Biggubaggu

The Age of Dressing Responsibly

2011-03-01T00:44:00.004+09:00

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.

I have never thought of dyeing my shoes before

2011-01-08T08:55:00.003+09:00

I feel like I should try it although not now.

Antique your shoes from Michael Alden on Vimeo.

Happy New Year, Blog

2011-01-01T01:02:00.002+09:00

Happy New Year, Blog. I have decided to resurrect you and give you another chance to breath my creativity. I know that I have promised the same thing 2 years ago but things should be different from now on. We should let life take its turn between us and now you see that it permits us to have this relationship once again.

It is a difficult commitment though, to constantly document my bits of creativity. This is especially difficult as I deliberately limit my time to connect to the Internet. I'd love to go out and play too, you know. Come summer, your best bet is that I'm out in the park reading.

But summer is still a long time from now. These past few days, as days and nights get colder, I find comfort spending my time writing my thoughts away. So, expect me visiting a lot more often from now on. Happy New Year again.

Sailor Shirt Jacket

2010-01-14T22:40:00.003+09:00

I bought this fleece to make a no-sew cape for Katie as featured in Disney's blog. The cape turned out fine but Katie wouldn't wear it. Or even try it. So I reused the pieces to make this shirt. Since it's made of fleece, it serves as an outer wear now.

I accidentally tried the zigzag stitch and was happy that I did. The straight stitch was really boring and got lost in the bulkiness of the fabric making the shirt look plain.

Front view

Zigzag stitch detail

Zigzag stitch at sleeve hem

Back view

Pattern : Sailor Shirt size 100 Sewing Naturira vol. 2
Fabric : Dotted fleece

Losing Interest

2009-12-18T23:10:00.002+09:00

Really, tell me if you don't lose interest in sewing when reading something like this:

Shoulder seams quilt, at the lateral seam lines beginen exactly and/or end. Quilt the shoulder seams to fitting. Vord. Fit to the front part, rear walls. Fit to the backs quilt. Seam additions in the foremost and back iron.

Side seams on the upper section, shoulder seams at the trimming quilt.

At the skirt courses the folds in direction of arrow insert and festheften. Rear wall. Skirt central joint quilt, the slot open leave. Side seams quilt. Skirt on upper section quilt. The seam additions iron upward.

From the outside in such a way it puts and festheften the opened zipper on the backs that the denticles with the rear walls. Edges lock. The tape ends thereby hit. Zipper volumes approx. 2mm beside the denticles and along the band edges stitch, in addition zipper füßchen begin.

Seam addition inward iron, by hand sew on.

Sleeve seams quilt. Sleeve seam additions inward iron and by hand sew on.

The sleeves kept use. Shoulder pads insert. To belts see model 111.

Well, it's an English google translation from Burda magazine German edition.

It's a kimono.

2009-06-27T02:51:00.006+09:00

With a different take.

It's an adaptation of a kimono worn under a kappogi. This is how Ms. Hiroko wears it:

Photo via here

And this is how the model with the adapted top:

The back of the collar stays true to the traditional kimono collar

Kimono and kappogi in one layer

nooy S/S '09 collection
photos via www.nooy.jp

Is it or is it not Liberty?

2009-06-27T01:52:00.006+09:00

So. I didn't make that dress.

Instead, I made a blouse that only took up 1 yard of my (precious) Liberty. The pattern instruction stated that the material needed is 1 m 50 cm. Well, I spent some time arranging my pattern pieces in the most frugal manner. It paid, because now I'm left with 1 meter leftover to make something else with.

(to give an idea of) the fit

The length of the blouse hits about 3 cm below my natural waist. It's a little, 1 meter top that features fluttered sleeved and twisted bias tape neckline . The neckline is all hand-sewn. I finished the top in about 3 or 4 days. I worked slowly, trying it on quite frequently to check the fit and especially the sleeves. It really winged out at first--which I don't like.

(hopefully) up-close

The original pattern actually requires for a seemingly heavier weight fabric. The sleeves and neckline are not supposed to be iron-pressed to give a bouffant look. I didn't press the neckline, however, I may have had accidentally pressed the edge of the sleeves. I don't have a ham so it was difficult to press the shoulder seams flat to prevent the sleeves from winging out without touching the edge of the sleeves.

As for the title, I showed a friend this creation who was so curious to see what I came up with my first and exhilarated Liberty. Her first reaction was: "This is not a Liberty... Liberty doesn't touch and feel like this."

Erin from A Dress A Day once posted here her uncertainty about the "printed in Japan" selvage of Liberty fabric she found in Nippori, Tokyo. I have browsed the Internet about this matter as well but remain unsure about the status of my fabric. I bought it cheap though. Hmm...

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Pattern: Happy Homemade vol. 3
Fabric: 100% light weight cotton
Notion: thread #60 and needle #11

Chocolate pudding gone wrong

2009-06-01T13:45:00.006+09:00

I used to think that anything you make with chocolate can't go wrong, until I tried out this Best Chocolate Pudding. Originally I intended to use up leftover gelatine to make something similar to Indonesian puding that uses agar.

I knew that pudding and puding are not the same thing but when I looked at those ramekins filled up with that dark gooey chocolate substance, I could not resist the temptation. I had all the ingredients on hand--they were not many, read the instruction--quick and easy, and convinced myself for the last time reading the comments that follow the recipe. At 10.30 pm we went to bed hoping for nice chocolate pudding to gobble after brunch (it was weekend).

In the morning...

It was gooey--exactly which the author raves about--and was not anything that we had expected. It had cornstarch in it and I could still taste it. The next day the upper layer formed a skin to the rich chocolate liquid underneath. The next two days, my husband and I believed that it was chocolate ice cream. It had the kind of consistency of ice cream that you move from freezer and leave in the fridge for an hour.

I'm not sure how to rate this recipe but I'm sure not making this again.

I like it, but won't wear it.

2009-05-30T00:23:00.004+09:00

I finished making a dress from Stylish Dress Book Vol. II a couple of days ago. Would love to post a picture but we don't have any camera yet. I can always use the camera on this computer but it's too much a hassle. So that you can imagine what kind of dress I'm talking about, it's this:

Photo via tiny happy

When the second volume of the sensational Stylish Dress Book came out, it caused such a stir in the sewing blogosphere that I googled to find out what is in the book. (No, I didn't run to the bookstore even though I live in Japan.) I was not impressed at all seeing some pictures uploaded in some blogs, and was especially not interested in the dress pattern that made out the cover of the book, thinking what a silly way of using such delicate fabric as Liberty. Until one day, I got the chance to look at the actual book and closely examined the instructions. I still insist that the patterns are not new--they are the old patterns from the previous volume with some modifications. However, these modifications are a bit major, and precious to me. I can learn new techniques, such as making buttons with loops instead of buttonholes, or adding smock and simple embroidery to a dress. I was bought.

Of all models, the first dress I made from the book is the dress in the cover. I have 2 yards of Liberty fabric--my first Liberty yardage, ahem--and have been looking for the the right pattern for it. I finally decided to make a muslin out of old bedsheet the style D that is described by the author as "the boxy dress".

Apparently to me, it's not a boxy dress at all. It's an oversized T-shirt that I used to have back in the days when Grifone graffiti skater's shirt was considered cool. When I was in junior high, they made this style in knit/jersey, now they re-invent the style again in Liberty. I was like, huh??

But anyway, I became even more curious. So I did it and it was a snap! Easy peasy. I especially love the sleeves, which in the making were so easy to attach. But, the beauty of the design is that you can opt to leave the sleeves and have a batwing style instead. So, you see, the body and (cap) sleeve is all in one pattern piece. Easy, right? Despite it's t-shirt like, I like the outcome. It's comfortable yet modern. My husband seems to like it even more than I do.

Well, it's not what this post all about though. It's rather about the length of the dress. It's been some time for me not wearing short dresses. When I was young and skinny, about 3 years ago, what considered cute and stylish was the knee length dresses or longer. I still have those dresses and, trying them out now, I feel like they need to be refashioned to keep up with the world today. However, I never really feel like a short dress person. In fact, my thighs are just not so flattering in minis.

I'm glad I made my new dress in muslin. When I wear it and do my activities in my usual manners, I tend to reveal my body parts too much. Although the dress is very comfortable when I stand up and move about, it's not the case when I sit on the couch or on the floor. Hence, I googled "how to wear short dresses".

Well well, I'm not the only one with the problem haha. The links suggested that I wear boyshorts, or leggings, or even wide-leg pants underneath. The idea is the older you are the less revealing your outfit should be. I agree. The Japanese, with their continuing love with wearing layers even throughout the summer, will undoubtedly wear a pair of leggings or stockings underneath. Possibly the cropped ones. The cuter/kawaii types will probably go with pettipants (developed from the idea of petticoat, in the form of pants) with lace trims. But, I don't think that look is for me. Sometimes, when you're not Japanese and you dress like the Japanese do, you'll end up looking silly, if not pushy.

I'm still thinking whether I should make the dress or not. But surely, I won't make it using my Liberty.

Using up my scraps-Part 1

2009-03-27T15:29:00.005+09:00

She likes it. That's rare.

Distracting myself from Stinchcomb

2009-03-22T16:48:00.009+09:00

This weekend I cooked quite a lot. It's a long weekend in Japan, starting from Friday 20th. We had plans but none of them worked. We were too lazy to keep up with our own plans, blaming it on the weather--one day rained, one day was surprisingly sunny.

Friday dinner I made Tahu Telor from this recipe, which made great peanut sauce. I served this with bean sprout and kyuri, hoping they would off set the calories from the fat. Oh by the way, Tahu Telor is Omelette (of 4 eggs) with Tofu, dressed with mild-hot garlicky peanut sauce. Husband was pretty impressed with both taste and presentation.

Saturday dinner we had Buffalo Chicken Wings from this recipe. Hot hot and we licked them without shame because they were so wonderfully yummy! Another great thing about it is that it's baked instead of deep-fried.

I also had 2 bunch of spinach I needed to use so I made Chicken Spinach Quiche minus the chicken, but added macaroni for some carb for the toddler in the house. Hmm.. good. But we couldn't touch them more than we wanted to because it had all the good things in it (read: cheese, full cream milk, and mayo). Too bad the kid didn't care for it. I think it was too salty for her taste. Well actually it was too salty for me too, so...

Sunday morning we had pancakes for breakfast. We've been having pancakes three days in a row and haven't got bored yet. I'm loving my new basic pancake recipe from Martha Stewart I found from someone's blog. I forgot what the blog was. Before, I always made pancakes using my trusted Fluffy Pancakes recipe, and used buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon lemon juice to the milk. I tried out the new recipe out of curiosity for I believed that my trusted recipe was unbeatable.

It's beaten. Martha Stewart's Basic Pancake is certainly basic but somehow makes fluffier pancakes than the Fluffy Pancake recipe. They're easier to make too; no buttermilk needed and they will come out fluffy anyway; and use only one measuring cup. Plus, it reveals a secret to soft and fluffy pancakes: to not overdo the mixture. I used to mix my flour hard and long so that all the lumps are gone. Turned out that lumps are not a bad thing.

Sunday lunch we had the leftover of last night's dinner. Then we watched "27 Dresses". I was kinda hoping the movie was loaded with nice dresses like in The Sex and the City. But apparently it was about 27 bridemaid dresses that I can't use as inspiration. And I'm not going to rate/review the movie. Afterwards, I cooked Beef Curry for my husband's office party he's attending. It was quite a big batch since the portion was 4 times bigger that we usually cook for ourselves. I finished around 5 pm and now is attending my potates roasting in the oven, using this recipe.

Now that the cooking marathon is over, I eventually have to face him...

... the Stinchcomb.

I've been working on this guy since October 2008. It was supposed to finish before Christmas but I had to put it off due to making capes for our choir. I already cut the pattern pieces and the fabric for the jacket. Later, husband decided that we had to come home for Christmas and visited my sick father-in-law. When we got back in Japan in mid January, I had several other unfinished objects, apart from the Stinchcomb. I decided to finish easier stuff before diving into the jacket. I also managed to finish a Lydia using 100 yen knit fabric bought from Nippori which turned out way too big for me although I made the smallest size.

Look at that collar. Ohh... And the topstitching. I never thought that topstitching could be a serious issue but it is.

This jacket is hemmed and the sleeves are done. I'm still waiting for my muse to arrive so I can attach the sleeves and proceed with the lining. Really, from here on it shouldn't take long to finish the garment. But all I do is avoiding it for the whole weekend. Maybe it's because the fun part is over. Now I know how to construct the collar and lapel, which I failed miserably because now there is a hole at one corner of the collar.

I certainly have learned a lot from trying to sew this jacket. One lesson is to have a storebought jacket instead because struggling to sew one is just not worth my time and effort. Besides, I have no idea what horse hair is and am clueless as to where to find one. And I'm guessing that those materials needed for a decent looking jacket is not at a price I'm willing to pay. You see, I sew stuff out of frugality and I'd like to stick with it. Uniqlo has a range of beautifully sewn men's jacket with, based on this Stinchcomb experience therefore I concluded, a nice price tag too. Making this will be my first and last attempt on men's jacket. Although I can't wait to try my hands on Steffi with lighter fabric due to my machine limitation. So it should be a spring jacket. This spring? I don't think so.

I Didn't Cut It Right

2008-08-20T11:47:00.000+09:00

Arrggghh....

I was so sure that I did this right and very carefully. But I ended up having the front piece of an adult onepiece project I've been working on shorter than the back piece! How terrible is that?

So I checked where the problem is. If you're not familiar with Japanese pattern that comes with a book, it's like this: it's 3-5 multisized patterns drafted all in the same large paper and another 3-5 multisized patterns drafted in the other side of the large paper. So it looks like crazy. Of course, tracing from this pattern is doable but you must do it with patience, precision, and carefulness. I think I have done so with extra cautions but I still end up feeling stupid like now.

My case is this. I traced all and the only pattern pieces that belong to the project (judging by the number) I am working on. I also traced and then cut a mysterious looking pattern, not knowing whose part of the garment it was. But I continued anyway with cutting the fabric.

Lesson 1: NEVER CUT YOUR FABRIC USING YOUR PATTERN IN HANDS UNLESS YOU ARE 100% SURE ABOUT YOUR PATTERN PIECES.

OK, all were nicely cut, I loved myself. I moved on with sewing, that is to attach the front piece of main body to the back piece and here where I screamed out of despair: I had the front piece shorter than the back piece. As you might guess, the mysterious looking pattern piece is the elongation of the front pattern (can I use the word 'elongation' here?). I should have attached them first to cut the front piece.

I got so reluctant to continue my project, thinking what I could do to repair the damage. I could actually be creative with the uncut piece; pintuck it to add accent to the garment or something else. But I'm too broken-hearted now, so I don't know...

Cut It Right

2008-08-20T11:29:00.000+09:00

I finally got the chance to cut my very first adult garment project. Maann, did I take a long way just to get here. I am a beginner sewer so I take my time and take every step a little too carefully. Maybe it's also because of the book I'm reading. I use as reference a book titled Sewing Recipe, a Japanese basic sewing guide--not that I can read Japanese. However, the pictures in the book are very clear that I braved my heart to purchase the book, convinced that I can always guess and/or look up for similar method or technique in English sewing blogs.

Anyway, I have been meaning to sew a one-piece from this book. I did the preliminary steps that are tracing the pattern and tracing the pattern carefully. I did the tracing--Japanese way--using a tutorial posted in label-free. After cutting all the pattern pieces, I transfered the pattern onto my fabric using 2-ways carbon paper. (Back in my home country, carbon paper has only one side.) I put the carbon paper inside the folded fabric (a back piece) then traced the seam lines onto the fabric. Interesting. Now I have two identical pattern in form of freezer paper and cut out fabric. I love this.

I have learned from past experiences--2 bags and 2 tops for my 11 m.o. baby (I haven't been a long time sewer)--that precision pays. It saves so much time and energy. I am still learning how to keep my straight sticth goes straight along the (imaginary) seam allowance. As a result, I rip at least 3 times after each seam and/or the end product sizes a bit too little than the intended. That is why, now that I am taking the courage to move on with bigger sized project such as an adult one-piece, I take the time to transfer the seam lines onto my fabric. I just can't trust myself with imaginary seam allowance. (I am not sure if transfering the pattern onto fabric is a standard measure in sewing or if long time sewers know by heart where to put their seam allowance.) In fact, I work veery slowly, like 3 weeks for tracing the pattern alone. There's this cutie in the house who always wants me for herself, so...