How do I?

How do I start a blog post after this long silence?

It's been long since the last post. I wouldn't apologize about it, because this is a tiny space that is existing solely for my silly sewing and it would sound even sillier if I apologize about my lack of exhibitionism as if I have to have it all the time. Too much self-importance is prowling around the world, so you really don't need mine in addition to that, I guess...

Basically I haven't sewn much these days. Instead, I've been either busy or tired with all things that happened to our little family and to myself for the last several months. In short, we decided that I could lessen my scientific work drastically to the level of almost zero, that we could move in some other cozier house in the same area, and that the daughter could stay with us again and go to College from home. It took some time but we managed to make all things happen nicely and now everything around us seems better and settled. Now, all of us are happier than ever. That said, I have to confess that I unnecessarily made the fuss even bigger during the transitional period, by getting sick or injured from time to time. I courageously joined in this year's Pattern Review Sewing Bee contest this fall and it helped me a lot (to have a thermal runaway in my brain) too. Well, life is so eventful.

In fewer words, this post is a report of the projects which I sewed for the sewing bee contest.

As for the contest result, I luckily got through to the final round, which was the 4th round of the entire contest. That means, I made four sets of garments/outfits with certain themes given by the contest committee for each round. I tried my best, but I think the daughter should be acknowledged as a great help to my success in the contest. She helped me a lot about the lovely photographs very much :)

If you are interested in detail of the projects, please visit my reviews in PR site from the links.


Sewing Bee Round 1 - Fitted Blouse:  Review

Sewing Bee Round 2 - Make the Fabric Your Own: Review

Sewing Bee Round 3 - Lined Jacket: Review

Sewing Bee Round 3 - Design and Sew an Olympics Outfit: Review

Lastly, I put a picture of my room below. This is the current status of my new sewing space. It is a very small corner of a room, and I started liking it very much. By the way, I knitted the pink hat on the dress form yesterday. I have just started expanding my creativity at my new space, so I will see what kind of sewing happens here in the very near future.

I hope you are having a great time, I will try to have a good one too!


Keep you safe and warm. Love each other.

Love and hugs
yoshimi

Vogue 2900, version 2015.

Hello!

I made another vogue 2900 in a beautiful wax printed cotton. I really love this pattern, and I can't stop making one in every summer. As all parts of this dress are cut in bias grain (style B), it fits great around the waist without clinging to the body too much when it is sewn in dry and stiff fabric like this wax printed cotton.

As for sewing, I don't have many things to tell about this dress, as I made it with same alterations as former V2900s. I've made two V2900s in similar fabrics before this dress, and here are the links to the posts (1) (2) if you would like to read about them. This time, I lengthened the skirt by 5cm(2") to add some fullness in the skirt, but there is nothing more.

Hope you are having a good time!

Love,
yoshimi


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pattern: V2900, style B from Vogue Patterns
fabric: Wax printed cotton from Vlisco, stiff. dry.
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Eva summer dress

Hello everyone!

I hope you all are doing great. I've sewn a few easy garments since the last post in April, but I have been too lazy to blog about them here, too. I think I'm going to write some mini-notes about what I made recently spreading in some coming posts. Please be warned if you look for something special technically in sewingwise, because they all happened after simple sewing (as always).

Here we go the first one:


Eva summer dress

I finally sewed the dress pattern Eva from Tessuti Fabrics as a dress. I used it once for this skirt, and I'm really in love with the cute silhouette of its skirt part. This time I used a very light fabric with irregular stripes and made it into a dress. I followed the pattern and instructions except those alterations:

 Bodice was lengthened by about 5cm at hem.
 Shallow bust darts were added to give some room in front.
 Pockets were omitted.
 Lower skirt was shortened by 5cm.
 I chose size XS while my bust measurement corresponds to size M.

I like lower waistline, generally, so I lengthened the bodice. I wouldn't have shortened the skirt if I had enough fabric, though, I had no choice as there was a resource shortage of fabric. I have put some bust adjustment as I often do, but maybe it wasn't necessary.

Side seam pockets were omitted because the fabric seemed too sheer to have anything extra hanging inside of the dress. I now think it was a wrong idea. And I regret it. (I practically need pockets in all dresses!)

 The size I cut was much smaller size than my measurement size, and I like the way it fits me. I need a wiggle to get in the dress, but it is easier than threading a needle.

The fabric is light, slightly sheer generally, and very sheer at some particular rows of stripes. I'm wearing my handmade silk/linen short underdress in the pics.

Sewing was quicker than stripe placement, as you may suspect. I was worried about stripe placement in this dress, especially in the skirt, but I now think the oblique line effect in the skirt isn't that bad after all.

I really like the whole package of this dress. It is a comfortable summer dress, and I wore it several times already. Despite the fact that it's not summer yet.

Happy sewing to you all!

Love,
yoshimi

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Pattern: Eva from Tessuti Fabrics
Fabric: 150cm wide x 200cm long, rayon, polyester, linen and nylon stripes, sheer and light. Not so drapey.
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Vogue 1351, my new favorite

As I wrote in my blog hop post, I bought two dress patterns from Vogue recently. I had this very pretty flowery fabric and wanted to choose the best pattern for it. It was the birthday gift which Carolyn sent me in this April. So I gave myself two options after a very long thought and finally chose V1351 in the end. I was thinking V1359 at the beginning, however, the more I looked at the fabric, the more I preferred the other option because I felt this bold print strongly called for a sleeveless dress. I decided to use V1351 thinking "Never mind, I can definitely wear it with a cardigan even though it is Autumn. Feeling prettier is better than feeling more practical especially with this print."

I really love this dress. I love the draped front neckline and I was very impressed by how it was well drafted. It sits very beautifully with being held by the lining, but the lining never peeps out even though I try to show it from outside very hard. The parts are cut in bias except the back bodice, and I think this makes the dress fit me quite well.

Construction-wise, I love the way of assembling shoulder straps of this dress so much. The instructions are actually very great (I don't say this often)! I got clean finish and I'm very happy with the minimal slip stitches in the inside seam of straps. The only and probably very helpful advice for those who are going to try the pattern for the first time.... is executing STEP1 differently. I reinforced the shoulder edges of front bodice with small patches of fusible interfacing instead of doing it with machine stitches, and left them intact (uncut) until the exact step in which front and back shoulder straps are stitched together(STEP21). Then it is easier to make precise and clean clippings in the shoulder seams. That gives the garment impressively beautiful shoulder straps! I know you think I'm crazy but you don't know what I am trying to say. "What STEP21?" I know. Actually I'm muttering to my imaginal-novice-me and I want to warn her that there may be no need to snip the fabric too much in advance. Thank you for your patience and I think I'm done. Let's forget it and go ahead together.

By the way, I used a nicely draping woven for the fashion fabric as pattern suggested. For the lining, I used a knit lining. This combination of fashion fabric and lining in this dress worked brilliantly. FYI.

Last but definitely not least, I'd love to thank Carolyn so much about giving me such a nice gift. I hope that I could do the right decision and that I managed to bring a good result on the fabric.


Talk to you soon, my next plan is a coat. I hope you're enjoying sewing too.

Love,
yoshimi

I managed to make a cardigan too.

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Flowery dress
pattern: 1351 dress from Vogue Patterns
fabric: georgette/crepe, not too sheer, fine, soft
bouncy feeling when squeezed in hand.
-taken some from back neckline to reduce gaping.

Snap Button Cardigan
pattern: Fujiko from Tamanegi-kobo
fabric: cotton/tencel blend, double jersy knits, soft, warm
reversible, stretches very well
-applied a set of plackets and made it as a cardigan.
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Wenona shirtdress

I made a shirtdress. Actually, the fabric I used was liquid drape rayon challis and it made my dress look rather a blouse-dress than a shirtdress. Yet I'm very pleased with it! The pattern is Wenona shirtdress which was recently released from Named patterns.

I think Wenona is a very modern&pretty shirt dress without being excessively(peculiarly) fashionable. I love my first Wenona... it does suit my everyday perfectly and also fulfills my wish to look special in a good way. I love the fabric itself too. I'm not too sure whether it is appropriate to wear Eucalyptus flower print in this time of year, but still, I really love it for my autumn wardrobe. The hand of the fabric is soft and fluid. The feel of its lightly nap-raized surface is smooth and warm. Gorgeous, gorgeous!

By the way, I basically followed the original pattern and its instructions. Though there was no problem with the process of sewing this dress at all, there is one thing that I'd like to mention about the pattern here. It's about sizing. For this shirtdress I used size 34 in the end, while my measurement size is 40 in the size chart.

I started with a muslin using size 36(two size smaller than my measurements) and I'd say it was very roomy, I mean, very. I guessed the style was intended one to be like that, but I decided to use size 34 because I didn't wish my dress to be particularly loose fitting. And it was OK-ish in the end as you see in the photos.

Named has charts of finished measurements along with size chart, which is very great, and I suggest you not to forget to have a look at the finished measurements before guessing your size by considering the size chart and your measurements, if you happen to start your Wenona. I couldn't foresee the looseness by looking at the sample pictures of the pattern, but it was like that.

Now that I shared my dress, I have another version of Wenona here. My friend Naomi, who is a very popular quilt teacher, made her a shirt version in a crisp linen combination.

She was wearing it when we met a week ago and she was so stylish in this contrasting version! I asked her to let me use one of her photos to share it with you, as I thought that there might be some of you who are interested in different version of Wenona pattern too. Her blog post about the shirt is here (in Japanese). Thank you, Naomi.


Happy sewing to you!!


Hugs,
yoshimi


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Wenona shirtdress pattern
Wenona (PDF) from Named
chosen much smaller size, shortened sleeve length, added belt loops for belt.

Fabric
Anna Maria Horner Pretty Potent Rayon Challis Eucalyptus Lime, which is a fruit of my very first international fabric shopping. oh well.
57" x 2.5yds
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yukata dress

Hello!!

First of all, thank you for the kind inquiries some of you made privately or publicly to ask if I was doing OK recently, I'm doing very fine! Actually I've been doing much better in this summer than usual but haven't been knocked out by the heat, I mean, not yet. I hope you're fine too.

I've got a Yukata fabric and made a dress from it.

Japanese Yukata is a casual summer kimono and is usually made of cotton. Yukata fabrics are narrow and long, same as traditional Kimono fabrics, and are usually sold as a roll of 12-13meters to serve one garment. I bought a roll which was sold very very cheap because of its imperfection. In other words, the fabric had a smidge of lightest sunburn at the both edges of the roll (not at the edges of the fabric surface!) from a longer storage. I couldn't see any problem with its quality as a fashion fabric.

Although I was happy to find it for an affordable price, I have to say that I also felt a bit sad because this pretty fabric was treated as a defective product even though it had only an almost unnoticeable imperfection. It was sold for about 1/5 of full price, I guess. We are sometime (maybe, often) too avaricious on newness and perfection on general merchandise, I think. Some people buy only magazines that are completely new and have never opened by any others because they believe in newness is the best commercial value of all. I wonder... But hey, I anyway got it and tried to make the most of its charm by making it into a summer dress. I love myself because I can sew and could use it! I could make it into a yukata, but I made a simple dress because I don't wear yukatas very often.

This weekend, my daughter and I visited Tokyo and stayed at a hotel which had a pretty garden with lots of greens. We enjoyed the stay very much! DD took photographs for me and the dress in the garden promenade. See the endless row of wind bells for entertaining the guests in the garden! They sounded so charming. Sounded like tiny fairies chatting everywhere in the garden. Now I'm well spellbound and I can survive this summer by the power of tiny green fairies.

I love you all! Have a great day!

Love,
yoshimi

 

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pattern: 847deux* from Annee-Patterns
fabric: yukata cotton, plain woven, flower prints over indigo shibori-dyed, light, coarse density, smooth surface, relatively firm, 37cm wide. used approx. 6m long.
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white linen denim Vogue 2900

May is over. Upon approaching to the end of Me-Made-May'14 challenge, I made a call for a meet-up and asked on twitter if any of participants could come to Tokyo on the last day to get together for celebrating the final day. Eight of us (including me) managed to come up to see each other under the very fine sky on that day. It was a really lovely day.

On the day before, I felt that I had no proper clothes for the meet-up (a very ordinary problem among us anyway). The thing was, by the 30th my options had run out because I had an undeclared rule for not repeating items during the challenge. Almost being forced, I sewed a new dress in the evening.

I sewed V2900 dress from Vogue Patterns again. In solid white linen denim. Wore it, loved it, and was glad that I sewed. ta-da! Today's report, done.


***
By the way, I once sewed a V2900 dress in plain woven white linen four years ago, and I'd say it was one of the most kindly recognized item of my handmade garments by non-sewists as well as by sewists. So I guess some of you may remember that dress too. And if you remember it, you may wonder whether I just replaced it with a new one because it was worn out or what is the difference.

The answers are yes, and the grain lines. They have different grain lines. The former dress was cut in lengthwise straight grain. The new one was cut in bias. From similar fabrics.

Because the material and pattern are almost (but neither fabric or pattern was completely same, I have to mention this) identical, the dresses seem to look almost same when you look at them separately in the pics. However, you may find it interesting to see them side by side in the picture below. Don't they give different impressions especially on human body and especially side by side? We all know grain lines influence shapes in the garments, nevertheless, it is very interesting for me to find that they give such different impressions. I'm not talking about which one looks better, or which one is better on me. I mean one dress looks more casual and more fresh and the other does more manipulated and more mature on me, to my eyes. Your impressions on them may be different from mine, but it is not very important today, the important thing is to witness that grain lines affect a very significant ingredient of how people look, if I am correct.

please excuse me about the creases in the new dress. I should have taken care of them more.

V2900 innately has both options (straight grain and bias grain) and I know that it is not always the case for most commercial patterns. But still, I hope you have fun with seeing this example. I also hope you see it with your eyes half closed, so that you don't have to see the creases which weren't that bad in the real life...


Happy sewing!

Love,
yoshimi

Eva skirt

I'm blending into the flowers.

I've been taking photos of my daily outfit every day for about half a month, as I'm joining Me-Made-May'14 as usual. I'm feeling very happy and also super busy!

At Me-Made-May'14 Flickr group, I try to leave comments, "like"s or anything similar on other participants projects as many as possible, but it is quite difficult to commit it as much as I'd like because the party is huge. I think I need 50 hours in a day if I try to do everything I need/want to do in my life at this moment. My other blog, photo maisonette, with Carolyn is importantly having the final month for uploading our photographs too, and it makes me feel that time flies like a shooting star. I hope I am not going to be burned out like a shooting star, by the way, it is just a silly figure of speech. I love my silliness.



*
I sewed a skirt using my newly bought Eva dress pattern from Tessuti. I was planning to make a dress at first, in this African wax print fabric, but I failed to make adjustments of the Eva's bodice in this kind of fabrics. FYI, Eva calls for softer fabrics and I am not saying that the pattern is difficult to fit using right fabrics. After making 6 unsuccessful toiles of bodice in similar firm cotton to my African print, I gave up a dress and made this skirt from Eva. I simply sewed the skirt and put casings for elastic at waist so that I can pull it on. I made a tank top blouse with remnants too. I'm very happy with the result! Eva's skirt is cocoon-shaped and I think it is very charming and worthy of special mention!

Happy sewing to you, friends!

Love,
yoshimi

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Skirt: Eva from Tessuti
Tank top: old pattern
=====

I finally had an extreme ironing session(fake)

the Nicola dress

Here it is my Nicola dress finished at last ;)
As it is cold and wintry here in Japan, I wore it with my boots and wider belt today. My camera is grumpy at this moment but I hope you're having a great week!

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pattern: Nicola dress from Victory Patterns

adjustments and alterations I made:
- I have chosen my size according to my bust measurement and had my usual narrower shoulder adjustment (pinched by 1cm at each shoulder point). Sizes seemed very true to the measurements.
- I have made the V neck opening slightly wider at the shoulder and about 1cm shallower at center front.
- I added extra 5cm in width to the front left skirt(the one under the other front skirt) for a larger overlap of front skirts.
- I made the wrap front into a mock-wrap by closing the front dress. I sewed the front bodices and skirts to close them at the waistline, and applied a long invisible zipper at the left side of the dress.

fabric: cotton/silk(80/20), lawn, thin, flowery prints on light blue color. Soft and light.
=====

Sorry for these blur photos, my camera must have been having her "bad hair day"(poor thing).

 

Happy sewing!

Love,
yoshimi

V2900 dress

This is my third V2900 dress from Vogue patterns. I really love the first and second ones, which can be seen here and here, respectively. They're probably my best favorite own made dresses in the history because of their fit and comfortableness, and indeed they were quite often used on the hot summer days. At the end of the last summer, the one in white linen went rotten because of my heavy use, at last. Although the brown one was intact, I eagerly felt that I needed a replacement for upcoming summer. Maybe two copies of replacements! Or three copies!

Anyway, I made another one in a red African waxed-print fabric and here you see the result. I think I will need another one in a plain solid color too. In my opinion, those long and cozy dresses in pretty fabrics are super must-have items in every summer. I will happily wear almost same dresses in all summer, do I think there is anything wrong with it? Nope!

I am really happy with my new V2900 and it brings me a huge smile.

Have a happy weekend, everyone!
I hope you're sewing something which brings you a very happy giggle.

Love,
yoshimi


=====
Pattern: V2900 dress from Vogue patterns
Style B(bias cut) Style A(strait grain)

Same alteration as the first copy.
(it has narrower shoulders, shallower front slit, and higher and smaller waistline than the default calls)
Fabric: Plain woven cotton, African waxed print
mid-body, stiff like paper, very smooth, dry, great for hot weather
=====

Boxy pink dress

Hello!!

I have to write up this post as quickly as possible, as I need to make a cup of tea and sit to watch the last episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. I know ALL of you but me have already watched it on TV or on youtube! I NEED to watch too!

I made a pink dress for everyday use. I used a dolman sleeved dress pattern named Fran from Annee-Patterns. For the dress, I applied a slash at the front center neckline, a pair of pockets with flaps on chest, and side seam pockets in the skirt. I shortened the sleeves, lengthened the bodice, and widened the skirt at the same time I omitted the waist shirring and the patch pockets on the skirt. Fairly big redecoration, don't you think?

I am so happy with the dress!
I think the color and shape suit me well. This is the moment of sewing joy.

Happy sewing to you, friends!

Love,
yoshimi

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Pattern: Fran from Annee-Patterns
Fabric: Linen.
Pink, plain woven, fairly heavy, flowy, crease much, and soft.
Can be worn as a single layer.
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OK, so, who left the bike here?!! This is trespassing. This. is. my. photo. location. I curse you until you remove it out of the way!!
...well... enough unjustly domineered. I shall go and ask my husband to move his bike. This space is communal and is not my territory anyway...

the ribbon dress

I sewed a dress with a cotton lace fabric. The pattern was the same as the one for the dress that I sewed in July. I have nothing special to tell you about it, except the ribbon on the waistline.

I bought this silk ribbon about 7 years ago. At La Droguerie. I was starting sewing my clothes at that time. I dropped by the shop because I wanted to buy some beautiful notions to make my handmade clothes looking better. Not knowing that that I'd never achieve it by just using pretty decorations. I mean, I was thinking something already beautiful, like sequins and ribbons, can help my shabby garments stylish. Maybe I was not very conscious about what I thought, but I had a wrong idea about it unfailingly. Beautiful notions sometime can make the garments even more beautiful, but they would never change the style of the garments. Maybe it can be said that they are a bit similar to facial make-up. They improve things nicer when applied efficiently, but they are not the face itself.

Anyway, this novice sewist was enchanted by the ribbon in the shop. It was very pricy but she didn't mind. She felt that miraculously cool "something" with the ribbon was surely promised. However, miraculously cool anything didn't come, simply because it was silly to buy a very expensive ribbon without any plan but greediness. The ribbon has been neglected since then. What a pathetic story. As it was very pricy, she's been too afraid to use it,

until this day.
She is happy with the dress, and the ending of this story as well.

Love,
yoshimi


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pattern: Annee-patterns "Charleen" dress (PDF)
fabric: white lace cotton fabric, silk ribbon
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