First Japanese Sewing Week

I feel equal parts excited and terrified at being part of the very first Japanese Sewing Week.  If you don't know what Japanese Sewing Week is all about check out this post by Sara of Made By Sara, that not only explains it all but even tells you how to join the link party if you get inspired to start sewing.   There is also an amazing giveaway alongside this week long celebration, this can be found at the end of the post (see how I did that, you have to at least scroll through the hole post to get to it, lol).

So, Japanese Sewing patterns. I first fell in love with them several years ago when I bought a book second hand and then had to wait patiently for Miss M to get big enough to fit any of the patterns.  My collection has since expanded, but I am embarrassed to say that this is the first time I have found the time to actually sew from them.  This was partly due to sizing, partly due to time and partly due to be slightly terrified that my books were all in japanese.  I've sewn from french and german patterns before so how hard could it be right?  Actually not bad at all, I find the illustrations are excellent and with a bit of background sewing knowledge it's enough to get by.  

What did I choose to make?  We are heading into summer (supposedly) down here in NZ so I wanted to make something that Miss M would use throughout the summer months.  I love the clean lines and timeless styles of the japanese patterns, we aren't overly into layers of frills and bows here, so it suits me just fine:-)  

First up I chose some gorgeous shorts, with just enough frill to make them fun without being 'frilly'.  

I am so thrilled with how these came together, a lovely simple sew and once I had worked out what the kanji symbols for back and front were we were all go.  I'm used to adding seam allowances so that wasn't an issue for me and they are clearly marked on the pattern illustrations.  I made these from a mystery light-mid weight denim that I found lurking in my stash.  It is lovely and soft and gives these a nice shape on. 

It was at this time that I learned that Tuttle was sponsoring this event and realised I didn't own any of their amazing pattern books.  My fabulous library came to the rescue and I will be adding this book to my christmas list, it's got many lovely designs in it.

I chose the stand up collar shirt, and decided to make this without the contrast for the collar and cuffs, and used a pretty vintage floral cotton that was hiding in my stash, I'm pretty sure this was gifted to me.

One thing I have noticed from the books I own is that the size measurements do vary slightly between authors.  Using the measurement tables in the books I made the size 110 for the shorts (with slightly shorter elastic) and the size 100 with 110 length for the shirt (I usually make a size 4 width with 5 length for Miss M).  The fit was perfect and I have fallen in love with this outfit, it's so sweet and girly without being over the top.

And this is what most of the photos looked like - sigh!

If by some miracle you have found this post without having followed the whole tour then what you need to do now is go and make a cup of coffee (or your beverage of choice), lock yourself away from all distractions and visit all of these amazing blogs!  The creations they have made for this tour are an amazing source of inspiration!

In a Manner of Sewing  |  Conversas de Hermanas  |  Pequenos e Verdes  |  Climbing the Willow

Bartracks and Singletrack  |  S is for Sewing  |  Sew Happy  |  Mamacosesola

Fairies, Bubbles & Co.  |  Sewing Like Mad  |  As it Seams  |  Sewing For Mini Me

La Folie Sewing Booth  |  Just Add Fabric  |  Blogless Anna  |  Sweeter Than Cupcakes  |  Needle and Ted

Miss Castelinhos  |  Made by Toya  |  Lil Luxe Collection  |  House of Estrela

Patty Made It  |  Paisley Roots  |  Rita Pirolita  |  Call Ajaire

So-cal Sewing Mom  |  Kiwi Crafty Chemist  |  Sew Shelly Sew  |  Made by Sara

Plus if you like to win stuff (and who doesn't) then click here to entera Rafflecopter giveaway

A huge thanks to Sara for organising this tour and to Tuttle for sponsoring the first ever Japanese Sewing week.  I hope there are many more to come, I can see my pattern book collection growing exponentially after this last week.