Today I am over at You & Mie for her series on Japanese Sewing Books. The series walks you through all the steps you need to know  from Japanese pattern books. They can be a bit intimidating, but they also can be a lot of fun. My post is all about finding your pattern and tracing it. Sounds easy, but there are some tricks you need to know. Hop on over to Cherie’s lovely blog for my post, and all the guest posts this week!

In honor of Japanese Sewing Books week, I sewed up this sundress from my favorite Japanese sewing book, Happy Homemade Vol. 2. Well, to be honest, I dug up this dress that I sewed most of last spring, then hemmed it and added buttons (in honor of Japanese Sewing Books week). Why I sew 90% of something and then abandon it is beyond me.

But anyway, it’s done and (still) fits! I’m going to do a form style report on this one, because 3 days into spring break and the children have run me ragged already. My brain is not functioning at full capcity.

the fabric: oh, the fabric is lovely. It is 100% cotton shirting I got from the good fabric store in my neighborhood. They have a lot of beautiful fabrics, but mostly in ugly prints. This tiny blue stripe was perfect, though. It’s a good weight too, just right for when (if?) summer comes. I went with polka dot buttons because it’s stripes + polka dots up in here, all the time.

the pattern: the pattern is from Happy Homemade Vol. 2. I sew from this book a lot; I talk about it a lot too.  I think it’s a great 1st Japanese sewing book. I’d love to do some sort of sew-along thing-a-bob with the patterns in the book. Anyone up for it? Maybe after KCW? Anyway, the pattern. The pattern was pretty simple, because, well the dress is pretty simple. I do remember the armholes being super fussy and weird.

the sewing: There was a little swearing, but there alway is, isn’t there? The fabric was dreamy. The striped bias tape turned out really nice, as did the bias cut bodice piece. I’d say not bad for a dress half done, abandoned, and (because it’s almost Easter, I’m just going to go for it and say…) resurrected. Ha!

My daughter has never been much of a girly girl. There was a brief princess phase, but for the most part all the frilly and fussy girl things are of no interest to her.  Not that she is all for boy things, either. She just wants to like what she likes and not be told what that should be. A while back she said, totally exasperated, “Arg! why does my toothbrush have to be pink?!”

Exactly.  So what is the awesome dress that isn’t too girly, but still has a tiny bit of twirl? The Skater Dress pattern by Kitchy Coo.

Amanda has hit the nail on the head with this pattern. Even the name is perfect. The skater dress is comfy and stylish, just right for puddle jumping in the spring, throwing on over your suit in the summer, and of course going to the skate park.  She designed it to fit for a few years! And this dress will indeed fit my daughter through the fall–a lifetime in kid years.

The original pattern is a crew neck, but I couldn’t imagine it without a hood. Luckily for me, Rae recently posted a hoodie tutorial that was a perfect match for this dress. I made the placket a little shorter so I wouldn’t have to add buttons or snaps. She does have to wear something under it, but I expected that.

The fabric is from Joann’s if you can believe it. I couldn’t. It is a lovely knit: not to light, not to heavy, and so soft. The best bit is that one side is stripes, the other polka dots! The color could be less Primary! Blue! but I’ll take it.

The pattern is well written and Amanda guides you through the trickier parts of sewing with knits. She convinced me that I should use stretch needles when sewing with knits. And she introduced me to the stretch stitches on my machine, which I’m now in love with. Amanda also tried to get me to use a double needle for the hem. I did buy one, but then wimped out when it came time to using it. My hem is of course wavy and now I regret not listening to her.

The moral of this story is, listen to Amanda and buy her awesome pattern! Be sure to follow along with the Skater Dress blog tour to see everyone’s variation of this fantastic dress. See you at the skate park!

1. envelope shirt 2. fox skirt 3. spring stripes 4. grey merino hoodie

Here it is, the last day of kids clothes week! Did you get frustrated and yell at your machine? Did you make some awesome clothes anyway? Did you think of a bunch of new things you want to make? Do you still have a bunch of things cut out and waiting for you on your ironing board? Or am I the only one answering yes to all these questions? I hope you had a good time this fall (or spring, for you southern hemisphere-ers). I will be back this week with a big kcwc wrap up. I leave you with some simple pajamas and my kids being ridiculous.

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the pattern: the same one from Happy Homemade vol 2 that I always use. It’s pretty much been that pattern and the flashback tee all week! Shesh, maybe I need to branch out a bit.

the fabric: this beautiful bunny and moon fabric I fell in love with when I saw it here.

the sewing: Can you tell the bunnies are upside down on the pajamas on the right? Argh!! Oh well, he doesn’t mind in the least. I do have blue knit shirts cut out to go with these, but my serger and I had a little falling out and we’re not talking to each other.

Happy kcwc!

1. shoulder patch shirt 2. mustard and grey 3. charlie shirt 4. half kindje

I woke up to a gray and rainy weekend–the perfect weekend to cozy up in front of the sewing machine! I hope it’s crummy weather where you are too :)

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the pattern: Sunki dress by Figgy’s patterns.

the fabric: pinwale corduroy in aqua and leftover purple fabric from these pants.

the sewing: The sewing was challenging. I mean look at the dress! The pockets are definitely the coolest part of the design and they are also the hardest to figure out. Luckily, others have made them and written about it already. Laura from Charm Stitch has a particularly helpful blog post about putting the pockets together (thank you Laura! you saved me!).  Once I made the pockets correctly I felt like a sewing genius, so everything else came together without much swearing. The arms are pleated and fussy–and mine aren’t perfect. The zipper was surprisingly simple. You put it in the same way you put in a zipper on a pillow, which seems somehow wrong, but it’s done and functional so you don’t hear me complaining.  The dress is a little short, but it still works for scrambles in the woods.

1. kcwc day3  2. a butterick dress experiment 3. flashback skinny tee 4. kcwc4

The flickr pool is bursting with beautiful hand sewn clothes!  How is your sewing going? Humming along? Or did you hit a snag? Are you ready to throw those pants (top, skirt, sewing machine) across the room?

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This tunic has been on my to do list for years…years! How is it that my sewing list is that long? Probably because things like ridiculously flowery leggings jump in line to get sewn first.

the leggings

the pattern: drafted a pattern off some good fitting leggings

the fabric: a maxi skirt I bought on sale at Target

the sewing: wham bam!

the tunic

the pattern: I bought this pattern at a thrift store when my daughter was still a toddler. Granted I barely knew how to read a pattern, much less resize one, but the topstitching and the little square pocket were too perfect (and it was 10 cents). Over the years the pattern has come out and written down as next on the list, but it always found its way back into the drawer. Now that my daughter is a size 6, I figured I better sew this sucker up once and for all.

the fabric: some really lovely wool blend that I was saving for a skirt for myself…for two years. There is still enough left for a skirt (I think), but now the fabric isn’t giving me the evil eye.

the sewing: The sewing went pretty well. It is a very basic pattern, but basic in 1975 is pretty advanced these days. I simlified the way they wanted me to put in the zipper–it doesn’t look perfect, but I didn’t rip it out ten times either. The direction for the pocket were in some alien language, so I totally winged it and it worked out just fine.  I’ll be honest, I’m pretty crazy for how this whole outfit turned out!