Japanese sewing books at The Drapery

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We love Japanese sewing books here at The Drapery, and it seems you do too! We're thrilled to be stocking even more of these beautiful and inspiring pattern books.

The styling shows just how effective it can be to take a simple pattern and make it in really beautiful fabric.

This 'Sweet Dress Book' has a number of basic pattern shapes which are then altered to make different garments and styles, for example the shirt above and the dress below.

The instructions and diagrams are clear and helpful.


Patterns are included on full-size sheets at the back of most of the books and simply require tracing off in your size. Seam allowances are not included on the pattern but the instructions show you where to add these, and how much. Some people are very accurate with adding them but to be honest, we generally just eyeball it as we cut.

We tried the shirt in a Nani Iro double gauze (sorry, this one's from the personal stash and no longer available!).


The fabric piece from the stash was a remnant and it took a bit of piecing to put the whole garment together, but it's a good example of how you can get creative with placement of some of the Nani Iro prints (for example this or this). We couldn't resist a large patch pocket on the front and one of our beautiful handmade floral cotton bias tapes for the neckline and sleeve finishes.


The pattern was a success, so it was time for the dress in a delicious Liberty Tana Lawn.



And here are some other books we have in store. This one is a great seller, both for its styles and for the fact the sizing has been graded up for 'western' bodies... in fact it's rather on the generous side.


 But wait, there's more - and even some for kids!
Do you have any questions about our Japanese sewing books? Let us know in the comments section and we'd be happy to help.

- Jane & Fiona xx

Comments

  1. KarenSeptember 19, 2013 at 12:16 AM

    It looks like yours are all in English, is that right??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JaneSeptember 19, 2013 at 12:35 AM

      Hi Karen, yes all the ones we have so far are in English. We will probably put some up in the online shop soon - we are starting to keep a few more copies in stock.

      Delete

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