This nani IRO double gauze fabric was one of those bolts that arrived at the shop one morning and by the time the shop closed that night, it was all gone. I’ve ordered more, of course. These huge polka dots are just too cute!
I envisioned a dress made from this fabric with a little gathered sleeve, so I went back and pulled out my pattern for Dress ‘W’ from Stylish Dress book 3. Instead of cutting out a yoke, I just put the two front pattern pieces together and cut a single front bodice piece. The rest of the dress is pretty simple. For the pockets, I used a lovely tiny stars prints. I think it goes perfectly.
One detail that I’m really happy with is that if you look at the sleeves, the polka dot colours match on each side. Love!
This is the first dress that I’ve made of the double gauze, I’ve mostly made tops. The one thing I’ve noticed is that with the fabric being so soft, if I have anything heavy in my pocket (ie. my iPhone) then the side seams pulls down a bit. Nothing major, just something I’ll keep in mind for the future.
I had cut two metres of this fabric and after making the dress, there was a little bit left. I didn’t want any of it to go unused, so I was able to make something else with the leftovers. I’ll share that project with you tomorrow!
I wore this new top to the Yard Sale Trunk Show for the first time. A few of you have already spotted me in photos and asked if the top was from Stylish Dress Book 3. Wow, you guys are REALLY good! I’m so impressed.
I wanted to make this one for a few reasons. Firstly, it wasn’t a dress. I need more tops in my wardrobe! I also liked the shoulder ruffles. I decided to use this pretty French General fabric. The ruffles feel a bit like wings, but I think they’ll soften up as I wash the fabric more. I think they would drape much nicer and softly with a cotton voile or tana lawn cotton. I used the rolled hem foot to create perfect tiny hems on edge of the ruffles. I’ve been using this foot more and more and really love it.
This is a fairly simple pattern – bias tape up and around the neckline and along the armholes with some gathering along the waist. I love the billowy look and the long side ties. I’m thinking about putting a little hook and eye at the neck to hold the top together. Otherwise, I need to make myself some cute tank tops to layer underneath.
p.s. Have you heard of New Dress a Day? Marisa is impressively remaking 365 thrifted dresses on a budget of $365. Wow!
The one textile that I picked up when we went to Brimfield a few weeks ago was a vintage swatch of navy lace. I specifically was looking for something to go with this navy Anna Maria Horner ‘Good Folks‘ fabric for the yoke of a dress. When I found this swatch, I couldn’t believe how perfect it was. I have never seen a ‘plaid’-looking lace like this, but it certainly echoes the diamond pattern of the fabric. This particular vendor had lots of lovely lace swatches, but they were a bit pricey and so I decided to just get this one.
The pattern is the first that I’ve made from Stylish Dress Book 3. It is a slight variation on Dress ‘W’. Rather than create a separate skirt, I simply extended the bodice to make a short shift. I’ve been wanting to try doing a lace yoke on a dress for a while, I was a bit worried about sewing it and whether it would hold properly since the holes are rather large in between the lacey bits. I serged all the edges of the lace when I serged the rest of the pieces for the dress. I thought this would help to give it a bit more stability. The sewing was easier than I thought it would be. I was extra careful when attaching the bias tape around the neck since you can see through the lace to the underside of the bias tape. I think it turned out really well. I really like the little gathered sleeves on this pattern.
My special pocket detail this time used the fuschia Heather Ross mermaid fabric. Surprisingly, I haven’t used any of this fabric before and now I’m a bit sad that I didn’t have the foresight to stash a bit more of it away for myself. Oh well. I did just order the ENTIRE new Heather Ross Far Far Away 2 collection for the shop and I won’t make that mistake again.
Navy is where it’s at right now. I have another navy dress that I’m trying to finish off. (that’s 3 navy dresses in a row!) It has a super cute detail that I’m excited to show you!
April 15, 2010 of 365 : rosalyn wearing stylish dress book ’s’
This was the very first photo I took with my new camera! Rosalyn took the Japanese Dress Book class and this is one of the cute dresses she has made.
Stylish Dress Book 3
ISBN 9784579112852
I’m just back from a lovely long weekend in New York City with Andrew. It was like summer there, which was such a wonderful surprise. I have not even had a chance to download the photos from my trip. As soon as I do, I’ll be sharing them with with you.
In the meantime, I wanted to post photos of one of the most recent books I received. They have come out with volume 3 in the Stylish Dress Book series. I haven’t had a chance to fully examine every detail, but top ‘Y’ will be my first project for sure.
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!
I’d been planning to remake Dress ‘V’, from Stylish Dress Book 2 as a shorter tunic for some time. My first version was my shibori dress, which is a very summer-inspired dress. This black and white tunic reminds me of snowy winter.
The main fabric is by Anna Griffin and shows a delicately stippled print. I love how different the print reads from close up and from far away. The contrasting black placket fabric is from the My Folklore collection, which I have used over and over and over again in my projects. The fabric covered buttons are made from the same black My Folklore fabric. I actually find it incredibly hard to pair two different printed fabrics together. I like things to be quite ‘plain’, but I have been working to challenge myself to overcome this. Doing patchwork has definitely helped me to accept (& love!) seeing two prints side by side.
p.s. I really love the sleeve on this dress – perfect length and amount of gathering around the cuff.
p.s.s. I’ve been updating My Crafty List of Things to Do, as I daydream about all the things I wish I had time to make right now!
p.s.s.s. I’ve got FOUR giveaways planned before Christmas, starting tomorrow!
I know, I JUST posted this dress pattern. I warned you that I was going to make it again. (and again) It’s a really easy top to wear, since it’s almost like a t-shirt. It’s also really easy to sew and I didn’t want to trace out a new pattern. (lazy!) Also, I find that almost all of my real t-shirts are too short and I prefer a longer tunic length. I cleared out my drawers the other day and bagged up an entire drawer’s worth of clothing, mostly t-shirts that I never wear anymore. (FYI – new class alert for the new year = t-shirts!)
I was given some lovely soft woven cottons from India. This fabric is incredible. It is so lightweight and lovely with just the slightest sheen to it. I had just enough to make a shorter tunic version of this dress. Keeping with my resolution to use more trim, I made a special trip to Mokuba to pick up the grey blue lacey trim. Hemming with trim is actually a time-saver.
With all the unfinished projects I’ve got piled up right now, it felt great to whip up this little shirt and wear it the same week. I’m going to make another, but I promise to try out a new pattern first.
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?
