Japanese Fabric Sewing

When we were in Japan in April, I not only got to buy some cool kimono related things, but also visit the famous Fabric Town in Nippori. My Mum has told me that on one of her shopping trips in this area she came away with 12 kilos of fabric, and while I was much more restrained, I did come away with some very nice pieces to make things with. 

This is the first thing I made, actually back in May. The fabric is a beautiful 100% cotton with such a delightful frog and lillypad print that I couldn't let it go. As soon as I got it I knew I would make another Cypress Dress with it. 

I had enough material for sleeves and pockets, but not enough buttons for everything in one colour, so I did blue and red alternating, rather than going to buy more. 

It's incredibly hard to photograph oneself in a dress, but I absolutely love this one. 
 

Jocelyn Proust Dress

In continuation of catching up on things I sewed over the Christmas holidays (seen this dress?) last year, here is something else. I think I picked up the fabric when I went with Rachel to get her yellow Pikachu fabric. It was 40% off and since there was only 1.8m on the roll, I got the .8m at a remnant price of $2/m, which makes for a very inexpensive dress. 

I had been wanting to make another Cypress Dress, since the first one, though wearable, wasn't quite perfect. I started this before Christmas and finished it soon after New Years. I had just enough fabric to get pockets and sleeves with cuffs (I was actually going to forgo the cuffs, but found the one strip of fabric left after I cut all the other parts was exactly what I needed. Win!) Kind of can't believe that I got it all out of just 1.8m! 

I adjusted the pockets to make them a bit more stable and easy to use. For the first time in maybe 15 years, Sally decided to start doing button holes correctly. I nearly fell off the chair when I saw it happen on my practice button hole. Unbelievable. 

I was going to just run the cuff seams through the overlocker, but noticed I had just enough of this satin bias binding in my stash (again, the perfect amount), so I used it up and man does it make this dress feel like it's professional. Also ended up using some bias tape from the stash to do the hem. Mum had these buttons on hand which again felt very thrifty to be using up. 

Such a pretty dress being modelled here on my new dress form. Can't wait to wear it soon!

Catching Up

There was a little lull in life back in September where there were finally no more lockdowns and I had some breathing space to sew. So sew I did. 

Firstly, all the things that Sophie had brought home from school for me to fix. Insert eye roll here. I mean, I'm a little chuffed that Sophie things that I can fix anything, but I also don't love to just be fixing things. The girls' school has heaps of stuffed things that the kids use in class - sometimes they are weighted to help the kids with sensory needs to sit and focus, other times they are just soft toys for squishing, or pillows for reading on. The Japanese teacher also has a giant Pikachu that she uses as a class reward. 

Whenever Sophie notices that one of these has a hole, her hand is up and she's offering to take it home for me to fix it. 

This Happy Cat is glad I have fixed him. 

When I wasn't fixing these school-related stuffed items, I was digging through my sewing stash looking for fabric to use. I found a bunch of free patterns online from Mood Fabrics, and thought I could give sewing up the Cypress Dress a go. Mum had given me some green Japanese looking fabric which I didn't see myself using for anything else, so I figured why not. 

I had actually already used a section of this fabric to try to make a retro style blouse, which turned out to be a failure for me. I guess I don't often share my sewing mistakes, but this was one. Not that the sewing was bad. 

Actually the sewing was some of the most professional sewing I had done, but it just didn't look good at all when I put it on. I ended up giving it away to a girlfriend who might get some more wear out of it. 

And I went on to use the rest of the fabric in the Cypress Dress. 

Which I was much happier with than the retro top. There are some things that I would adjust next time, but otherwise, it's a workable dress. I actually had three perfect buttons in the stash, so I just sewed up the bottom part of the dress, rather than going out to buy more buttons, and just have buttons on the top part. 

Because I used some of the fabric to make the failed retro top, I didn't have enough left for both pockets and sleeves. Pockets obviously won. Maybe the next Cypress Dress I make will have sleeves, but given that we live in Australia, this dress being sleeveless is not really a problem at all. 

I had just enough scrap fabric to make a matching mask, so when I wore it to a wedding in August, I was super fashionable in all the COVID ways.