Sewing from Japanese books - part 4

Read part 1, part 2, and part 3 here.

I have finally finished the top I have been making from 'Sweet Style for Kids'. I'm really happy with the way it's turned out. The fabric is really pretty, quite soft, perfect for a summer dress.

The pattern turned out well too, it fits nicely, just the right amount of flare. It's intended to be worn as a tunic over jeans or leggings, and it will make a great summer dress if a few inches longer. I think this could be a staple of her summer wardrobe, maybe one in each colour as they don't take long to make.

The only bit I am disappointed with it my bias binding on the neck and arms, I hurried it and so it didn't turn out as well as it could. Also putting a french seam up the back made it difficult to sew the edges on the opening at the back. I'll zig-zag the seams next time when I get an overlocking machine foot. Also I might try different finishes on the arms and neck, maybe using a contrast colour to bind them on both sides.

Sewing from Japanese books - part 3

 Read part 1 here and part 2 here.

The next step after cutting out the pattern is the fun bit - sewing it all together! In this pattern, each step is numbered. You can see here, step 1 is finishing the raw edges by zig-zagging them, sewing up the back centre seam but stopping short of the top for the opening, the measurement for this is given in an earlier diagram. The second picture shows the same seam pressed open.

In step 2, the side and shoulder seams and then sewn together and pressed open.

Step 4 and 5 explain how to attach the facing to the neck, first by joining the front and back facings together, then sewing it onto the neck hole, including fixing a loop for the fastening. It shows notches clipped out of the curve within the seam allowance. In the last diagram on the right, the facing is stitched 2mm from the seam allowance to stop it from rolling over. Next (shown in the picture below) the edges of the opening are stitched 0.5 mm from the seam.

Step 6 explains how to bias bind the armholes, I found this quite confusing the first time I did it, but after bit of googling, it became clearer!

Step 7 is sewing the hem, 8 is making the casing for the belt  and 9 is sewing it on. The measurements of where to place the belt are shown in the original diagrams. Step 10 is fixing on the button for the opening.

All finished! It is a simple garment to make, and no doubt making other things especially for adults might be a bit more complicated. But most of the instructions are shown in the form of a picture and infact they are extremely detailed, showing steps they maybe don't need to.

The finished draft top is shown at the beginning of the post. The fit is good, though I might take in a bit of slack under the arms. I didn't bother with any of the finishing with this version as I just wanted to check the fit. I re-drafted the pattern with about 1cm less at the side under the arm, and flared it out to the same point at the hem.

Yesterday I actually remembered to pre-wash the fabric I will be using, so won't be frantically ironing it dry so that I can sew it, which is what I usually end up doing!

The pattern shows how much fabric to use in this diagram, suggesting 115cm - 125cm. However, I have decided to bias bind the neck rather than use a facing, so this cuts down the fabric considerably and by measuring the pattern pieces, I worked out that I only needed 75cm.

I will try and sew it up this weekend and post the final top.

Sewing from Japanese books - part 2

Following on from my last post, the next step is to trace and cut out the pattern on a new sheet of paper. It's really important to remember that the patterns in Japanese craft books do not include the seam allowance. The instructions show the suggested seam allowance which I always use, but if you want to do a different seam and so need a bigger or smaller allowance, you have the option to change it.

It's worth checking the instructions before doing this so that you leave enough space around the shape to add the seam allowance and make the adjustments to the pattern.

It is also really helpful to mark on the following things:

• The centre back and front line
• The grainline
• The front and back
• Which pattern you are cutting out (this may sound obvious, but I have gone back to books and found several patterns that I have cut out and not been sure which one they are!)

You can work out these from the translation sheet that I send out with all books, but 前 is front and 後 is back. Grainline is 布目線.

My pattern has a facing (見返し shown in purple) included in the main bodice, so I traced that off separately too. I have pattern cutting paper that is thin enough to see through to trace directly from the pattern sheet, but it this wasn't possible, I could use a tracing wheel to transfer the marks.

Looking at the book, I am doing size 120cm and measurements for this are shown in green. I have circled the adjustments with the bigger red circle. I need to extend the basic pattern shape down 21cm and flare it out so that the bottom is 24.1cm wide. This is why it's important to leave enough space on your paper so that you don't have to tape on another piece on the bottom.

Once this was done, I added on the seam allowance, this is usually 1.5cm or 0.5cm where bias binding is used on the neck or armholes. This is quicker to do than you would expect and I use my pattern master to help draw neat curves.

Some pieces of the pattern are drawn free-hand, these are usually bits that are rectangular, and simple enough not to be included on the pattern sheet.

There is on this diagram a diagonal strip on the top left corner, this is for the bias binding, I usually ignore this and buy mine as it's easier!

Here is my finished pattern, not following my own advice, I didn't leave enough space on the centre back so had to tape on an extra sheet of paper for the seam allowance. This is a simple pattern, sewing adult clothes can be more complicated from these books with more pattern pieces that oftern overlap on the sheet, however the process is the same.

Next time, I'll cover cutting the pattern out and sewing it together!

Sewing from Japanese books - part 1

I've been meaning to write a post on sewing from Japanese craft books for a while now. They can, on first inspection be a bit daunting, (they're in Japanese you know). And Japanese isn't like French, or German that you can remember a few words from school, or figure out after a bit of googling.

The books are beautiful, quite aspirational I think, picture beautiful people hanging around beautiful places in clothes you could, and want to, make. When I first bought one of these books I opened and closed it in frustration many times as I couldn't figure out what on earth was going on.

They are quite like pattern cutting in a way, you have your basic shape, a top or skirt or trousers and by making a few thoughtful variations you can create simple, stylish garments. The instructions are clear, mostly pictorial, and actually quite easy to follow with the help of translations for some of the key terms. All books from 'M is for make' come with a set of translations.

The book I am using is 'Sweet Style for Kids' (shown at the top) I chose this as the clothes are pretty and simple and I can imagine adding some pretty details to them, Boden style, here is the top I want to make.

Where to start? When I made myself some clothes from Autumn / Winter wear for women, I wrongly presumed I would be a size 'large' but as a UK 12, I was actually a medium in that book. Had I taken the time to read the measurements chart, I could have saved myself some sewing time. Here is the size chart from this book;

 

Because I know what kind of words these are going to be, they were fairly easy to translate (I have put the english translations in above). The other measurements? well I have no idea what they are, but with the bust, waist and hip known, I could pick out the size I needed, 120cm for a 5 1/2 year old. However, because I haven't made anything from this book before and I'm unsure of how it will fit, I am going to run up draft version of this top before making it in the proper fabric.

First of all I want to find the right pattern on the full scaled pattern sheet which is included inside the book. This can be quite confusing, as not all the patterns are included on the sheet. This is because they give you the basic bodice pattern and show you how to adapt it - pattern cutting made easy! Looking at the instructions where I have circled the text in red it shows the number 4 in the same colour as the pictures of the garment.

Looking at the pattern sheet, I can clearly see these pieces have a 4 on, and it makes sense, they look like the top I want to make.

Next time, I'll write about drafting the pattern from the instructions. Let me know if you need any more info or detail and I'll see what I can do!

Pattern cutting fatigue...

I have pattern cutting fatigue. Normally the idea of a weekend where I cram every spare moment with sewing would be a heavenly prospect, but as you can see from the many screwed up pieces of paper above, this has not been the case.

Last week I posted a picture of the first draft of my dress. It was way too big and the flare of the dress took out any shaping on the top half that couldn't be pulled in by a belt in the way I had hoped. I drew up a new pattern which included a slightly lower neckline, lower armholes (as they were just a bit too high) and nipped it in at the waist going down to a much less flared skirt. It took me a long time to do this, drafting the pattern takes up space and needs concentration, both hard with 2 children around. I found my brain could only concentrate on what I was doing for an hour at a go before getting completely befuddled and I ended up drawing lines in the wrong place. When it came to making up the dress, sewing curved necklines is really hard, especially with a gather in, and it took ages.

The new dress was a much better fit, the top tighter, the belt gathered it in nicely around the waist, and the arms were more comfortable, but the top was also now too low and didn't look quite right.

So redraft number 3 and I think I am there. I think you need to be quite a perfectionist when drafting a pattern. Its too easy to have pieces not quite matching up at the arm, shoulder or hem. The result wouldn't be such a good fit, so I was extra careful this last time (and it will be the last time as I don't have the will to do another version) and measured up so that everything matched up (hopefully) perfectly.

Despite the many frustrations, in the back of my mind, I think this will be a really useful pattern, in addition to the dress, I am imagining a shorter version like a tunic, and I could add patch pockets to the front. I am hoping all my hard work will be worth it in the end, but for now it's a good feeling to pack it all away finished and take a breather...