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Custom Wedding Dress & Kimono Upcycled Clothes | オーダーメイドウェディングドレス&着物ドレス

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Early Valentine’s Day gift guide

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I feel like time flies, just a month ago we had Christmas, and now I’m talking about Valentine’s day! Have you decided what you’d like to give to your boyfriend/husband? I have an idea, but can’t share it here since my husband might find out what I’m going to give him, if he reads this post. So instead, I made a list of things that I’ve been eyeing to get for my self. They are all from etsy!


Top: Hanamik DSLR lense cap case, Bottom right: Valentine’s day soup, Bottom left: Imyourpresent valentine’s day cardi

I also made some Valentine’s day themed stuff for my shop. It was really fun coming up with ideas with Valentine’s day theme in mind. I added pink heart applique for the red lounge wear, and red heart patch pockets for the pink PJ set. Oops, excuse my belly button!

Valentine’s day PJ gift set

American Valentine’s day and Japanese Valentine’s day are much different – In Japan, Valentine’s day is a day girls confess their love to their loved ones. So much pressure and effort required on girls. When my husband and I started dating when we were in college, my husband took me to a dinner and Broadway musical in NYC on our first Valentine’s day, and I was thrilled! So different from Japanese Valentine’s day. Since then, in our household we abide by American Valentine’s day rules..

Saturday date in Machida and thrift shopping

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Hi! I hope everyone’s weekend was nice and relaxing. My husband and I went out a little date on Saturday to a city called Machida. It’s close to where we live and has two fabric shops that I like, Yuzawaya and Okadaya. Besides going to fabric shops and grabbing a bite, we stopped by at a thrift shop called “390”. Literally everything they have is 390 yen (about less than $4). I like the shop because they actually have vintage clothing imported from the U.S. and Europe, not just someone’s old clothes from GAP. Besides vintage clothes, they have new scarves, i-phone case shaped like candy bar, head phones and other cute goodies.

There I found this 70’s (maybe 80’s? tag was removed) dress. I love the dusty pale pink color, bat/dolmen sleeves and, peplum, but the dress seems to be able to use some tweaking.

So I removed the shoulder pads, shorten the length, and added lining for the skirt part.
It’s kind of hard to see the difference between before & after in the photos, but I like after version much better, and I think it’s more wearable!

Filed Under: DIY

Buying fabric online for the first time

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I bought fabric online this week, for the first time in my life. I know, I’ve been sewing and selling my clothes online for over 2 years now, but I had never purchased fabrics online before. I always went to fabric stores, touch the fabrics as much as I want before I decide to buy it. Fabric shopping is one of the most crucial parts of my creating process, since I come up with so many new ideas for new clothes while I’m staring and touching different fabrics at the shop.

This week, I finally decided to buy fabrics online, since I found a good online shop in Japan, where it offers free shipping for order above 3000 yen (30 dollars). I also felt a bit lazy to go all the way to Nippori fabric district this week, simply because it has been so cold here! It hasn’t snowed yet so I should not complain, but the air is icing cold. I truly miss Summer!

Here is what I bought online:

from left to right:

1. black cotton jersey
2. black white and red plaid wool
3. grayish white cotton jersey
4. pink jersey (?) although it doesnt have much stretch. mix of cotton and poly. percentage unknown
5. animal print for baby clothes

As a conclusion, I’m pretty satisfied with fabrics I received. The service was great, I received my order within two days, which I think is pretty good. Online fabric shopping will come really handy once the baby is born, when I will have less time to travel & carry around heavy fabrics in train.

One drawback to this experience was that I could not expect how much stretch the fabrics had. Some of my orders were jersey, but #4 pink jersey wasn’t really jersey. It has very minimal stretch, and I was a bit disappointed because I intended to use the fabric to make T-shirt type stuff.

Do you online shop fabrics much? Any tips or advice on how to get what you are really looking for without feeling the fabrics?