I've recently uninstalled Disqus comment system because it didn't accept some genuine comments all the time. Because it seemed OK on keeping the comments that were previously received by looking at my recent posts, I wasn't worried too much about the change. However, I've just found that it seems that I have lost many of your lovely comments which were made via Disqus in the old posts. More than some are still here, but many are gone... So sad. I don't care even if I lost my posts themselves, but I do feel very sad when your comments are gone. At moment I don't know how many of them disappeared, or how to restore them. Please accept my apology if I cannot restore them properly. So sad.
yoshimi
Friday, May 3, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
camera tote
I made a tote bag for my camera, using Hatoto bag pattern.
I've been carrying two bags at once for almost one year, one for my DSLR and one for my things, and boy, they're so heavy together. I wanted to have one VERY light bag in which I can put my camera and other thing altogether.
For the outer bag, I used Alcantara that was basically same as
polyester synthetic suede named Ultrasuede, or Ecsaine. The bag is
lined using plain woven cotton and has 4 interior sections separated by the
same fabric. It holds a camera that is protected by a padded compartment
in the largest section, and miscellaneous stuff can wander about in the
other sections. I bought the red cube compartment from a camera store for sure protection.
There is no fastener for the closure, but there are a tub and a set of magnetic hooks for keeping the bag in shape.
With such features and additional 8 outer pockets, it weighs 400g(=0.88 lbs). It failed becoming light as a feather, but actually it is not bad at all as
a camera bag with a padded compartment.
Today, it was a holiday Monday. We went for a hike in the field and I checked if the bag would work well. Honestly, it was working superb. The bag made it much easier to carry my stupidly heavy stuff. It was easy to handle too. I even felt that it was light even though I carried a camera, the other lens, and everything.
yoshimi
=====
pattern: Hatoto bag, dimention altered and pockets and dividers added.
fabrics:
synthetic suede (Alcantara) 1mm, light orange, 135cm x 1m
plain cotton, woven, interfaced, light lilac, shirting weight
=====
P. S. I have uninstalled Disqus comment system. There are a few people who told me that they couldn't submit their comments using this system. Now I am tired of being worried about if it's working properly. I know there is no perfectly perfect system to avoid all internet problems, but this time I gave a second chance to Blogger's default comment system. We'll see what happens... Thank you for all your comments, including those which couldn't be submitted correctly, I appreciate them so much.
There is no fastener for the closure, but there are a tub and a set of magnetic hooks for keeping the bag in shape.
Today, it was a holiday Monday. We went for a hike in the field and I checked if the bag would work well. Honestly, it was working superb. The bag made it much easier to carry my stupidly heavy stuff. It was easy to handle too. I even felt that it was light even though I carried a camera, the other lens, and everything.
yoshimi
=====
pattern: Hatoto bag, dimention altered and pockets and dividers added.
fabrics:
synthetic suede (Alcantara) 1mm, light orange, 135cm x 1m
plain cotton, woven, interfaced, light lilac, shirting weight
=====
P. S. I have uninstalled Disqus comment system. There are a few people who told me that they couldn't submit their comments using this system. Now I am tired of being worried about if it's working properly. I know there is no perfectly perfect system to avoid all internet problems, but this time I gave a second chance to Blogger's default comment system. We'll see what happens... Thank you for all your comments, including those which couldn't be submitted correctly, I appreciate them so much.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Boxy pink dress
Hello!!
I have to write up this post as quickly as possible, as I need to make a cup of tea and sit to watch the last episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. I know ALL of you but me have already watched it on TV or on youtube! I NEED to watch too!
I made a pink dress for everyday use. I used a dolman sleeved dress pattern named Fran from Annee-Patterns. For the dress, I applied a slash at the front center neckline, a pair of pockets with flaps on chest, and side seam pockets in the skirt. I shortened the sleeves, lengthened the bodice, and widened the skirt at the same time I omitted the waist shirring and the patch pockets on the skirt. Fairly big redecoration, don't you think?
I am so happy with the dress!
I think the color and shape suit me well. This is the moment of sewing joy.
Happy sewing to you, friends!
Love,
yoshimi
=====
Pattern: Fran from Annee-Patterns
Fabric: Linen.
Pink, plain woven, fairly heavy, flowy, crease much, and soft.
Can be worn as a single layer.
=====
OK, so, who left the bike here?!! This is trespassing. This. is. my. photo. location. I curse you until you remove it out of the way!!
...well... enough unjustly domineered. I shall go and ask my husband to move his bike. This space is communal and is not my territory anyway...
I have to write up this post as quickly as possible, as I need to make a cup of tea and sit to watch the last episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. I know ALL of you but me have already watched it on TV or on youtube! I NEED to watch too!
I made a pink dress for everyday use. I used a dolman sleeved dress pattern named Fran from Annee-Patterns. For the dress, I applied a slash at the front center neckline, a pair of pockets with flaps on chest, and side seam pockets in the skirt. I shortened the sleeves, lengthened the bodice, and widened the skirt at the same time I omitted the waist shirring and the patch pockets on the skirt. Fairly big redecoration, don't you think?
I am so happy with the dress!
I think the color and shape suit me well. This is the moment of sewing joy.
Happy sewing to you, friends!
Love,
yoshimi
=====
Pattern: Fran from Annee-Patterns
Fabric: Linen.
Pink, plain woven, fairly heavy, flowy, crease much, and soft.
Can be worn as a single layer.
=====
OK, so, who left the bike here?!! This is trespassing. This. is. my. photo. location. I curse you until you remove it out of the way!!
...well... enough unjustly domineered. I shall go and ask my husband to move his bike. This space is communal and is not my territory anyway...
Friday, April 12, 2013
Volume and volume
Hello friends, I've never thought to dress in the "pattern on pattern" way, like small flower print shirt on paisley print skirt, because I think it is difficult to pull off such combo, but today I dress funnily and wore stripes on stripes, accidentally ha-ha-ha...
I was a bit upset when I left home in the morning. The blouse has been finished and untouched for some days and I wanted to try it so badly. I decided to wear it with a skirt that I made yesterday for the blouse, but ended up finding that the eyelets that I put on the skirt as decoration scratched my tights to kill my legs. I told myself to forget the skirt and it was fine by me. However I was not happy with the blouse that was kept neglected. Being upset in the busy morning, I rushed to my closet and instantly grabbed a skirt that was matching to the blouse color-wise. I noticed that the skirt had horizontal stripes but I didn't care. I needed to wear a vertical striped blouse and a horizontal striped skirt together rather than to wait for another day. At the end of the day, I started feeling these aren't that bad together. I even started thinking that it is fun to explore something uncertain/unplanned when choosing outfits.
I made this blouse using Grainline Studio's Scout Woven Tee. I'm happy with its voluminous-ish look, which I intentionally wished. Here is my review for PR:
=====
Pattern Description: A woven t-shirt with capped sleeves and scoop neck. Fitted at the shoulders, this top falls into a loose shape below the bust. Techniques involved include straight seams, bias binding, setting sleeves and basic hemming.
Pattern Sizing: 0-12. I made size 6 with blending size 4 at around shoulders.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes, I was expecting my one intentionally roomy with size 6 though. (From the chart, I am size 6 at bust. I knew this pattern run a bit large for my measurements from my previous garment.)
Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes, I think so. The instructions have a lot of illustrations, which is great.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I like the design. It is difficult for me to say what exactly makes it nicer than other similar patterns but I think it surely has some good balance in the simple shape. I have no particular dislike of it so far.
Fabric Used: Cotton blend. Containing silk, polyester, and polyurethane. The fabric I used is stretchy and also a bit parachute-y. There are silk ribbons woven in the fabric and they make stripe effect. I wanted some volume in the blouse so I used this stiff material instead of using soft and drapey fabrics.
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: Neckline was executed with facing w/ fusible interfacing instead of binding with bias tape. Sleeves were lengthened by 10cm. I made small tucks at side of sleeve ends to make them slightly balloon shaped. Bodice was shortened by 2cm and hemmed as instructed. I pinched bodice by 4cm in total at around bust area at side seams, at the end of constructions.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Yes and yes! I love this pattern and would like to make more, using different fabrics and different alterations. You'll need to check how it does fit you by performing at least one experimental sewing, but I think it's very worth trying.
Conclusion: It's a good and simple pattern. It is a good one especially for the people who have just started sewing because it's easy yet not giving disappointing results. That written, I think the people who have experienced the sadness of dart-less/panel-less blouses would love it, too, because they know how difficult it is to achieve a pretty blouse with such few seams.
=====
By the way, I've signed up for Me-Made-May'13.
'I, yoshimi of "yoshimi the flying squirrel", sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear at least one me made garment each day for the duration of May 2013, with no repeats.'
I'm so looking forward to it!
Happy sewing to you and all.
love,
yoshimi
I was a bit upset when I left home in the morning. The blouse has been finished and untouched for some days and I wanted to try it so badly. I decided to wear it with a skirt that I made yesterday for the blouse, but ended up finding that the eyelets that I put on the skirt as decoration scratched my tights to kill my legs. I told myself to forget the skirt and it was fine by me. However I was not happy with the blouse that was kept neglected. Being upset in the busy morning, I rushed to my closet and instantly grabbed a skirt that was matching to the blouse color-wise. I noticed that the skirt had horizontal stripes but I didn't care. I needed to wear a vertical striped blouse and a horizontal striped skirt together rather than to wait for another day. At the end of the day, I started feeling these aren't that bad together. I even started thinking that it is fun to explore something uncertain/unplanned when choosing outfits.
I made this blouse using Grainline Studio's Scout Woven Tee. I'm happy with its voluminous-ish look, which I intentionally wished. Here is my review for PR:
=====
Pattern Description: A woven t-shirt with capped sleeves and scoop neck. Fitted at the shoulders, this top falls into a loose shape below the bust. Techniques involved include straight seams, bias binding, setting sleeves and basic hemming.
Pattern Sizing: 0-12. I made size 6 with blending size 4 at around shoulders.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes, I was expecting my one intentionally roomy with size 6 though. (From the chart, I am size 6 at bust. I knew this pattern run a bit large for my measurements from my previous garment.)
Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes, I think so. The instructions have a lot of illustrations, which is great.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I like the design. It is difficult for me to say what exactly makes it nicer than other similar patterns but I think it surely has some good balance in the simple shape. I have no particular dislike of it so far.
Fabric Used: Cotton blend. Containing silk, polyester, and polyurethane. The fabric I used is stretchy and also a bit parachute-y. There are silk ribbons woven in the fabric and they make stripe effect. I wanted some volume in the blouse so I used this stiff material instead of using soft and drapey fabrics.
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: Neckline was executed with facing w/ fusible interfacing instead of binding with bias tape. Sleeves were lengthened by 10cm. I made small tucks at side of sleeve ends to make them slightly balloon shaped. Bodice was shortened by 2cm and hemmed as instructed. I pinched bodice by 4cm in total at around bust area at side seams, at the end of constructions.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Yes and yes! I love this pattern and would like to make more, using different fabrics and different alterations. You'll need to check how it does fit you by performing at least one experimental sewing, but I think it's very worth trying.
Conclusion: It's a good and simple pattern. It is a good one especially for the people who have just started sewing because it's easy yet not giving disappointing results. That written, I think the people who have experienced the sadness of dart-less/panel-less blouses would love it, too, because they know how difficult it is to achieve a pretty blouse with such few seams.
=====
By the way, I've signed up for Me-Made-May'13.
'I, yoshimi of "yoshimi the flying squirrel", sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear at least one me made garment each day for the duration of May 2013, with no repeats.'
I'm so looking forward to it!
Happy sewing to you and all.
love,
yoshimi
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Archer button up shirt
For me, spring is shirt. Correctly, I feel like making shirts at the onset of spring. Sometimes it comes early, sometimes it comes reluctantly. This year the feeling came to me very late, but this time it was very strong. In the night some days ago, Saturday night, I suddenly needed an indigo shirt for this spring. Next morning I went off to the shopping mall for hunting some indigo-dyed dungaree, muttering "dungaree dungaree dungaree, dungaree dungaree dungaree, ..." but without any actual sound. I am sure that there were at least 5 people who heard auditory hallucination from my brain activity in the mall. The emotion was that desperate.
Anyway, at the point I came to the only handcraft shop in the mall, though I was an insane, I was a happy one thinking I was going to buy a nice fabric for my shirt. However, you know what happened, I found that they didn't have any decent apparel fabrics any more. They now have fabrics only for school bags and table napkins (or something similar) because, I dunno, because they decided to annoy me. I was disappointed but couldn't give it up for a while. I hung around its small fabric corner for more than an hour knowing that I was not getting any fiber material from the rack. I sighed. I am mature enough to know that wrong fabrics make wrong clothes. Still muttering, I was finally on my way home. Then I noticed there was one UNIQLO store between me and my car. I dropped in to make a double check they didn't have my fabric either. Well, actually, they had. After spending some more time in UNIQLO and I bought two of men's shirts from the rack of discount, calling them fabrics. I am not doing it all the time, but I allowed myself to do it because it was a bad day.
And here you see my new dungaree shirt. The pattern is Archer button up shirt from Grainline Studio. I know some of you would like to see someone else's version of Archer shirt to check how it is like because it was released quite recently. I hope it helps you a bit.
 |
| Sleeve tops have unfaded sections from inside of the shoulder seams of the original shirt. |
 |
| plackets and pockets are left intact. never mind the narrow space between 1st and 2nd button holes! |
 | |
| It has the seams that were originally side seams in the lower back because of the fabric width limitation. You may be distinguishing the old threads(yellowish off white) from new ones(off white). |
=====
Shirt
Pattern: Archer button up shirt from Grainline Studio
-styleB
-size6, graded down to size4 only around shoulders
-front plackets and front pockets were transplanted from one of the material shirts without disassembling.
-sleeves were shortened because the shortage of material.
-height of collars was lowered by 0.5cm
(my measurements are 166-91-72-91cm/5'5"-36-28-36inch)
Fabric: Shirting cotton plain woven, probably chambray, or thinner dungaree, indigo blue, micro-dots in off white, pre-washed, resourced from retailed men's shirts
Pants
Pattern: Stretch skinny pants from Pumila (shop closed)
Fabric: Stretch cotton twill, very light gray
=====
Talk to you soon!!
xoxo
yoshimi
Monday, March 18, 2013
Me-Made-March '13 Nippon
How have you been lately? I've been, certainly, busy.
It's totally because that I've been taking part of Me-Made-March '13 Nippon challenge since this month started. If you would like to know exactly what the challenge is, please read this post from Zoe and you'll know it better than listening to my explanations.
Each day I'm choosing my outfit including at least one me-made garment, taking photographs, uploading a photograph to my Flickr album, and visiting sites of other Japanese participants to worship their achievements. Feeling very busy. So far it goes nice and I'm enjoying it very much. I'm hoping that I can keep my pace and smile on the last day of this challenge. Wish me luck!
So, I'd like to share some photographs from my album here with you after half March is gone.
Though I didn't state anything about it in my pledge, I'm secretly focusing on enjoying photography in this challenge. It doesn't mean that I'm trying to be technical, but I mean I'm trying to capture lovely moment of my garments. I hope you'll feel it from my pictures.
 |
| the green skirt is store bought |
 |
| the sweater and jeans are store bought |
I think I'd like to write separate blog posts for some of garments on which I haven't written here, as there are some that might be interesting to you.
My Flickr album for MMM'13 Nippon (written in Japanese)
Okay, now I'm off to sew.
Have a lovely day!
yoshimi xoxo
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
V-Day Giveaway project
Whether you know it or not, this flying squirrel has organized two giveaways since it squeaked her first hello to the world and she is wishing more to come. People would wonder why. Most probably, the squirrel is constantly curious to check if there is a *real* world behind the LCD, otherwise she is hoping to spread the love of sewing to the cyber space. Anyway, both the last two giveaways happened in February. So the squirrel thought that the next one has to happen in February again. No wonder that she thought, because it's easier for her tiny brain to remember when to do. What I suggested to this creature was that she could throw a giveaway on Valentine's Day so that only few people would notice its meaningless reason.
And yet, nothing has happened. It is almost a week after Valentine's Day today. Has she announced anything yet? Neh.
The squirrel seems to have deserted but I don't find her anywhere. She ran away without writing!
I am sorry. I'm writing this for a Valentine's Day giveaway on behalf of that irresponsible blogging creature. I hope you don't mind, thought it is obviously too belated for decent people. I hope you don't mind. I hope you don't mind. I can repeat it until you fall fast asleep.
 |
| click to enlarge |
The prize of this small giveaway is a small sewing gadget. It is a magnetic pin carrying case which is very useful both indoor and outdoor. There are a few of this type of needle carriers, but as far as I know, this is the best with the right size, shape, needle visibility and magnetic power for the purpose. Naomi recommended this one at the workshop and I agree with her completely. It is very handy not only when attending sewing classes but also when keeping expensive/special needles intact in the drawer. If you are one of those who think that magnetic pin caddies are awfully useful, you would agree with me that this small case has much potential. I love it.
***please read***
If there is anyone who is interested in winning the prize, please leave your comment below. I am going to close the comment box at noon on 27th(JST=UTC+9) February (Wed) and will pick one winner by random drawing if there are more than one comment on this post. Anybody in any area on our planet can be involved in the draw. Please do not forget to fill in your e-mail address (which will not be disclosed to the public), because those comments without any valid e-mail address will not be included in the draw. Note that I will not accept those comments from squirrels/mice either.
***
Happy sewing to you all!
Much love,
yosxoxo
P.S. I've changed an expression in this post to avoid misunderstanding. I wish that no one felt too uncomfortable with my writing.
======================
27th February 2013
Thank you all for the comments on the giveaway post!
I'm
happy to announce that the random generator chose 6 among the numbers
from 1 to 36, and therefore the winner is Sofie who left 6th comment
on the post. Congratulations, Sofie!
Thank you every one of you for visiting my blog, I wish you a wonderful day.
Love,
yoshimi
======================
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