Sashiko Embroidered Double Gauze Shirts

Oh, I am so excited about this post!

This month's Project Run and Play theme was handwork, something I typically don't do.  BUT one of the last things I did before leaving Tokyo was to sign up for a sashiko embroidery class.  It was such a fun experience--a friend and I did it together, and it really felt like sitting in on a sewing circle with several Japanese ladies.  Most of the people in the class were repeat customers, bringing their ongoing projects back to work on them with some company.  I started a great embroidered panel (that I've since finished; not sure what I'm going to do with it yet!) while getting tips on the technique from the woman teaching the class.

Just getting started!

Making progress--a great project for sitting on the patio with a  friend!

Those of you in Tokyo, I recommend it--the class is on the first Thursday of the month at the Blue and White Store in Azabu-Juban!

In any case, my new sashiko skills were fresh in my mind when the ladies behind Frances Suzanne posted their challenge for Project Run and Play this month.  So while a couple of months ago I probably would have passed on this one, I actually had some excellent inspiration.

Unfortunately, the timing was a little difficult--on August 9th, we left Tokyo after living there for 15 months, so I sold my machine and packed up all of my fabric and kissed it goodbye until our shipment arrives in Portland in October.  But I held out a special piece of double gauze from Kokka--it's called Ihme Chamber, and when I visited the Kokka showroom in Tokyo I got to see the original watercolor for this print hanging on the wall!

So cool!

The display of the different colorways

I thought it would be perfect with my sashiko accents to make a really special item for returning to school this fall.  I was planning on making a top for The Boy, but Little Sister really wanted to get in on the action too, and so I made one for her as well.

Little Sister's top is the Norah Dress/Tunic pattern from Mouse House Creations, and
The Boy has the Prepster Pullover from Blank Slate Patterns.

I apologize in advance, but this is going to be a pretty long post since I used new patterns for both The Boy and Little Sister's tops, and I want to tell you about how they went together.  The pictures are really cute though--you should scroll through just for those! ;)

Both tops have the same sashiko embroidery detail on the pockets and the back yoke.

The Boy's shirt is the Prepster Pullover from Blank Slate Patterns in size 8, with some extra length (instead of doing a standard folded under hem, I just did a bias facing so I didn't lose any length from the cut pattern piece).  Otherwise I made the pattern exactly as written, and I really liked it!  I was nervous about doing the placket (I've never done one before), but it came out perfectly and the method was ingenious and very simple!  It made me want to start putting plackets on all the things.

About to start 2nd grade!

My only complaint is that size 8 is the largest size, and I just bought the pattern--I wish there were more sizes so that it would last me longer!  My guy is 7 and a half and slim, and the size 8 fits really well in the body but I did add length as I mentioned--but he is tall for his age (and long of torso, which he gets from me).  I have to say, it was nice to start with the short sleeved version since the long sleeves do involve a lot more steps--although I wonder if the long sleeves will need extra length for him too?  The size chart doesn't give a shoulder-to-wrist measurement, just chest, waist, and hip, so you have to kind of guess on lengths.

I got the free printable sashiko embroidery pattern from the tutorial posted by Jo of Dotta on Imagine Gnats.  There are lots to choose from--I'm excited to try more of them!  I printed the pattern out at 100% and it was a perfect fit on my pocket pattern piece for the Prepster Pullover.

I can't remember now where I found this tip, but it worked so well--I traced the sashiko pattern on to a piece of the thinnest fusible interfacing I could find, then ironed it to the backside of my fabric.  Then I had the design right there on the back!

I love all the little characters in this print--there's a cow, a swan, a fox, a frowny bird,
and of course the little guy poking his head out of a garbage can...

The embroidery on the back yoke was kind of an afterthought--as I was putting it together I thought that some extra detail would look nice there, but I had already partially sewn things together and didn't want to attach interfacing.  So I just traced the pattern with an air erasable marker and worked quickly!  I'm so glad I added it back there--I think it makes a huge difference.

I had originally planned to make a dress for Little Sister.  I just bought the Norah pattern when it was a Friday Fiver (yay!) and showed all of the cute options for collars and sleeves to Little Sister.  She chose short sleeves, and she adamantly did NOT want any kind of collar.   I made a mental plan to make the short sleeved dress with a  center panel of sashiko embroidery down the front, and had my fabrics all cut and prepped for that, but...

Starting Kindergarten!

She really wanted a shirt, not a dress, since she wanted hers to be a close match to her brother's.  She also vetoed the center panel (thankfully I hadn't started embroidering yet, or she would have been out of luck) in favor of a pocket like Big Brother's.  I re-cut the front to put that big tree front and center for the tunic length with no embroidered center panel.  Then she wanted a button placket too, but I didn't have enough fabric to cut another front panel out and I wasn't going to chop the focal point tree in half, so we compromised on the red bias tape neckline instead of the clean neckline with lining.  Honestly, even though I would have loved to do a few things differently design-wise on this dress, it's so worth it to listen to her input because then we end up with a garment that she will actually wear.  It's not worth it to make a dress my way that sits in the closet because I ignored what she wanted!

Turns out the pocket placement is PERFECT--she keeps putting things in there!
I used the same pocket pattern from the Prepster Pullover pattern.

 I did line the back yoke using the same method as in the Prepster Pullover, so it's nice and clean on the inside.  And of course she got the back yoke embroidery as well!

I love the fit on this top--I was worried that the sleeves might be too full, but they are just right.  I did french seams since I was using double gauze, so that did take the side seams in a tiny bit more.  My kids are opposites in sizing--the 7-year-old is almost too big for the size 8, and the 5-year-old is almost too small for the size 4!

Oh, and speaking of fit, since I added the embroidery, I shortened the opening in the back of the tunic.  But I shortened it too much--oops!  I had to widen the neckline slightly so that Little Sister's head could fit through.  But all's well that ends well!

Back to school

There was something so soothing about doing the embroidery.  First of all, the project was so portable!  We have been enjoying being back in our Portland house with a big front porch where we watch the neighbors go by, and it felt pretty idyllic to watch the kids eat ice cream on the porch swing while I sat and embroidered and drank craft beer.  It's also a great thing to do while watching a movie (although you may miss some key visual effects while you're looking at your stitching).  The longer I sew, the further down the path of special details and nice finishes I go--I'm working on being less slapdash and instant-gratification oriented, and this handwork inspiration project was really very enjoyable, and I love the results.

Can you tell we enjoyed our photo shoot today?

Double Gauze Desert Rose Dress

I love this new dress I made for Little Sister so much!

I don't have a lot of time left for sewing projects while I'm here in Tokyo (we move back to the US in less than 2 weeks!), but I knew I wanted to get this one done so that she could wear it in this hot, humid summer climate.

This dress is the Desert Rose pattern from Caila Made, and I just loved it from the first time I saw the pattern.  Of course, I am a cheapskate, so I just admired the pattern without buying it.  In this case though, it paid off, because eventually this pattern was featured as a Friday Fiver, and I was able to snap it up for just $5!  However, this was months ago, and although I printed the pattern out right away, it still took me ages to get going on it.

The main fabric for the skirt is a beautiful double gauze by Nani Iro (called Fuccra).  When I lucked into finding a 2-meter cut for less than $10 because of a small print error, I knew it was perfect for my Desert Rose dress.

See that little white stripe?  That was the only error in the whole 2 meter cut!

And I had a lovely lightweight coral batiste that matched perfectly that I could use for the bodice--I wanted the whole thing to be floaty and light and comfortable for the humid heat of a Tokyo summer.

The breeze really does pick it up--it's a good twirler too!

I wanted to make sure the bodice didn't gape, so I made a size 3 bodice based on Little Sister's measurements (her chest measurement matched the size 3 exactly on the chart, even though she's 5 years old) and it fits perfectly.  Since my bodice fabric was so lightweight (semi-sheer, actually, so it's nice that it's lined, and I used the same fabric for the lining), I interfaced the button placket on both sides and it feels secure.

I thought I would be clever on the skirt--I used the angled tunic skirt with a size 3 at the top but a size 8 in length, thinking that would get me to dress length without printing the dress skirt pattern pages, but I wasn't thinking about the fact that the size 3 bodice is shorter than the size 5.  So my dress was shorter than I wanted.   Next time I'll go ahead and assemble the skirt pattern pages to make sure I get the length I want!

However, I was able to cut it perfectly to avoid the print error!

Fortunately, I really like the look of the 4" panel of the bodice fabric at the hem.

How pretty is that Nani Iro fabric!?

 I really liked the way this pattern came together.  It all looks so professional inside!  I used french seams on the skirt since double gauze frays pretty easily, so there are no raw edges on the inside anywhere.  AND no hand-sewing on the bodice lining, since you topstitch the outside of the bodice instead!  I loved that.

Also, this pattern has pockets--I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of them, since pockets are usually my favorite feature.  I guess it speaks to how much I love this dress overall that the pockets are practically an afterthought, although they came in handy yesterday when my daughter had some drawings she wanted to carry around!

Now I've got to see if I can squeak a top for myself out of the remaining meter of that Nani Iro Fuccra double gauze!

Vintage Kimono Hanami Dress

A few months ago, I bought a bag of scrap fabric from a store that sells and alters vintage kimonos in my neighborhood.  Mostly, the pieces really were scraps (I have used some to make doll kimonos and a table runner) but there was one piece of an amazing deep purple shibori-dyed fabric that I thought would be large enough to make a girls' dress.

And I was right!

The pattern is the Hanami Dress from StraightGrain Patterns, which I thought was just perfect, as Hanami is the name for the Japanese Sakura (cherry blossom) viewing time which has just come to an end.  So I really wanted to use a Japanese fabric to make this dress!

This panel of fabric was prepped to be made into a kimono, but for some reason was abandoned.  The snips and basting stitches were still present in the fabric:

I'm experimenting with putting a jump into my longer posts so that more posts appear on my main page--read the rest after you click, and let me know if you love/hate having a jump!

Book Parade: Heather the Violet Fairy costume!

Today the kids' school had a book parade, where the kids chose a character from a book they have read this year and dressed up to parade around the gym.  Little Sister's recent favorites are the Rainbow Magic Rainbow Fairies chapter books (I have been reading them to her).  She chose Heather, the Violet Fairy, both because it was her favorite color of the rainbow AND because she has the same hair as that fairy (blond and curly with bangs!)  Luckily for me, that fairy also has a pretty simple costume, and the free short sleeved peasant dress pattern in size 4-6 from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom was perfect for it!

I wanted two layers of fabric to give the dress a more ethereal fairy effect, so I chose a silky purple (almost magenta) fabric I found for 100 yen a meter and topped it with a soft lilac stretch lacy fabric. The color came out exactly like the book cover, which is good because was Little Sister ever a stickler for detail!

I'm experimenting with putting a jump in my longer posts so that more posts appear on my main page--read the rest after you click, and let me know if you love/hate having a jump!  I'll show you the book cover so you can see how well I matched this dress up :)

Selfish Sewing Week Spring 2015 is Here!

I have been looking forward to this year's Spring Selfish Sewing Week (there's an awesome giveaway happening at this link) ever since last fall, when I first participated.  Then I got even MORE excited about it when Rachael from Imagine Gnats, who organizes the whole event, contacted me to see if I would be a featured stitcher!  Are you kidding?  I was thrilled!  My featured post will be on Imagine Gnats on Sunday, March 15th, but I thought I'd share some of the other selfish projects I have finished in the meantime.

First up is this Out and About Dress from Sew Caroline's pattern.  I bought the pattern a while back when it was a Friday Fiver (such a screamin' deal!) but hadn't made it yet--Selfish Sewing Week gave me the perfect excuse!

I had been holding on to this double-sided thick knit fabric that I found for 100 yen/meter in Nippori, Tokyo's Fabric Town, and knew this was the perfect project for it.  I used the darker side of the fabric (which has a ponte-type feel but I have no idea as to the fabric content since I STILL can't read Japanese) for the body of the dress, and the lighter side for the binding and cuffs.

I loved the design on the lighter side, but thought it was too close to my skin tone to work for the whole dress.  I love the color--it's a soft, peachy orange that is pretty flattering, although I did already make myself another knit dress in almost exactly this color!  Oh well, that one is for summer, and this one is more fall/spring with the thickness of the knit and longer sleeves.

I made a size Medium based on my measurements, and since this fabric is thick and not tooooo stretchy I didn't want to risk sizing down, but I would say that I will probably make a small next time.  It works for this one, although I did end up shortening the bodice just a tad, but it's not so big that I feel like I need to make other alterations.

I love the big deep pockets!

The back, of course

It goes perfectly with my double-gauze infinity scarf that I made from this cute Japanese maneki-neko (lucky cat) print!

I wore this outfit to my first craft show since moving to Japan--the cat is supposed to bring in customers, money and good fortune :).  You see them in lots of shops here, welcoming the customers in!

I would say my little maneki-neko did the trick--I sold almost 3/4s of my merchandise, and picked up several custom orders as well!  You can see the products I have available on my Sewbaby Crafts page (I just added that tab on this blog to keep things simple).

Split-Yoke Ruby Top!

I made another Ruby Top that I adapted from Made By Rae's great pattern!  I used this fantastic Nani Iro Fuccra Rakuen double gauze (the same stuff I used on Little Sister's bubble dress), and added long sleeves so I could wear it right now.

I also linked this up to this week's Sew and Show over at Straight Grain ( --if you didn't already come from there, click that link and then click back to me (I'm #13)--the post with the most click-throughs wins!

This is the fourth version of the Ruby Top that I have made, including one straightforward sleeveless one, a sleeveless dress version with a lined bodice, and another long-sleeved double-gauze top.  I love the comfort of the Ruby, but I feel like a lower neckline is more flattering on me.  When I made the other long-sleeved top, I just cut a deeper scoop for the neck, and I really liked it.  But this time I wanted to try something different.

Did I mention it has pockets?

I kind of feel like a crazy person in this outfit, but in a good way.  So colorful!

It was really simple to open up the neckline by adding a split yoke.  I tacked my flaps down so that it would stay open, but that's entirely optional.  Here's how I did it, and kept a nice finish on the inside too!  And by the way, this would work on any top that has a yoke, although if you are using a knit you would probably want to add some sort of stabilizer.

I started out by cutting out my pieces according to Rae's video tutorial about making a lined yoke for the Ruby.  Pretty much, these are the directions you are going to follow with a slight adjustment for the split yoke.

-You will cut out 4 yoke pieces instead of 2--a front and a back from your outer fabric, and a front and a back from your lining.  One extra step--press the front pieces (outer and lining) in half so you have a nice crisp fold line right in the middle.  OH, and I almost forgot to tell you (because I actually forgot to do it)--it's a good time to press the bottom 3/8ths of an inch of the lining up, to make it easier to sew the lining down later.

-Just like in the tutorial, you will sew your outer pieces together at the shoulder then do the same for your lining pieces.  Then you will lay them out, right sides together, and prepare to sew them together around the neck opening.

-Here's where it's a little different--instead of sewing all the way around the neck, you are going to make a slit right in the center of the front piece, where you made that fold with your iron.

There's about an inch between the bottom of the stitch line and the bottom of the yoke.

I just sewed right next to the fold down one side and up the other.  Make sure to leave at least an inch to the bottom of your yoke so you have enough fabric to fold under to have a nice clean lining.

When you are cutting into the curves of the neckline, go ahead and cut right down the fold in the front center as well.  When you get about 1/2 inch from the bottom, cut two little angles towards the corners of your seam so that it will lay nicely when you turn it the right way.

Little snips at the bottom of the split yoke

Now, I added sleeves to mine, so I didn't finish the armholes at this point, but if you are making a sleeveless top you can follow Rae's tutorial on the lovely finished armholes that I linked to above.  If you are adding sleeves, this is when you would turn the yoke right side out and press it.

You can leave it like this, and it will flop open...

Or you can press and tack the flaps down, which is what I did.

Once everything is nicely pressed on the outside, you can attach the body of the top.  Then press the raw edges up under the bodice.  If you didn't press the bottom edge of the lining under earlier, do it now--that's what I had to do.

Then pull the bottom edge of the lining over the raw edges of your gathers, and hand-sew across the seam.  Such a nice finish on the inside!

I originally intended to make this more of a tunic length, so I put pockets into the side seams.  But when I put it on, it looked really unflattering, so I shortened it quite a bit.

Yay for pockets!

To keep the pockets from hanging out the bottom of the new shorter length (which is still a few inches longer than the pattern for the Ruby Top), I tucked my pockets inside my wide hem, then didn't hem across where the pockets were.  Don't know if that makes sense; maybe this picture will help?

I just hand-stitched the hem to the back part of the pockets so that I didn't sew the pockets closed.  Worked out well!

Here's how the back turned out:

And this was my test shot--it was cooooold out so I didn't want to lose the layers until I had to!  But I wanted to show you how this awesome jacket I got for Christmas makes every outfit look way cooler.

I love my jacket!

Now you're ready to go out on the town with Lady Gaga!

At the Tokyo Madame Tussaud's--we were visiting Legoland next door ;)

I do have a question though--I need a recommendation for a slimmish long sleeve pattern for wovens.  I have used the washi long-sleeve pattern, and it's wider than what I want, but I haven't been able to modify it to my liking.  I tried a different long sleeve from a Simplicity pattern I've never used before, but it came out way too small--you can probably see the wrinkling in the sleeves above, and this is after I'd altered it as much as I could!  I didn't have enough of the fabric to cut all new sleeves.  So anyway, if anyone out there has a woven long sleeve pattern to recommend, let me know!