I finished the dress! The dress pattern is called Leia, and it is another pattern from Tamanegi Kobo, a Japanese pattern shop. The dress is pretty simple, but sewing the curved lines was quite challenging, so I guess this is not really a project for a beginner. Although the instruction is in Japanese, the diagrams are very clear and I learned some new things about sewing the curved yoke. My ultimate tool was fabric glue, as Yoshimi had used for her Leia dress. It was really fun sewing the curves.

Instead of elastic on waist, I sewed several rows of elastic shirrings because they feel softer. I also added a pair of pockets on the side seams. Miho from Tamanegi Kobo is about my size (okay, I’m smaller!), and she kindly shared some sizing tips to me. She always uses size 36 and reduces it by 98%, I did the same thing with this pattern and it fits nicely! I didn’t even have to shorten the skirt. Oh, by the way, I’m 150 cm/5 ft and 40 kg/88 pound.

The fabric is double gauze from nani IRO by Naomi Ito in pocho dots pattern. I really love the irregular shapes of the dots that adds some twist to the otherwise conventional polka dots. The yoke is actually broken white with white dots, it is very nice but hard to capture with a camera. The last picture shows the white dots a bit clearer.

It’s 35°C today, I had to walk for 20 minutes to Sidra’s school and the dress has proofed to be very comfortable. But of course I didn’t wear that shoes!

Pattern is Leia from Tamanegi Kobo.

Dotty Leia dress is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::

Dangerous curves

Sidra had some friends coming today. Since being in the same room with jumping and screaming little boys is not my idea of fun, I retreated to my sewing room upstairs and looked for things to do. These curves are so challenging and fun at the same time! Loving it so far!

Both fabrics are nani IRO by Naomi Ito double-gauze in pocho dots pattern.

What I did today is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::

Space Cow

I taught my husband to embroider last weekend, and he really loves it!

For his first project, he made a sketch based on his own illustration, ‘Space Cow’ (whatever it is), and drew it on a tote bag. I made the tote bag sometime ago and it has become my daily grocery bag. It was made from old pillow case, in case that is not pretty obvious.

The embroidery was only consisted of simple backstitches, but my husband seemed pretty amazed at the texture and he couldn’t stop feeling the stitches. There were some bumpy stitches at the beginning but they got smoother as he got used to making it. The project finished very quickly so he didn’t have the chance to get bored of it, and he was very satisfied with the result!

The space cow is of course cute, but I think the sight of my husband on the couch learning to embroider a tote bag is the cutest! ♥_♥

Learning to embroider is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::

Surprise package from Kayo!

Thank you, Kayo!

The postman brought me a surprise package a couple of days ago, it’s from Kayo! The package contained many pretty things, one of them is Kayo’s handmade floral camisole for me! Now I have an original creation by Kayo, I’m so happy (^_^)v

Kayo also put some pretty candies for Sidra (the butter candies are delicious! I stole it) and postcards for my husband. The postcards are illustrated by her husband, a talented illustrator, he and my husband met at the Yokohama market and they seemed to get along, both like comics, anime, and manga stuff.

I don’t know what I had done to deserve all these kindness, but I’m so happy happy happy! It really brightened up my day. Thank you so very much, Kayo! m(_ _)m

Surprise package! is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::

I made Novita again! But I didn’t want to make the  same thing and changed it into a dress by simply sewing a wide gathered strip of fabric on the hem. The strip of fabric follow the curved hem, so the front part of my dress is shorter than the back.

The fabric is Indonesian cotton with batik prints, the intricate pattern is a variation of Javanese traditional pattern called Parang Rusak (it means: broken sword). This pattern is laid diagonally across the cloth but since my dress is cut on bias, the diagonal pattern turned into sort of striped pattern.

Other than the addition of gathered skirt, I didn’t make any changes to the pattern. I really like this top pattern because it is so simple and easy, perfect for an instant gratification that I need these days. This summer has been a bit too hot that I can’t stay too long in my sewing room, even with windows opened and fan turned on. Ironing an open seam in a hot summer day is not really my idea of having a good time. I made this dress in less than an hour,  the gathered skirt was added the next day. After that I couldn’t stand being in the room any longer. I love my new summer dress but I also can’t wait for autumn!

Pattern is Novita from Tamanegi Kobo.

Novita dress is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::

You might wonder why I would go around screaming my own name like that, but actually it is the name of the pattern that I use for my new top. The fabric is Kokka cotton that I bought in Swany, Kamakura, it was on sale and only 1.3 m left.

The bias-cut top pattern is from Tamanegi Kobo, and yes, it has the same name as mine: Novita. Isn’t that awesome? Although that is the most awesome thing (for me!) about the pattern, it isn’t the only one. The pattern is sold as multi-size PDF pattern, just like Burdastyle pattern. In multi-size pattern, each size is usually differentiated by different types of lines, and it is kinda hard trying to figure out which lines belong to my size; is it the dotted one, the dashed one, the dotted-dashed one?

But I really like how this pattern makes use of the layer feature in PDF files. It means that every size is stored in different layer that can be turned on or off. I only had to turn on the layer of my own size, printed it out and got myself a clean and easy to see pattern of my own size. I don’t need those other sizes in my pattern!

The other awesome thing is the pattern instruction. Despite two years living here, I still can’t read Japanese (-_-), but the drawings are so clear and logical that I only need to look at them once to understand the whole construction. The pattern is also very well-organized with every seam allowance mitered at the corners (I love this!), and each helpful notches are in the right place. I usually want to alter or change a bit about a pattern, but this pattern is so well-organized that I wanted to follow all the instructions without straying a little bit.

The finished top is indeed beautiful with such a simple shape, and it is also comfortable like a T-shirt. So here it is: Novita in Novita! I know it’s silly but it makes me happy!

Pattern is Novita from Tamanegi Kobo.

Novita! is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::

(^_^)(^_^)(^_^)

We just got back from Kamakura, a beautiful city about 2 hours away from Tokyo. Sidra had really wanted to go to the beach, that was why we went there so we could go to Yuigahama beach nearby.

I really love Kamakura, the city is small yet so beautiful. The streets are clean with lots of places to look at.

We didn’t go to the beach in the first day and only took a walk around and went to some temple. There are a lot of beautiful temples and statues in this city! I really wanted to go to Kōtoku-in to see the great Buddha statue but it was raining and we didn’t have enough time, so we headed to our ryokan before it’s getting late.

A sleeping cat

We went to the beach on the second day. It was still a bit cloudy but we had so much fun there. It was one of the fun moments in my life! We got back to Kamakura in the afternoon and went to Swany, a pretty fabric shop. They had a bazaar going on, so many pretty fabrics! I snatched one or two (or three or four) pieces and swore that I would be back someday.

Yuigahama beach

Actually we planned to do some sight-seeing in the third day, but Sidra looked so happy at the beach that we decided to spend the whole day back at Yuigahama beach. The day was sunny and beautiful, so there were more people there. And we had fun one more day! I love this place!

The wet futon incident

As this is still holiday season, we couldn’t get any place to stay in Kamakura nor the beach, the nearest place we could get was this small ryokan (Japanese-style inn) run by a family in Hiratsuka, another small city nearby. The place was decent although the furniture seemed a bit outdated, we didn’t think much about it because we only needed a place to sleep. But on our last night, the owner called our room, she said that one of the futon was wet and we were charged with cleaning fee, which she would send later. I was pretty upset about this, because we didn’t wet the futon! It got more suspicious that she couldn’t tell how much the cleaning fee was, and was going to send the invoice later (once we got home).

The next morning, my husband looked for the woman to talk about the wet futon. She said that it was probably from urine, while glancing at Sidra. Fortunately, my precious son, who only wet his bed once when he was two years old, was oblivious to this accusation. My husband said that Sidra never wet his bed and it was also impossible that we wouldn’t notice that if he did. The woman and my husband went back and forth in Japanese, then she went behind the door to talk to an old woman, maybe her mother. When she went out again, she said that we were only charged with half of the cleaning fee.

A discount? Yay? That was of course even more unacceptable! My husband said that he wanted to see the wet futon. The woman seemed that she didn’t expect it, but she didn’t have any choice. Then we were shown a mattress with a slightly damp spot, not wet at all. You see, the mattress is placed on the floor, the futon above it, and the duvet cover on the top. My husband asked whether the futon was also wet, and the woman said no. So in order to wet the mattress, Sidra had to move the duvet cover and the futon first, with us sleeping next to him. The woman began to realize that she wasn’t making any sense. She looked embarrassed and then said that it was okay, we didn’t have to pay anything. We left the ryokan with her apologizing behind us.

I guess she expected that we (my husband) wouldn’t have enough Japanese vocabularies to argue with her made-up accusation. I’m really proud of the way my husband handled this, though. If it were me, I would definitely lose temper and got angry. But he was so calm and never raised his tone. I think I should learn to be more like that. Or maybe just let him do the talking when it’s needed (-_-;)

Kamakura is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::

I bought this cotton fabric in IKEA, it comes ready cut, 150 cm by 3 m. The pattern is called IKEA PS batik, and it is designed by Kazuyo Nomura, a textile designer. So I actually bought a piece of Japanese designer fabric in a Swedish home products retailer in its Tokyo chainstore.

The fabric has blue waves on the borders, and I played with them to make a shirt for my husband and a shirt for Sidra. The shirts are similar, but the blue waves are in the opposite places. The patterns are for regular shirts, I changed them a bit to have stand-up collars and side-slits. As an element of surprise, I put one red button on each shirt.

Sewing a men’s shirt is kinda boring. The pieces are so big and the lines are so straight, sometimes I feel lost when sewing those seemingly endless lines. I need darts and ruffles and gathers and curves to keep me focused! I was really tempted to add more details on this shirt, but I feel that a men’s shirt shouldn’t have too many details (otherwise my husband wouldn’t wear it). It should be simple and efficient, so I guess that’s a challenge for me.

There was a matsuri (festival) today near our house, so we went there to have a look and take some pictures. My husband and Sidra wore their matching shirts, I wore my matching bloomers too but it was under my dress so (hopefully) nobody noticed. We had some cotton candy, beer, sausage, and yummy butaman (pork bun). There were dancings and taiko performance (Japanese drum). We walked home afterwards, it is always nice taking a walk in summer nights.

Actually I feel that it’s kind of tacky to be seen wearing outfits in the same fabrics together, but the idea is too cute that I just couldn’t resist the temptation. So my husband and Sidra end up having a lot of the same or matching clothes and accessories, and even matching boxer shorts. I guess it’s okay as long as they don’t always wear them together, but Sidra loves the idea of matching outfit. He doesn’t care about having matching outfit with me though. As long as he has matching outfit with Papa, Sidra is happy. It’s a guy thing, I guess.

Men’s shirt pattern is Jakob from Burdastyle
Kid’s shirt pattern is from R&D.M.Co-boys&girls

Blue waves shirts is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::

I have just finished making shirts for my husband and son, but haven’t taken pictures of them being worn yet as I have to wait until this weekend. Anyway, just after I cut all the pieces for both shirts, I found that there are still little fabrics left, just enough for a pair of shorts for myself. I use Jane pattern from Burdastyle and lengthened the legs about 4 cm. The legs of the shorts are on fabric selvedges, so they didn’t have to be hemmed. Then I stitched two rows of elastic shirrings on both legs, turning the shorts into a cute bloomers! The fabric is cotton and very comfortable. I think the bloomers is perfect for these hot summer days and I can also wear them under my short dresses.

The fabric is actually white with wide blue borders in wave shape, but I only have most of the blue part left for my bloomers. It is cotton from IKEA, comes ready cut in 150 cm by 3 m. So I managed to make one men’s shirt, one kid’s shirt, and one bloomers out of it! Woohoo! Pictures of the shirts are coming soon.

And here’s Sidra ruining my photo session. Making self-taken pictures during school holidays are difficult.

Shorts pattern is Jane from Burdastyle

Blue bloomers is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::

Not a very spectacular project, but this thing proves to be very useful in summer. I think it is also called scrunchie, but it is called chou-chou here and I like the name better.

I found several tutorials for making chou-chou, but they always involve hand-stitching, which I’m too lazy to do for such a simple thing. Then I see another way of doing it, it is much easier, and more importantly: no hand-sewing! This project only took around 10 minutes to make, and it is also a good way to make use of all the fabric scraps.

Here’s how to make it:

You will need:

• Fabric: 10×50 cm. Use non slippery fabric so the chou-chou won’t slip off your hair. My fabric here is cotton/linen mix. The measurement is not exact, you can make it longer or wider. I just snip 10 cm off my 50 cm cut fabric.
• Elastic: 20 cm. I use ordinary hair elastic, but you can use any thin elastic strip.

Sew the short ends together with 1 cm seam allowance.

Fold the upper fabric inside as pictured, and hold it with one finger.

Fold the lower fabric over, sort of wrapping the first fold of fabric inside.

Starting with a backstitch, sew the edge with 1 cm seam allowance. Don’t catch the fold of fabric inside. When you almost reach the end, just pull the fold of fabric inside and continue sewing. It is easier done than written here!

Stop stitching about 3 cm from the first stitch. Backstitch to secure. Now you have a sort of crumpled tube with a little opening.

Here’s the fun part! Reach into the little opening and pull the tube out.

Suddenly you have this!

Using a big safety pin, thread the elastic inside.

Tie the ends together. Pull the elastic several times to make sure that it is tight and secure. If you use thin elastic strip, you can also stitch the end together.

Tuck the elastic inside and stitch the opening closed.

Backstitch both ends of stitching to secure. If you want to be neater, you can also use hand-stitching to close the opening.

Turn the stitched edge to the inner side and there’s your chou-chou.

Then you will want to make more!

Hope it is useful!

Chou-chou is a post from: :: verypurpleperson ::