Before anything, I can´t help to say a few words about the recent tragedy in Paris. I know there are other places in the world where tragedy occurs everyday, but it´s impossible not to relate to Paris, since I live in the western world, it´s my reality. I would like to ask you to read no further, stop whatever you are doing and have a silent moment to say a prayer of any kind for those lost in the past days but also all innocents who have been victims of terrorism, whatever place in the world they live in. Whenever you feel ready, carry on.


Welcome ladies, to the first Japanese Sewing Week! I´m opening up the series today with 3 super talented ladies, check out the line up at the bottom. This tour was organized by Sara from Made by Sara: head there to read all the info about the tour and play along too, there´s a link up for those who feel like joining the fun by linking anything they made this year using a Japanese pattern.

My love for japanese pattern books actually started long before this blog and I was highly influenced by Soraia from Sew Happy, at the time she was making the cutest outfits for her kids (and still is, in fact, she´s in the tour as well). I just jumped in and bought six books at once, and if you look up in the Books section here in the blog you´ll find them all. Some of them are from Tuttle Publishing, one of the sponsours for the tour, who will be giving a prize to a blogger of their choice as well as the giveaway for all the readers (it´s in the end, stay calm).
I was going to use one of their books, but more recently I´ve received the most gorgeous one as a gift from my dear friend Emi (thank you again!) and immediately knew I had to make the whole book, or at least a whole outfit. So, no prize for me but I do reccomend their books, as they´re translated into english and very suitable if you´re wanting to give japanese patterns a try. And if you´re looking for reviews or just need help with a japanese pattern, this is the place to bookmark.

The book is Aoi Koda´s Sewing Lesson Fall and Winter Clothes and I´m pretty sure it´s gonna be a japanese lovers library staple soon. It´s full of the most gorgeous coats, blouses and pants, and whitin each category the patterns are slightly modified to make a completely different piece. For a more complete review see here.

I decided on the raglan blouse with elasticized front hem, the hooded coat and the basic pants. I found the most beautiful cobalt blue wool in my local shop and organized the whole project from there. There is something really similar in the Sweet Mercerie store, where I found this beautiful rayon challis and a cognac crepe for the pants. Except for the wool which I´ll talk a bit more later on, the fabrics were really easy to manipulate and drape beautifully. These ladies are really making a difference with quality affordable fabrics, with the most gorgeous prints, all produced in Portugal. I highly recommend the viscoses and the french terrys, my absolute favourite fabrics to work with.

The patterns were really easy to use: they´re quite simple regarding lines and construction, and it also helped that I´m used to their instructions. Even if you´re a total beginner, there are step by step ordered ilustrations, but it does help if you´re familiared to some basic sewing techniques, like bias finishes or adding facings.
The blouse has a shoulder dart and neckline facings and a little opening in the back, finished with a traditional closure, really easy to make (I used some elastic). The pants just have those two pleats at the front and an elasticized waistband with a flat front. My waistband is half the width it should be, because it should have been cut on fold but I missed the mark. I think they´re a little too high waist for me, so that´ll give me an excuse to change the waistband and adjust the height.

Now the coat: my original plan was to make the one on the cover, but a) I only had 1,2m of fabric b) I wanted something with a more relaxed look. Most patterns for coats in these books aren´t lined, and this one was very simple and doesn´t even include facings. The front panels rise up to form the hood, the shoulders are slightly dropped and the pockets are sewn between the side panel and the back. They gave the normal instructions to finish the seams either by zigzag or serge, but I wanted to try something different, since I wasn´t lining it anyway. That´s when flat fell madness began. Yes, I flat felled every.single.seam. First trouble was only noticing I couldn´t do it with 1cm SA after starting, ha! All the bulk from the wool weight and difficult pressing made me change the rules in the middle of the game: had to change to 1,5cm SA, and regarding size (I did size 5 for all pieces) I think it even worked better for me (but please, don´t try this at home). The seams were trimmed to the max (very close to 0,3) and steam pressed hard, always with a towel in between. Some are far from perfect, some were unpicked and redone, but overall I´m happy with the experience gained for future projects. The sleeves were the trickiest part since they´re already closed as a tube when you go and flat fell, so I had to do that seam in a two part way: first from shoulder to as far as I could (because the sleeve tube doesn´t go all the way in the sewing machine), then from wrist to where I ended. The coat is finished with simple double fold hems but I´m thinking of unpicking the bottom one and use the very little leftover fabric I´ve got to make some hem facings.

Wanna see what´s next? Here´s the ab.sa.frea.cking.a.ma.zing line up. How lucky was I to be a part and what an honour to open it up with these amazing ladies, check them out today too and follow the rest for a blow-your-socks-off week!

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

And if that wasn´t enough on its own, here´s the giveaway running along with this tour, thanks to our amazing sponsors! There will be three lucky winners among all of our lovely readers. Each winner will win one of the following prizes: 

- One pack of 2 two Japanese Sewing books from Tuttle Publishing

- One pack of 2 two Japanese Sewing books from Tuttle Publishing

- A $40 fabric voucher from Urban Sew 

All you have to do is to try your chance by entering the Rafflecopter bellow. The more entries you validate the more chances you have to win! The giveaway will be open from Nov. 16th to the 25th.

I truly enjoyed every little stitch made for this project (and all the unpicking done and yet to be done), hope to have given you some inspiration to search your favourite japanese books and make that one thing you´ve been postponing, or have just given you the perfect excuse to buy a new book (you can tell your husband it was my fault).

The fabrics were given to me by The Sweet Mercerie, but the review and recommendations on their fabrics are my own and truly honest.

The clutch is the Fold Over Clutch, a free pattern by Pattern Runway.

I´m pretty sure it´s easy to believe that mostly all patterns are already out there and it would be hard to feel suprised when something new comes along. True, there´s a lot to choose from, but I also believe there´s a strong small core of pattern designers supporting one another and growing together. This way of working and having a business in this branch is truly inspiring and evolves to a strong sewing community, where everyone works towards the same goal: having perfect patterns that teach you sewing techniques by far, ending obviously with a great piece of clothing.

Gabriella, from Chalk and Notch, is an emerging pattern designer who has released her first pattern, the Fishtail Kimono. A kimono, nothing new here you might say. Wrong.

Everyone can draw a couple of rectangles and turn it into such a thing with two seams, but this is much more than that. I´m very appreciative about pattern pieces and the way they´re designed, and here you´ve got a multifunctional pattern for either knits or wovens, which I think works wonderfully because of that beautiful shoulder seam that drapes down the arm. Then there´s the little gathering on the lower back panel and the high-low hem, details that make the difference from the free rectangles tutorials you can find all over the internet. The neckline is finished with a neckband which you might not see clearly in the pictures because I matched the print like.a.boss, sorry for bragging.

Then, to add to all that, you make such a thing and put it on your daughter, the apple of your eyes, and get a little carried away with the photoshoot and finish it focusing on your beautiful growing little girl that just makes you feel overwhelmed and grateful. Yes, I´m one of those emotional mums that will probably embarass my kids on all those special public occasions of their lifes.

I have a 2nd version ready for something special! For now you can and should grab it on sale on UpCraft Club until the 10th November, but it´ll be available afterwards on Chalk and Notch. This and much more I´m sure.

It´s not very often I find myself completely obsessed with a project. Usually, I take my time, even if with lots of interruptions, but the promess this fabric translated into was just too good to ignore. I buy a lot of remnants at a ridiculous low price, partely fault of my local shop but also I see sewing for myself as a way to save some money. Yes, that´s a "said no one ever" sentence, but it applies here. I do save money by sewing rather than buying RTW. The remnants there are sold between 1,95€ and 5,95€, the first beeing for knits, for example, and I do find very good ones. Also, the fact that I don´t actually need a lot of fabric to do something for myself or the kids is a huge incentive. Most clothes I make for myself I spend about 5€ on average, using fabrics like rayon challis, good Ponte or knits. Sharing a secret: you can find very similar fabrics and even better at The Sweet Mercerie, they´re providing the sewing community with the best that´s made in Portugal.

I found this very light gabardine in a pale beige/pink, grabbed it, put it back thinking I didn´t have a pattern for it, but in the end it called me so I brought two remnant pieces (around 2,4 m) for 8€. I already had a light burgundy coloured satin I bought for pyjamas, but they matched so well and I´m always too cold at night anyway.

Then, the pattern. I wanted a trench coat and the lovely Isla seemed the most appropriate but I always have to alter something in their patterns, namely because their smallest size is big on me, and I didn´t feel like altering a huge number of pieces. Also, traditional stand up collars don´t usually look good on me, so I decided to work with what I had.

The Brenna coat, from Califaye collection, I had already made here and it fits like a glove. In fact, all her patterns fit me perfectly so it gave me a good starting point not having to worry about size issues. I did a half muslin with my collar alterations: I imagined the front pieces rising and embracing the neckline, creating some sort of a continuum stand up folded collar. Inspiration comes from everywhere and after I saw this tutorial I imagined doing something similar to recreate the trench coat flaps. I drafted directly on my muslin, assembled it, tried it and marked some alterations. After that, unpicked it all and drafted the pieces and altered the pattern itself.

I reduced the width of the front panels and lenghtened them upwards in order to have the same measurement as the back neckline. The collar itself works and wraps nicely around the neck, but the back neckline should have been adapted, raisened and straightened. That back neck curve makes sense when you don´t have a collar, like the original pattern.

For the remaining pieces I wanted to add, such as the traditional trench coat flaps, I drafted the front ones from a RTW I had. For the back flap, I altered the back piece just by slash and spread at the center and curved a little at the bottom, making it end just a few cm below the underarm so it would join with the front flaps at the underarms.

Please bare in mind that I really know nothing about pattern alterations, rather than the bits and pieces I read here and there, and these were made based on intuition and tested with a muslin. Some things I´ve already realised needed to be made differently and I´m sorry if you´re a professional and you find some attrocity here that makes you say "what have you done!?". Trying out ideas and working with what I already know is just the way I like to do things, making errors and realising what to correct next time. It gives me confidence rather than frustrating me for not getting it perfect.









One of the things that needs to be altered when adding that much around the sleeve is, well, the sleeve itself and the sleeve curve. There are just too many layers added there: the front and back flap, which are both lined, add 4 extra layers to the sleeve. A very quick alteration would be sewing the shoulder sleeve like a dart, starting at the correct SA next to the neckline, let´s say 1cm, and then decrease it towards the shoulder point, making it 0,5cm: that´s just a minor alteration I think won´t bring any fit issues at that area and will allow a little more ease for all the extra fabric that will be sewn there. Again, that´s how I would make it to avoid redrafting the pattern itself.

The fabric was, as this past Halloween weekend suggested, a nightmare to sew. It slipped more than all the viscose I´ve sewn before and made my poor machine jam so much I swear I heard it cry. Neverthless, I´m always amazed with what this little thing can do, if I control her right.
The fact that I made a non traditional collar for a trench coat just makes me love it more; I can totally imagine something like this in a Uterque collection and feeling sorry for myself I couldn´t afford to buy it. A little pat on the back for me and for feeling like I´m a parisienne when I wear it. Touché!