DIY FashionJapanese Sewing Patterns

Japanese Pattern Book Smock Dress and New Shoes

Smock dress – handmade
Tights – Voodoo
Shoes – Marc by Marc Jacobs

This adorable smock dress with frills, frills and more frills is Pattern K of Stylish Dress Book 2.  I was inspired by Karen Walker’s girly preppy style to make the dress in this navy, subtly textured crepe fabric. I lined the body of the dress with a dark blue, light knit because the navy fabric is fairly thin.  This resulted in my dress sticking outwards and puffy compared to the picture in the book.

The pattern is really easy to make, as long as you have mastered the art of gathering!  For a great tip on getting gathering right, check out Flossie Teacake’s gathering tip.  The most difficult part was attaching the sleeves, while trying to make sure that the ruffles on the arm lined up with the ruffles across the chest.  I have shortened the hem by a good 10cm because I think smock dresses look like moo moos if it covers my knees.

Free download to how to sew Japanese sewing patterns

 

Oh and on a side note – new shoes!  Patent leather mary-janes by Marc by Marc Jacobs.  I bought them from Zappos.  With the Australian dollar so strong, I’ve been doing a fair bit of shoe shopping from US based websites.  Stay tuned to see more fancy shoes I’ve splurged on as the packages arrive!

Buy at Amazon

DIY FashionJapanese Sewing Patterns

Top 5 NEW Japanese Sewing Pattern Books

I am going on a holiday back to Japan in September, so I have been doing some research into which sewing pattern books to add to my holiday shopping list.  The five listed here are all new releases this year on my Top 5 list.  I’m sooo excited!  Do you already own one of these books?  Or have plans to get one?

You can actually view a few pages from each book at Amazon.  If you’d like to purchase online, please refer to my tips on buying from Amazon Japan.

LifestyleRin's Life

How to buy from Amazon Japan

I’ve had a few emails on the topic of how to buy books from Amazon Japan, so here is a quick how-to:

Displaying Amazon Japan in English

First thing to do is to look on the upper right corner of the screen and click “Click here to seen in English”.

Adding items to your shopping cart and checking out

I sometimes find that the websites converts back to Japanese again when you click to go to the checkout.  Just click on the “Click here to seen in English” link again to fix this.

Check international shipping rates

Amazon Japan offers international express shipping.  There is a per parcel shipping charge, so it is better to consolidate as many items as you can into one order.  There is also a per item handling fee.
Information regarding shipping and handling rates from Amazon Japan can be found at this link.

DIY FashionTutorial

Vintage mini leather skirt

At the beginning of winter, I decided that I really really wanted a leather skirt.  I was also adamant that I didn’t want to pay $200+ for it, as seen in fashion magazines.  So you can imagine my delight when I found this high-waisted brown leather skirt for a cool $65.  Vintage of course.

I found this skirt at an awesome vintage clothing store I encountered during my trip to Melbourne earlier this year.  I know everyone agrees, that Melbourne definitely has much more going on then Sydney when it comes to shopping.  The store is called Retrostar, and I highly recommend that you check it out next time you are in town.  Retrostar is a large store that stocks funky vintage wear for both guys and girls.  Dave bought a blue retro zip-up parker there – we had so much fun trying on cool clothes.

I was very lucky to find a skirt that fit me perfectly around the waist.  As usual though, length was another matter – I needed to shorten the skirt by at least 6cm.  Even though I pride myself on DIY, I was not keen on messing with leather.  There was also the lining which would have to be cut and refinished.  The quotes I received from professional tailors for this job ranged from $60-$80.  Seriously.

There was no way I could justify that much spend on a $65 skirt, so I took a deep breath and got scissor happy.  I used an iron-on hemming product called “Hem Web” to fuse the folded leather hem, being extra careful not to overheat the iron.  I then used the overlocker/serger to finish off the trimmed polyester lining to imitate the original stitchings.  The most difficult part was finishing off the split at the back, but so far, I’m pretty pleased with my first encounter with leather.

Have you made anything with leather?  Can you suggest a good beginner’s project with leather?

DIY FashionTutorial

Easy Refashion: Secretary Chic Vintage Dress – ビンテージ　ワンピース

Do you ever “rediscover” things in your wardrobe? This often happens when I do the seasonal clothes overhaul. This vintage red dress is just that – I bought it last year and it was one of my favourite vintage shopping finds of 2010.  I’ve only managed to wear it once so far, for a dinner party we hosted at home.  That’s because the dress was an awkward length that cut at my calves, giving me stumpy legs. The sleeves were also an odd 7/8 length, which made me look like a child that had grown out of my clothes. These things are very simple to fix, but the dress went into my “To Fix” pile and then never made it out. That’s until winter came around again and here we are, I have hemmed the dress 8cm shorter, and made a fold up cuff to modernise the sleeves. I used the same method as my how to cuff pants tutorial to do this.

The high neck, the pussy bow and the cinched in waist; it’s very secretary chic isn’t it?  Now I’m really glad I rediscovered this dress!

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