Blog

Camellia Dress | Collaboration with Natalie Bleakly

March 20, 2017 By Chie

As I wrote in my previous post, I had my original fabric printed by Contrado. My plan was to crate a simple dress that would show off the flower illustration Natalie made. I chose a simple I-line style dress, but wanted to spice it up a bit by adding interesting tucks on one side of the dress. I used Make Your Own Dress Patterns by Adele P. Margolis to move the darts to the side. The original patterns I used are the same as the bodice of this dress. I changed the princess lines to two bust darts, then moved the darts to the side. The skirt is a wrap style skirt. I also added some tucks on the right side of the front skirt to match the tucks in the bodice. I am pleased with the result and it is fun to work with the original fabric that is printed just for you. I’m excited to explore other options like scuba fabric and poly twill. This dress I offer on etsy is made of poly twill so maybe I will make a variation of that with original fabric.

Contradoでオーダーした生地で、ドレス出来上がりました！
生地の詳しいことは前回のブログにて。
２ｍオーダーして、１mごとにNatalie Bleaklyのイラストの椿の花がプリントされるよう、オーダーしました。
生地はダッチェス・サテン。こしがあり、縫いやすいサテンです。テロテロ感も少ないので、このようなIラインのスカートも作れます。
フィット感のあるボディの型紙(これと同じもの)の変形型。
プリンセスラインを胸ダーツに変更後、今度はダーツを左サイドにずらしてタックにしました。

膝下丈と深いスリットで大人っぽいデザインに。
真っ白なので着ていくところにちょっと困りますが・・・クールな花嫁様にウェディングドレスとしてどうでしょうか？
Find me elsewhere:

Design Your Own Fabric with Contrado

February 28, 2017 By Chie

Designing my own fabric was one of my goals as a sewer. One deterring factor of not accomplishing this goal is that I’m not good at drawing. I’ve attempted a few times to consistently drawing, but it never lasted long. I just could not get into it. But! I have a good friend who can draw amazing flowers that would be perfect for dress fabric. Natalie Bleakly is a illustrator with a fashion background now living in Tokyo. She is showing her illustrations at a cafe gallery named ginger.tokyo in Kiyosumi Shirakawa. She was gracious enough to help me with my fabric order. Here is Natalie:

“The Camellia flower (a.k.a Tsubaki 椿) is a common flower found in Japan. The white camellia is definitely more rarely seen than it’s red or pink counterpart. I wanted to paint something that most people living in Japan would recognise straight away but, also admire the beauty and rarity of the flower. Although, the Camellia is not a rare flower in Japan, seeing it in white is really something special as it can mean several things including desire, passion, longevity and faithfulness. In Japan, is symbolizes the divine. It is often used in religious and sacred ceremonies and also represents the coming of spring. They can also mean purity, the love between mother and child or mourning when used in funeral flowers. When presented to a man, a white camellia is thought to bring luck.”

I’ve used Spoonflower in the past, but this time I ordered from Contrado. It’s great that they offer their services in multiple languages including Japanese. I first ordered a fabric sample pack as I was unable to decide between different types of satins. Fabric swaps were very helpful! It came with bunch of different fabric samples, including organza, scuba, stretch knits, chiffon etc. it’s a maker’s dream! I ended up with Duchess Satin. It has a very elegant sheen and nice weight for a drape.Here is the fabric that’s arrived. It’s exactly what I wanted – thanks to Natalie who scaled the flower print in the size I needed! I’m going to be making a simple I line dress to show off the print.
このページを日本語で読む

MADE | Sheer Pullover Sweater

February 22, 2017 By Chie

After knitting my first sweater, I was hooked to knitting. I like having a portable project when I watch movies at home (right now watching Outlander). I found knitwear designer, michiyo’s book at a local library and immediately liked every piece in her book. From many patterns, I picked “see through pull over” in this book. As you can see, it is very straight forward. The first few rows of bodice and sleeves are rib, and the rest are all knitted in knit in round. It has a sheer effect as the pullover goes close to the shoulders since it is knitted in thicker needles. I think the sheer effect would show more if I wear a contrasting color underneath.
I started this project in mid November, so it took about three months to complete. I found the Japanese knitting patterns so much easier to follow as they have many graphics. I used 80 grams of Hamanaka Mohair. I bought them in this app called Mercari where you can buy and sell pretty much anything. Sometimes you can find fun stuff in craft supply section. The patterns for the white pants are Ginger jeans from Closet Case Files.
I knitted two sleeves at the same time, using the method I learned from this Japanese book(輪針でニット　びっくり！楽しい「輪針」の使い方). At first it was awkward to knit and I was afraid that it would leave big holes, but at the end it was not very noticeable. It was great to be able to finish two sleeve pieces at the same time. michiyoさんの「じっくり編んで永く愛せるニットのふだん着」から、シースループルオーバーを作りました。
michiyoさんのパターン、好きです。
他にも作りたいものがいっぱいの本でした。
「部活」として編み物のmeet upもやってるみたいなのでいつか参加したいと思っています。