Tag: sewing

bags and purses, kidswear, menswear, womenswear
7 Comments

The week when my internet went down

Our modem had a problem last week, and since it was provided by our apartment developer, my husband called them to ask for a new one. I couldn’t believe when they said it would take almost a week to send a new modem! What would I do without internet for a week? Erm, okay, I had to calm down. So I went to the sewing room. 1. Family boxers I always wanted to sew boxers for my husband, and finally found the perfect pattern for it in a Japanese pattern book that I borrowed from a local library. It went […]

Read More
womenswear
18 Comments

Madras dress

I think I’m inspired by madras dresses that I’ve seen a lot lately. So when I found this madras 2 m cut fabric in Yuzawaya, I snatched it right away and carried on to make this dress. This dress is sort of my experiment of making clothes without pattern. I measured myself and drew straight on the fabric. The checks pattern really helped a lot for positioning. The top part stops above the bust, and the bottom part is just a pair of ruffled long rectangles. The sleeves are a pair of long rectangles, each folded in half and then […]

Read More
bags and purses, kidswear
13 Comments

Art bag

I finally finished Sidra’s art bag! Of course I could have bought an art bag with a set of drawing equipments inside it already, but that wouldn’t be fun. So I made the bag, and my husband picked a selection of drawing equipments to fill the bag. Well, that’s our idea of fun. Anyway, the pattern is based loosely on a tutorial found in a Japanese pattern book, but I make it wider, add more pockets, straps, and other details. The fabric is striped cotton/linen, green stripes for the outside and red stripes for the inside. I quilted the whole […]

Read More
womenswear
12 Comments

White dress

I was in the sewing room, about to finish Sidra’s art bag, when I saw this white Indian cotton lying around. I’ve used some of it to make a hat and it was still about 1 metre left. And suddenly I had the urge to make this white dress. The pattern is basically the same as this purple dress with hood , sans hood and sleeves. I put 4 buttons on the bust and added a pair of big pocket. The neckline and armholes are finished with ready-made double-gauze binding strips. Love this quick and easy project!

Read More
womenswear
15 Comments

Purple dress and white hat

Now I should be making something else, a bag for Sidra’s art equipments, but I’ve been to 2 local fabric stores and didn’t find any suitable fabrics. Those unsuccesful trips resulted in purchase of other not so necessarily things, like these purple and white cotton fabrics. I guess Sidra has to wait for his bag next week, Mama’s being selfish today. The purple dress is very simple, I used a basic bodice block to make the upper part. The lower parts are just 2 rectangles the width of the fabric, The front rectangle is cut in half for the opening. […]

Read More
kidswear
10 Comments

Linen jacket and pants

It’s getting warmer now and Sidra doesn’t need to wear thick jacket anymore. But I think he still needs a thin jacket because sometimes it’s quite windy around here. The fabrics are bought from a nearby store, they are linen, pre-cut to 50 cm. I need two pieces for the jacket, and one for the pants, with almost no leftover (love this!). The jacket uses the same pattern as this navy jacket , but I didn’t put any lining for this one; at the end, they look entirely different. What a big difference some linings make! The pants have no […]

Read More
kidswear
3 Comments

I’d rather sew

I feel like I haven’t sewed anything for months, then I looked at my blog and found out that my last project was only a little more than 2 weeks ago. But it is sure felt like a long time because I’ve been feeling so uncreative these last few days, and I really don’t like feeling that way. To coax myself back into making things, I tried to make this little recycle project. This T-shirt was bought for ￥100 in a secondhand shop, I rather like the seventies feeling of it. But it was a bit too tight on me […]

Read More
bags and purses, kidswear
6 Comments

Lunch set etc

Sidra will start having lunch at school next week, so I finished his lunch set yesterday and made some other things as well. The hand towels are actually one piece of long towel that was bought in 100 yen store. I cut it in two and finished the raw edges, then I sewed a rectangle of fabric and linen ribbon on the corner. The lunch set is consisted of a lunch bag, pouch for cup, and lunch mat. I ran out of linen ribbon for the string, so I tea-dyed some white cotton ribbon to achieve similar result. The school […]

Read More
bags and purses, kidswear, life
11 Comments

Collarless boy’s suit and bags for shogakko (elementary school)

Sidra is going to elementary school this month and there are tons of things to prepare. The school requires the student to have a lesson bag for their art and crafts stuffs, another bag for uwabaki (slippers to use at school), and yet another type of bag for lunch set. I’ve been planning to make all of them myself and also a suit for Sidra to wear at the opening ceremony. The fabrics had been bought since a month ago, but as usual when faced with a deadline, I usually got lazy and keep postponing things until the last minute. […]

Read More
kidswear
14 Comments

Dinosaur bag tags

Tomorrow is Sidra’s birthday and also his first birthday in Japan. The end of March to the beginning of April is school holiday in Japan, so he will always be celebrating his birthday at home. Fortunately, the moms from his kindergarten class are arranging a picnic tomorrow, I think it’s great because Sidra can spend his birthday with his friends. I’ve been planning to make something for Sidra’s friends, but as usual I got lazy and keep postponing until the last day. This morning I woke up thinking that I should just buy some cookies and candies for the kids. […]

Read More