Stylish Dress Book
ISBN 9784579111855
I’m not sure how, but I noticed yesterday that I never did a post about the mother of all Japanese Dress Books – Stylish Dress Book. It is probably a bit redundant at this point, as most of you have the book, know each page by heart and have seen quite a few of these patterns posted here and elsewhere. Nonetheless, I feel my little dress book resource would be incomplete without this.
To date, I have made seven of the patterns in the book myself. I have helped other people make most of the others in the class I teach. Where some of the books I have contain just a couple standout patterns, this book has a great variety of styles that are very appealing. I can still pull this dog-eared book out and pore over every page with great interest.
I really like the layout of the Stylish Dress Book series. The technical drawings and instruction pages are well laid out and very clear. The pattern sheets are printed in one colour, which can be very overwhelming to look at. I have seen books that do multicolour printing for the pattern pages and it makes extracting the pattern a bit easier, especially when you’re first starting out. This is a small detail that would not deter me from buying this book, but I just mention it as a note of comparison.
Looking through the book, I see that I still have not made dress ‘S’. I need to pick a fabric and get on it. I’m deciding between this, this, this or a lovely plain indigo black cotton/inox (steel) blend. Thoughts?
I really wanted to try a project out with Anna Maria Horner’s new cotton voile. When you feel it, you can hardly believe how silky smooth it is. Voile is a very lightweight fabric that is slightly sheer and has great drape. I had never sewn with it before, so I was unsure of how tricky it would be to handle.
I chose to use a tried and loved pattern from Stylish Dress Book. Style “B”, is a favourite. I’ve seen it made up in various different fabrics and on different people and the result is always really cute.
I’d like to make a note here about drafting out this pattern, that I didn’t mention in the post about my first style “B” top in nani IRO. When tracing out the pattern pieces for the sleeve you’ll notice that the two sleeve pieces (top of the sleeve & gathered bottom of the sleeve) are printed beside each other on the pattern sheet. When you trace the bottom of the sleeve, you may notice that it is the same width as the top of the sleeve. In order to create the gathering and fullness in the bottom sleeve piece, you need to split that pattern piece down the centre and spread it apart by 10cm. This is something that you can easily miss, because the only notation for this is found on the huge pattern sheet and is well, in Japanese.
Sewing with the voile was no problem. Even making bias trim was easy to manage. For any pattern that has a ‘flowy’ style, this fabric would look amazing the way it falls and drapes. This is why it is a great fabric to use for many of the Japanese Dress Book patterns, as it can make that extra fullness of some of the styles look more elegant. For sure, the best part is how it feels. Wearing this fabric will just put you in a blissful mood.
This particular print is called, ‘Colouring Garden‘ and the colour is ‘Berry’. I really appreciate how Anna Maria Horner has taken prints from her ‘Good Folks’ collection and recoloured and reprinted them in flannel and now voile. It’s exciting to have new fabrications to choose from.
p.s. I just ordered a copy of Stylish Dress Book 3!!! from Pomadour on etsy. Thank you Marilou for the special alert!
nani IRO – Colourful Fabric Dress Book
ISBN 9784579111831
Naomi Ito is the designer behind the inspirational nani IRO fabrics line. Her fabric designs are like paintings that flow across the bolt, often in beautiful double gauze cotton or linen blends. This book not only showcases all her fabric from 2008 but many of her simple designs and patterns. Everything about this book is inspirational.
I’ve had this book for ages and can’t believe that I haven’t made anything from it yet. The cover image is probably the most popular pattern in the book. The dress is very simple, very Japanese and I’ve seen several lovely versions of it made. I’m officially putting it on my Crafty List of Things to Do. There are lots of different types of projects to try including mother/daughter clothing patterns (so cute!), bags, coin purses and a simple apron.
I’m hoping you will pitch in with your comments and thoughts about these books and patterns as I post them to the Japanese Dress Books section. If you own any of these books or have had luck or even difficulty with some of the projects, it would be great to hear from you!
I’m so glad you like the new section on the blog! I’m excited to fill it up with lots of Japanese dress books and creations.
I’ve been holding on to this metallic linen for ages. It’s from our trip to New York last year. Sometimes I tend to spend a lot of time waiting for things to be absolutely perfect before making a decision. That sure makes for some slow crafting.
This special fabric needed a super simple pattern that would allow it to shine. It finally dawned on me that Dress “B’ was just that. It was one of the patterns in the book that I’ve overlooked a hundred times because it was so plain.
This t-shirt style tunic called for a bit of trim, which I picked out at Mokuba. The wide linen-coloured eyelet trim has a nice soft contrast to the shiny blue. I chose to simply trim the sleeves and hem, but not the neck. I really love the neckline on this dress, it is so wide and open.
The dress was very easy to sew. You’ll notice that my version is much shorter than the book’s and I did not make the slip that they show with it. As is usually the case, there is no zipper or closure of any kind. The neckline does have a facing, which I understitched to give it a clean finish. I also trimmed a bit off the sides to give it a slimmer silhouette.
I like this dress a lot. I made it for my birthday this year, nothing like a little sparkly linen to celebrate a special occasion. I would definitely like to make this pattern again in another variation, perhaps a nice wool for winter?
It occurred to me the other day how popular Japanese Dress Books are becoming. I’m not really surprised, the aesthetic is so simple and there aren’t really any other patterns on the market that are like them. Now that I’m also teaching a class about them at the workroom, I thought it was time to organize all my posts on the subject into one section. In addition to cataloging my growing collection of books, I hope it will be a fun resource for you when you’re deciding which books to buy for yourself and which projects you might want to try.
To start, I’ve gone through my collection and listed all the titles I have with their ISBN’s and cover images. Anything that has already been posted about has a link, along with a list of all the projects I’ve made so far. (Stylish Dress Book 1 & 2 are far in the lead with most projects made) I’ll be posting about each of the different books that I’ve got on a more regular basis. Plus, surely I’ll have to buy even more books to show you. Yeah!
Cool Couture Remake Dresses
ISBN 9784579112289
purchased from Pomadour’s Craft Cafe
So, I actually ordered two books with my last etsy order and this is the second one. ‘If you’re ordering one, you might as well get two’ is my motto for Japanese Dress Books.
I particularly like the dramatic black and white photography and styling for the first section of the book. It is quite a contrast to the younger girl posing with a cinnamon bun on her shoulder in the second section which is actually standard styling for these books.
I was really excited when I discovered this book which focuses on transforming sweatshirts, tshirts, men’s shirts and neckties into new garments and accessories. I love to cut up and remix old clothes or thrift store finds, so it’s great to get some fresh ideas. I usually just deconstruct one item, while this book shows how to use parts of one to four garments to create some cool looking clothing. I need to do a bit more studying to figure out which one to try first – Tunic from Twin Tshirts (girl with hand on hip and stuffed bee in her hand) is a definite forerunner.
Happy Homemade Vol. 3
ISBN 9784579112470
purchased from Pomadour’s Craft Cafe
I went to Quilt Market in Houston, Texas over the weekend. It was both fun and exhausting looking at fabric and quilts for two days straight. I have lots to tell, but I haven’t even downloaded the photos off my camera yet. Soon.
In the meantime, I wanted to share my latest etsy purchase. I didn’t realize there were more volumes in the Happy Homemade series until Marilou brought her copy to the Japanese Dress Book class at the workroom. Of course, I had to have it for my collection. They’ve broken the book down into sections, showing variations on a basic style for each one. More and more, I’m wanting to customize parts of these patterns, so this layout is very helpful for mix and matching different pieces. ‘C-1′ basic is my favourite.
p.s. Today is the workroom’s two year anniversary! Hooray! It’s also my birthday, my parents’ anniversary and Liz, Ashley & Esther’s birthday!
After posting about my shibori dress, I’ve been hesitant to post my next projects. I mean, it’s going to be hard to top that. BTW – Thank you for your super enthusiastic comments about the dress, I’m glad you like it too!
Yesterday, I got yet another Japanese dress book in the mail. I can never take a peek at Pomadour’s etsy shop without buying myself a book or two. Some people might call this an addiction.
The title of this book is Happy Homemade Vol. 1. I was especially hooked when I saw that there was a pattern for a cardigan. I don’t knit, so making my own cardigan sounds pretty exciting.
Since we also just got in the new nani IRO collection, I think you’ll be seeing one of these cute tops sewn up very soon.
p.s. A couple weeks ago was my one year blogiversary. I haven’t done anything to celebrate, but I’m going to add a few new ‘features’ to the blog very soon. Thank you for hanging around with me this year!
Today is Trunk Show day!
I kept telling myself that I would ‘wait’ before ordering the second Stylish Dress Book, but then it just seemed silly to keep waiting and deny myself valuable time to ogle the pages of yet another Japanese dress book. Even if I haven’t had time to make anything out of it yet, I have enjoyed some good old fashioned day dreaming about which ones I will be making in the very near future.
Right now, ‘S’, is the front runner.
Stylish Dress Book #2
ISBN 978-4-579-11226-5
Bought from Pomadour24’s Craft Cafe on etsy
Dress 9
Stylish Dress Book – Dress ‘F’
Fabric – Kaffe Fassett Red Lotus
The Stylish Dress Book is definitely my favourite Japanese dress pattern book so far. Almost all of the dresses in this book are super sweet looking – all in that Japanese smock aesthetic that I’m not totally convinced translates into the real world. I’m game to try it out though and so far I like it. The cool thing is that these dresses never have zippers and the construction is super simple. If you want to browse or buy Japanese craft books, then I highly recommend Megumi’s etsy shop – Pomadour24’s Craft Cafe. Her prices are great, the shipping is fast and she will track down any book for you that you’re looking for.
I started working on this dress a few months ago. Most of these books come with a sheet or two at the back where all the patterns (sometimes 20 or more) are printed over top of each other. It definitely takes a keen eye to locate your pattern pieces, but usually they are numbered or lettered. What’s interesting is that you begin to realize the all the dresses are based on just four main templates with slight variations in sleeves, necklines, and silhouettes. I traced out my chosen pattern and headed on to cutting out fabric, serging and sewing it all together. Everything was going swimmingly until I attached the sleeves. Suddenly the dress didn’t fit in the shoulders and the sleeves didn’t have the proper fullness and ease I would expect. I thought that I had chosen a size too small. I figured I would try to re-draft a new sleeve pattern to compensate and perhaps add some fabric to the shoulders.
The project was put aside until I read this posting on The Purl Bee about Japanese patterns. Guess what? Most Japanese dress patterns don’t include seam allowance! If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that this is not my first seam allowance debacle. Once I read that, I knew exactly what went wrong with this dress. I re-examined the fit and tried to figure out if there was a was to fix the problem. I was heartbroken once again, but decided to abandon the sleeves. I got out my trusty bias tape maker and made some bias tape to finish the armholes and called it a day on dress 9.
I think I’ll try this pattern again one day because the sleeves are so incredibly cute. It actually is the perfect shift dress and that Lotus print is happy-making. All’s well that ends well.
I promise, no more accidental sleeveless dresses.
There’s a great on-going series at Label-Free on Japanese Craft Books. There are even translations of some of the common symbols that is very helpful. Thanks Anabela for the tip.
The Golden Yard has started a worldwide google map of fabric stores. It’s a collaborative project and anyone can add their favourite fabric stores to the map. It’s a great resource for when you’re traveling to new cities. {via True Up}
