn't dislike too much about the character of this cardigan as an actual defect, if it were a manufacturer's garment. It was just slightly itchy, she confessed to me. However, you have to know that some hobby sewists are short-tempered like this on own handmade. It was a disastrous failure for her to make the favorite fabric into a itchy cardigan for the bare shoulders. She regretted it. She has learnt a lesson too.

 Said that, let's look at the bright sides of this story, allowing her to live in the future. She got a couple of pretty wearings, a lovely camera bag, and some good memories from this experience. Maybe it's not that bad, after all.

Have a really happy day!

Love,
yoshimi



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fabrics: white heavy dupioni silk for home furnishing, recycled Missoni knit, white nylon fabric, and flower pattern nylon fabric for interior

other materials: urethane sheet/mat, polyester quilt padding, bottom plate for bag, nylon strap, zippers, metal rings, clasps etc.
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