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Dresspiration

August 17, 2011 By Chie

Here are some of my recent favorites and inspiration…

1. White on white – plus midi length! So pretty. via Satorialist.
2. Love the retro look on this Banana republic Mad Man Collection dress. via This Time Tomorrow.
3. so 60’s feel to this Dear Creatures for ModCloth dress worn by Bleu Bird Vintage. Would love to imitate combination of kelly green and white piping.
4. Cute tulip sleeve dress worn by Keiko Lynn. Here is an interesting post by Gertie on tulip sleeves. Also a tutorial on tulip sleeves by It’s Sew Chic.
5. This bat sleeves are so big, it almost looks like a cape! Love it. via brown bag vintage.
6. Triangle shaped opening in the back via Late Afternoon.

Shimokita Date

August 16, 2011 By Chie

With the internet, the world is so small. Since I started documenting my sewing in this blog, I’ve had several opportunities to meet with people whom I’ve first had contact with online. The experience of meeting someone you know for the first time feels so surreal but fun! Last week, I met up with Sophia from Iro Iro Crafts, her friend Reina, and Zhing. (Zhing has the cutest little dog which she likes to dress up as Sushi!) Sophia was visiting Japan from the U.K. and we all went to Shimokitazawa for a coffee and desert and thrift shopping! It was so fun! Sophia is young, creative and talented..I sure wasn’t like her when I was 17…:p She wrote a guest post here on a detachable crochet lace collar.

For our little meet-up, I think Shimokitazawa was a perfect place. The place is filled with cute cafes, restaurants, zakka shops and thrift stores, and it’s not overwhelming like Shinjuku or Shibuya. We had cake and ice coffee (that day was soo hot and humid!), then headed to some thrift shops. We stopped by at one of my favorite shops, 3 biki no koneko (“three little kittens” in Japanese). I like the shop because it has a 630 yen rack. By good fortune, when we went there, they were having a sale and the rack had a reduced price of 315 Yen! I picked up a white pleated skirt for 315 yen 🙂

Making Wedding Dress Pt.4 – Cutting Fashion Fabric

August 15, 2011 By Chie

So my friend texted me the other day to tell me that she received the 5th muslin and it fit!! I was super relieved to hear that. Now I know that my pattern fits her and it’s time to cut the final fabric! I was super anxious before I received the text from her. I was jittery, and kept checking my emails to see if she had sent word. I was so happy when she finally told me it fit her well.

As I wrote in my previous post, I’m working on seam lines, instead of seam allowances. This way I get a more accurate fit.

I was so nervous about cutting the actual fabric! But I reminded myself that if I screw it up, I can always go to Nippori and buy some more. No biggie!

I made sure not to use pins inside the seam lines. I didn’t want any needle marks on the fabric. The fabric I worked on was easily scratched.

I cut out all the pieces for the top part of the dress – center front, front side, back side and center back. Then I ironed on the iron-on interface. After using the iron-on interface though, I kind of regretted using it and thought it would have been better to use muslin fabric to underline it.