Wednesday, September 29, 2010

in monochrome

Hello!
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I made a jersey top with a button closure (opening?) in the back. I wanted the rear neckline of the top V-shaped, so I used the pattern Balloon from TAMANEGI-KOBO and added an opening like we normally do for cardigans at the front center. It seems that the rear view made the top interesting. I also omitted the cuffs, to make this garment "funnier", and I love the result.
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I also made a pair of slim pants in black, using Stretch skinny pants from Pumila, my perfect pants pattern.
(The post for my first pair is here as well.)


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Funny top
pattern: dress "Balloon" (PDF) from TAMANEGI-KOBO
fabric: modal (rayon) jersey, milk white, silver glitter, stretching very well, thin, sheer, hanging well
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Black pants
pattern: "Stretch skinny pants" from Pumila
fabric: stretch cotton satin, black, with some body but not very thick, soft
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me & my girl happily strolling around the famous fabric town in Japan




Hope you are having a good day too!

love,
yoshimi

Friday, September 17, 2010

a tweed skirt & a black top


First of all, I'd love to thank you everybody, for wishing our survival and for kicking out Japanese late departing summer. It's gone, it's gone now, phew.

As I feel like longer and slightly fuller skirts for the coming seasons this year, I sewed this tweed skirt to fill in my list for wardrobe. It is a tuck skirt in a cotton/acrylic/polyester fancy tweed with glittering silver and gold threads. I think I can wear it until it gets too cold.
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I sewed this simple black top too. (This is my first black garment in the past 6 years!)
The info of the patterns I used is at the bottom of this post, if you are interested.



In this bulky skirt and the fitted black top, I look as if I start dancing, don't I? (Said that, I have never danced properly. What I can do is moving like an octopus but I don't show you how to do it. For your safety.)

Have a nice day!

love,
yoshimi



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tuck skirt
pattern: anneecotton* p950, lengthened very much
fabric: tweed, cotton/acryl/polyester etc blend
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black top
pattern: TAMANEGI-KOBO Fujiko, widened neckline and shortened bodice and sleeves
fabric: jersey, cotton/cupro 60/40 blend soft and bouncy
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Monday, September 13, 2010

Slimflex Expanding Sewing Gauge

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I sewed a shirt for my sister, using a Liberty fabric called Philippa ( I call it 'Bicycles' though). Unlike me, she is such a shirt wearer. I hope she will like it and get much use of it.

By the way, because she is so much petit-ter than the average and I know it is difficult to get pretty shirts that fit her rightly at stores, I occasionally sew her blouses or shirts in her personal size when I feel like pretending to be kind. She always seems pretty happy with my handmade gifts but never starts to ask me to sew for her. In other words, she accepts everything and demands nothing regarding my selfish sewing. Lucky me.

This is a very ordinary cotton shirt in a personal size and I have nothing spectacular to tell about it. Instead of telling you a boring poem today I'm going to tell you about a tool I met.


SLIMFLEX EXPANDING SEWING GAUGE

I recently happened to find it at Vogue Fabrics, and impulsively placed an international order for it.
I imagine some of you don't understand why I was so very interested in this tool (actually I don't know exactly why either) because there is only one simple calculation between one front edge and certain number of buttonholes. It's very capable for anyone to place buttonholes without this specific tool, but I am glad to have it in the end. I am usually very reluctant to get new 'useful' tools, especially for sewing, because I'd feel so uncomfortable when I am surrounded by those 'useful' tools which are never used except occupying my drawers. So, most of the time, If I can do without, I'd definitely choose without. That's my rule.


However this time, I bought it and found that it was so easy and stress-free to mark for buttonholes with this gauge. I'm about withdrawing my possess-as-less-as-I-can policy for it. If you are loving shirts or having a sweet sister who loves clothes with many buttons, the tool is likely to be useful without making you think it is occupying your precious space in the sewing room. Let me remind you that cardigans have many buttonholes too.

I learned that it was good to be more open-minded at last.
I'm probably not talking about a tool. I guess I'm mumbling about an attitude to myself.

Let's enjoy sewing!


yoshimixoxo

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

autumn pants

Hi!


I'm sewing for autumn, although it's still sweating hot everywhere. Our Summer 2010 hasn't been over yet at all, but I am pretending that it's getting cooler day by day. Actually, we are having the hottest and longest summer in the last hundred years here in Japan, and it's kinda surprising (maybe I should say "it's funny" instead) that I am able to feel like autumn sewing, in this heat.



I sewed these pants in this pretty and beige wool as a part of my autumn outfits. I got a pattern named "Joker" at the sale that I mentioned in the last post, and used it for these pants.
(By the way, the 1st anniversary sale at TAMANEGI-KOBO is still going on and will end on 10th/Sep.)

I think my Joker turned feminine and not too casual, probably because of the fabric I used. It was a nice (but not too nice) quality wool fabric, and I love its result at all. I think that these pants look quite lovely, even though they look *technically* nothing special. Actually, I love it even more when it happens. I mean, it makes me happy when I see something lovely in "nothing special". I believe that nothing special can be special with indescribable reasons. *gasp* I'm so incapable of writing. Before I put all sorts of quotation marks everywhere, I shut up.


Hope you are having a pleasant weather.
Have a great week!

yoshimi
(Please do not notice I'm wearing my sis's v8581 blouse.)