verypurpleperson

kidswear, tutorials
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Tutorial: Side slant pocket

A reader commented on my post ‘Three meters of black linen’ , asking about how I made the side slant pockets for my son’s pants. So this is a tutorial on how I made them. You can also use this method for adult’s clothing by simply changing the dimensions. Making the pockets pattern Trace the front part of the pattern. Draw the slanted opening line of the pocket. Make sure that it is big enough for the hand of the wearer. My example here is for kid’s pants with separate waistband. If the pants has no separate  waistband (i.e: pyjama […]

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bags and purses
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Bag for Sensei

Since about three months ago, I’ve been seeing a chiropractor for my back pain, caused by scoliosis. In Japan, teacher, doctor, therapist are called ‘sensei‘, so that is what we called her. Her office is on the second floor of her house, not very far from our house. My husband, Sidra, and I usually come every Saturday, and Sensei would let Sidra play with her children while my husband stay with me to translate and converse with her. Sensei suggested to change my mattress and pillow with special ones for people with back problem. They were a bit harder than […]

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menswear
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Men’s cropped pants

This is the first time I made a pair of men’s pants! The fabric is delicious black linen that I bought in Swany, Kamakura. The width of the fabric is 145 cm, but there was only 1.1 m left, not enough for a full length pants. Fortunately, my husband is all into cropped pants now, he started to roll up his other pants, so here’s some real cropped pants for him! I use Jochen pattern from Burdastyle, a basic men’s slacks pattern which leaves a lot of room for altering. Since I’m always nervous when making clothes for other people, […]

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womenswear
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Dotty Leia dress

I finished the dress! The dress pattern is called Leia, and it is another pattern from Tamanegi Kobo, a Japanese pattern shop. The dress is pretty simple, but sewing the curved lines was quite challenging, so I guess this is not really a project for a beginner. Although the instruction is in Japanese, the diagrams are very clear and I learned some new things about sewing the curved yoke. My ultimate tool was fabric glue, as Yoshimi had used for her Leia dress. It was really fun sewing the curves. Instead of elastic on waist, I sewed several rows of […]

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womenswear
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What I did today

Sidra had some friends coming today. Since being in the same room with jumping and screaming little boys is not my idea of fun, I retreated to my sewing room upstairs and looked for things to do. These curves are so challenging and fun at the same time! Loving it so far! Both fabrics are nani IRO by Naomi Ito double-gauze in pocho dots pattern.

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life
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Surprise package!

The postman brought me a surprise package a couple of days ago, it’s from Kayo! The package contained many pretty things, one of them is Kayo’s handmade floral camisole for me! Now I have an original creation by Kayo, I’m so happy (^_^)v Kayo also put some pretty candies for Sidra (the butter candies are delicious! I stole it) and postcards for my husband. The postcards are illustrated by her husband, a talented illustrator, he and my husband met at the Yokohama market and they seemed to get along, both like comics, anime, and manga stuff. I don’t know what […]

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womenswear
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Novita dress

I made Novita again! But I didn’t want to make the  same thing and changed it into a dress by simply sewing a wide gathered strip of fabric on the hem. The strip of fabric follow the curved hem, so the front part of my dress is shorter than the back. The fabric is Indonesian cotton with batik prints, the intricate pattern is a variation of Javanese traditional pattern called Parang Rusak (it means: broken sword). This pattern is laid diagonally across the cloth but since my dress is cut on bias, the diagonal pattern turned into sort of striped […]

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womenswear
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Novita!

You might wonder why I would go around screaming my own name like that, but actually it is the name of the pattern that I use for my new top. The fabric is Kokka cotton that I bought in Swany, Kamakura, it was on sale and only 1.3 m left. The bias-cut top pattern is from Tamanegi Kobo, and yes, it has the same name as mine: Novita. Isn’t that awesome? Although that is the most awesome thing (for me!) about the pattern, it isn’t the only one. The pattern is sold as multi-size PDF pattern, just like Burdastyle pattern. […]

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womenswear
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Blue bloomers

I have just finished making shirts for my husband and son, but haven’t taken pictures of them being worn yet as I have to wait until this weekend. Anyway, just after I cut all the pieces for both shirts, I found that there are still little fabrics left, just enough for a pair of shorts for myself. I use Jane pattern from Burdastyle and lengthened the legs about 4 cm. The legs of the shorts are on fabric selvedges, so they didn’t have to be hemmed. Then I stitched two rows of elastic shirrings on both legs, turning the shorts […]

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making other stuff, tutorials
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Chou-chou

Not a very spectacular project, but this thing proves to be very useful in summer. I think it is also called scrunchie, but it is called chou-chou here and I like the name better. I found several tutorials for making chou-chou, but they always involve hand-stitching, which I’m too lazy to do for such a simple thing. Then I see another way of doing it, it is much easier, and more importantly: no hand-sewing! This project only took around 10 minutes to make, and it is also a good way to make use of all the fabric scraps. Here’s how […]

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