Japanese Sewing Books

Many of you know that I love sewing from Japanese patterns.  I've also got many Japanese books from Kinokuniya.  The stock would be more had I not discover that our local library carries many sewing books. The good news for those who understand mandarin is the books are mostly translated into Chinese.

Recently I was browsing some chinese sewing and craft books at my local Library and found out that they have many new books like this one from Cotton Friends. The book covers past issues patterns for Woman, children and even bags and hat! It comes with 2 pattern pieces which you will need to go to the customer service counter to request. You will need to use your library card to borrow the pattern pieces separately. Good thing that I'm a Passion Card member so I got to borrow 8 books, including AV : )

Some of the items in the book. I was so excited when I got the book and immediately traced out 3 projects from this book when I got home! Want to make a guess what I picked? The pattern comes in 4 sizes, S, M, L, LL with measurements given for the bust, waist and length of garments. Kids patterns also come in a few sizes.

The bag looks easy too and I think they will make a nice lunch bag.

The most laborious job is tracing patterns from the multi-layered pattern pieces. The pattern pieces are not easy to read as they have only 2 color codes for so many patterns and some of the pattern no. are not indicated along the sides so it was a bit confusing at first. I also missed some of the vital marking since the lines are crossed.

Experience tells me that you measure the pattern pieces to get the size you want than to depend on their written sizes since generally Japanese pattern are quite loose fitting. So, usually I go for the smaller size. This time I use S which is unbelievable but trust me..it still comes out a bit big for me, especially the top.  Most of the patterns in the book have 2 or 3 variations of the same pattern basic like this jacket comes in short, medium and long. So, you can just trace a few more pieces and lengthen it to make another different garment!

short cropped jacket

medium jacket with belt

I'll be sharing some projects from this book soon.  Although tracing was laborious, the sewing was fun. I've learn some cool techniques which I'll be sharing with the project.  The sewing is quite fast and usually, I took 2 nights to sew one project.

Sadly, the book will be due this week, so I will need to return it this Saturday. So if you are interested, you can dropped by the library to pick up the book : ) Remember to ask for the pattern pieces!