Tag Archives: Japanese sewing patterns

Stylish Dress Book – Sleeveless Dress A

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Time for more reports about sewing from Japanese pattern books. Today’s feature is a sleeveless dress pattern (A) from Stylish Dress Book.

Pattern A  is an A-line sleeveless dress. I made it first in black linen – since I’d had such success with the smock, I decided not to do a practice dress.

Sleeveless Dress A from Stylish Dress Book sewn in linen by Deborah CookeIt came out beautifully, although I found it a little tough to roll the narrow bias hem with the linen. The pattern calls for a lighter fabric and the weight made a difference on that narrow bias. If I used linen again, I’d cut the bias strip 1/4 wider.

I love how it looks. It’s a great layering piece.

Sleeveless Dress A from Stylish Dress Book sewn in linen by Deborah CookeHere’s the neat neckline. It’s a little detail that gives the dress the perfect interest, I think.

I made another one of these in a red cotton border print. This is a lot more flashy, but also a fun simple dress.

Sleeveless Dress A from Stylish Dress Book sewn in cotton by Deborah CookeThe stripe was on the selvedges, so I cut the dress crosswise to have the stripes at the hem. This meant that it took very little fabric to make the dress: I only had 2m of this because I bought the end, and it was just 42″ wide. I was excited to be able to get a dress out of it. I matched the position on the hem and let the height fall. You can see that there is more of the stripe on the opposite selvege at the shoulder on the front than on the back—that’s because the bodice darts make the front slightly longer than the back. That’s an excellent reason to match the borders at the hems rather than at the shoulders.

This cotton is a little bit stiff, although it may soften over time. The next one of these I make will be in a fabric with more drape, just to see the difference. I suspect that it works best in fabric that has more body, but we’ll see.

I needed to get organized with these patterns, too. Because you trace them out yourself, there’s no neat way to store them away when you’re done with each piece. I decided to mimic store-bought patterns and bought some envelopes as well as a pretty box at Michaels (they were on sale). The envelopes fit perfectly and there’s one for each pattern. The books also fit in the box.

Here’s where my patterns live now:
Deborah Cooke's pattern box

Stylish Dress Book – Smock E

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I told you a while back about my fascination with Japanese sewing pattern books. Well, I’ve been drafting and sewing – not as quickly as I’d like, but still there are new dresses. I thought I’d finally show you some of them today.

First up is a smock pattern from Stylish Dress Book. I think this book is my favorite of all the pattern books I’ve bought. The smock is on the cover and is pattern E. I don’t wear smocks much, though, or tights, so I lengthened it into a dress.

I made a test version in cotton.

This floral print was in my stash. I bought it for $1 a meter because it’s a nice weight of cotton. It’s not really my style, though, so it’s been waiting. For this dress, I used a Kaffe Fassett stripe as contrast to keep it from being too sweet.

Smock E from Stylish Dress Book sew in cotton by Deborah CookeThis turned out to be one of those comfy summer dresses to wear on a hot day. I wore it a lot last summer and will probably make another for next summer. The cotton lace insert proved to be a bad choice because the lace wasn’t prewashed – it shrank in the wash and now there’s a bit of gathering wherever there’s lace. It’s quite full. I’d take some of the width out of the back if I made it in cotton again.

Next, I tried the same pattern in a turquoise and black rayon print. This version also came out really well, and because of the fabric, it hangs very differently. I’ve already worn this one a lot. It has a better drape and flow, but is a little bit sheer. It’s a good cover over a bathing suit, or a layering piece.

What’s funny about this fabric is that the turquoise photographs as a medium blue. The fabric also came in this color combination, but I didn’t like it as much. This one is actually a vivid turquoise.

I thought it would be good if this dress had tie backs at the waist, in case I didn’t want it to be so wide and floaty. So, I cut a second rayon print version, in black and cream. I want this one to be sleeveless, so I didn’t cut out sleeves and I deepened the armhole slightly. I also added tiebacks to it.

Next up, I’m planning to cut another sleeveless one in corduroy to wear as a jumper. I’ll cut it shorter than the rayon ones so it falls just below the knee.

Have you been doing any sewing lately? Have you sewn with Japanese patterns? Tell me about your latest crafting adventures!

Japanese Sewing Patterns

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Simple Modern SewingIt’s Fiber Friday and time to talk about textiles and colour—and the wonderful stress-busters that they are. I’ve embarked on a new adventure that I wanted to share. I’d heard a fair bit about Japanese sewing patterns and earlier this month, I decided to try some. Part of the impetus was that I nearly finished a garment from a US pattern company, tried it on, and discovered that the fit was weird. The scoop neckline has ripples on the back shoulder, not because my shoulders are weird but because the curve of the pattern piece is wrong. It’s even ripply on Nelly, my dressmaker’s dummy, whose shoulders are perfect. As this dress has a ton of tiny pleats that took forever to sew, I was a bit annoyed.

Time for a change in my approach! I ordered three books from Amazon: Simple Modern Sewing, Basic Black, and Feminine Wardrobe.

These pattern books come with sheets of patterns in the back, much like Burda magazine. You have to locate the pieces for the garment you want to make and trace them out in your size, then add seam allowances. We have a tempered glass coffee table so I cleared it off and set a desk lamp underneath it to trace the patterns. The sizes tend to be smaller—the largest size in Simple Modern Sewing is L for a 37″ bust—but when you have all the sizes shown together, it’s easy to extrapolate to the next larger one. I missed that the patterns are also for shorter people—until I made my test garment. I’m 5’5″ so am usually on the short end for American commercial patterns, but the back waist length was only 15.5″ in SMS instead of 16.25″. I wouldn’t have bothered adding it to a waistless garment, but my first test was the wrap top on the cover of SMS, and it looks best with those ties on the waistline.

What I like about these patterns is that the books show lots of variations. So, that wrap tunic on the cover also has the option of 3/4 sleeves, and is shown in a dress length, too. Once you have the basic pattern fitted, you can have some fun.

I had some bright sheeting in my stash that I bought in a $1/m sale just for making muslins, and cut into it for a test garment. I had to drop the darts, but the fixes were very easy. These designs have simple lines—in fact, I probably chose one of the only ones that I’d actually need to modify. (But I like that long linen wrap dress sooooo much.) Several bodices later, I have a very ugly test garment—it’s too orange to show you!—but it fits. Ha. Now the fun begins.

I’ll do the finishing on the test garment and probably just wear it around the house—sometimes we need a garment that can risk being ruined with some job or other! Then I’m going to cut a real top out of some really interesting cotton with a border pattern. It looks like this:brown print cotton in Deborah Cooke's stash

And here’s a detail shot:brown print cotton in Deborah Cooke's stashI’m not sure how I’ll be able to place the border pattern on the blouse, but I know it will look great.

Next up, I’m going to try the dress option with one of the linen fabrics in my stash.

Have you embarked on any craftsy adventures lately?