The Age of Dressing Responsibly

I did not feel like a real grown up until I started looking for kindergarten for my 3 year-old. I had to survey several schools, finding out which best suits our needs and financial allowance. I started to really think about decent outfit for school tours. I have lived most of my life in jeans. Shirt and skinny jeans combo seems to be the most apt uniform for mother role.

Different from where I come from, the school year of a kindergarten in Japan starts with a ceremony, in which all parents and children gather to listen to the school orientation speech and then take a picture of the class. This is a formal event that requires formal dressing as well. It is easy for my husband. Men can not go wrong wearing formal suits to almost anywhere here in Tokyo. As for me, it is quite a problem. My wardrobe is not equipped for such occasion.

So I plan to sew myself a nice jacket or blazer from cheap black cotton boucle from my stash. I just purchased a meter of mysterious black fusible interfacing, which I have already successfully tested out on the boucle. I usually play it safe by using only Vilene brand and have only recently tried to experiment using different weights of interfacing. I love this interfacing I bought in a small shop located at the end of the Nippori Fabric Town street. It is a shop specializing in interfacing in various colors and weights, and colorful lining fabrics. I was a little hesitate to buy as they were sold by the cheap. Even the lining fabric was sold cheaper than the famous cheapo Tomato. I thought prices could not get any lower than in Tomato Nippori but it could. I am definitely coming back to this shop. I have never found fusible interfacing in wine elsewhere.

While I am at it, I also have to mention another shop nearby, Iwase Grow Up. I went in because it has this nice rustic blue door that has Provencal feel. Inside I found a large selection of knits, larger than Tomato, but cheaper than Pakira Knits. By large selection I mean there are more interesting pattern knits here compared to the boring Tomato. I was tempted to buy but managed to stick to my initial intention: gabardine for formal jacket. However, I did buy something from the remnant bin, a meter of stretchy black polyester, out of guilt. I just did not feel comfortable to walk out empty handed after ooh-aah-ing for almost 40 minutes there.

On my way to Tomato (I don't know why visiting this shop felt compulsory when I am in Nippori), I stopped by at IDN, a shop I discovered from Carolyn S' blog. By the way, Carolyn lives in Australia. I am kinda embarrassed that I should know about it from someone who lives in different continent while I live a few stations away from it. Again this shop has nice selection of fashion fabrics with cheaper prices. I feel like the end is near for me and Yuzawaya. However, I did not find the gabardine that I was looking for here either so I decided to buy some muslin for the jacket instead at Tomato.

At home, I immediately washed and air-dried my purchase, curious about its fiber content. It seems that the twill for my muslin is cotton. Good thing, for 100 yen a meter. The stretchy black polyester was not bad either, being quite thick. I plan to use it for dressy pants.

Now that I have decided to use the boucle from my stash for my jacket, I can use the rather nice twill for something else. I am thinking a muslin for Burda pants that I plan to make twice in gabardine and wool.

I am thinking to use a jacket with peplum pattern out of Burdastyle March 2011 issue.




I am not sure if I can leave out the petite alteration with this pattern as I don't have experience in shortening vertical darts. Well, I guess I will see about that. Wish me luck.