…is finished

I’m pleased with how it turned out, except for the neck being a little baggy in front. I planned to use the (resized) pattern again but redo the front bodice using a FBA instead of slash-and-spread, to try and fix the neckline, but unfortunately I managed to wreck the whole thing. I went out (wearing my new dress!) and had left the newspaper pattern near the window. It rained. Sob…

Well, today I started making this dress like I mentioned in my last post -

Unfortunately the biggest size in the book is a Japanese 13, which means I needed to add at least 12cm! Luckily for me there’s a good tutorial on resizing patterns here.

I use newspaper and pins for tracing patterns (lay the pattern over a sheet of newspaper, prick holes along the pattern outline and then join up the holes). This took forever, especially as the book has 21 patterns which it manages to fit onto 2 sheets by printing them over each other! Well anyway, 3 and a half hours work later, and I’ve got me the bones of a frock ^_^

In the picture you can see the fabric (a sakura-print textured cotton) I’m using still pinned to the newspaper, and a little of the crazy pattern sheet!

The book is ‘dress up, dress down - simple chic’ by Machiko Kayaki (amazon.jp…) and is utterly gorgeous - I plan to have a crack at nearly everything in the book, but the resizing makes it a bit of a major undertaking!

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Everyone else is doing it, why not me?

Well, I’m Steph, I’ll soon be 31, I live in the yarn capital of Japan (home of Noro, natch) and I love knitting and sewing. I’m a bit of a geek too!

Lets start with some WIPs…

Cotton socks for fleur

weird acryl/cotton socks for mee!

DNA scarf (http://www.twosheep.com/helix/) - I’m 1 and a bit repeats into the pattern and it’s going OK so far…

I’ve also got a whole bundle of things I’m bored with and need to frog!

Next I’m planning…

Bright red lacy socks in ‘cotton Isis’

Turning the Hello Kitty apron I got at the conbini tombola into a bag.

Swirly skirt in red/polka-dot (pattern copied from a skirt I already own)

The cover image dress from this book - http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/s/?@0_mall/book/cabinet/5791/57910961.jpg - but it needs a lot of resizing first. Actually all the patterns in there are utterly gorgeous, but need making much bigger - ulp!

Hello Kitty net curtains (great shop in Ichinomiya sells KT curtain netting!)

Oh, and about a million and one other things!