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
A couple of Saturday’s ago, I took Kiko to a nearby library. They were doing a puppet show for kids. I brought her assuming she would enjoy herself, which she did. Serendipitously, it happened that on the same day the library was also having a book flea market. They were selling used books for 10 yen a piece! That’s 10 cents. I got even more excited when I saw these old sewing books from 80’s and fashion school text books used by Bunka Fashion College. I got seven books in total for 70 yen. 🙂
Andy’s grandmother surprised me with these three new sewing books for my birthday. She spent more money on shipping than the cost of the books themselves, sending them all the way from the U.S. I’m so thrilled to have finally gotten these books that had been on my wish list for a while!
The Colette Sewing Handbook by Sarai Mitnick
First off, The Colette book! Who doesn’t know about this book in the home sewing world? If you don’t you have to check out the Colette blog, which is full of tutorials and inspirations. This book is full of pretty pictures and illustrations, and I think it’s great for beginners. It comes with a couple of patterns, and I’m excited to get my hands busy working on them. These patterns seem perfect for the upcoming warm seasons.
Next up is Make Your Own Dress Patterns by Adele P. Margolis. If you are interested in drafting your own patterns, this is a great reference book. Even if you are not particularly interested in pattern making, knowing about pattern drafting basics will transform your sewing experience! This is kind of like a text book for me, where I sit down with highlighter and make notes like the good old college days. I’ve read one amazon review that said “the illustration of the book is old”, but I love the retro feel of the illustrations! There are no pictures, but plenty of vintage-ish illustrations through out the book.
The last one of the 3 is Design-It-Yourself Clothes Patternmaking Simplified by Cal Patch. This is last on my reading list just because the book seems very basic and the contents might overlap with the Colette book and BurdaStyle book. The book includes a section on sewing pants, so that’s a plus!
Besides these sewing books, I recently finished the last Steig Larsson book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. I was relieved to finish it. It was long. Right now I’m reading The Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It is a rather sad book, but I’m really enjoying learning about the lives of women in Afganistan.
What are in your reading list? Any recommendation for both sewing and non-sewing books?
