Drape drape arrival

Look what arrived in the mail today - Drape Drape - in English!

Excitements galore!

I'm going to spend a good amount of time tonight flicking through this but from the bits and pieces I've picked up from the blogosphere, I think there will be at least a couple of things I'll want to try making up from here.

I sure love online shopping :)

I can't even knit

But I totally have to buy this book!!

Cuteness overload!!

Greedy

Is it bad that I want Stylish Dress Book 3 when I have both 1 and 2 as well as a few other Japanese pattern books plus a million other patterns I haven't touched?

Posts from make something and verypurpleperson are really not helping me in any way...

It's arrived!

After seeing several mentions of this book being released, I decided that I needed to get it ASAP. I found the other two Built By Wendy books very clear and easy to read (and I can finally put the 2nd one to use now that I have my overlocker *hurrah*) so I ended up placing an order from The Book Depository a week ago.

Here it is freshly opened from its cardboard packaging.

I know what I'll be doing this lunchbreak.

Books!

2 new purchases - Amy Karol's book "Bend-The-Rules Sewing"


and Kelly Doust's book "The Crafty Minx"


Both of them are gorgeously presented and after having read "Bend-The-Rules Sewing" from cover to cover I am absolutely loving it. I suspect from flicking through "The Crafty Minx", it will probably serve more as inspiration than an out-right instructional book as it seems to have fewer diagrams/patterns than a lot of sewing books I have come across.

Hopefully I'll have something of note to show from these soon!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

New purchases

Wooooooo! I am so pleased with my purchases! I had a game plan for my weekend in Sydney and even though I only managed to complete half of it, it was the half that mattered! I made it to Kinokuniya and spent a good 45 minutes browsing the Japanese craft book section.

Other than the fact that there were a multitude of books there that caught my eye, I was especially pleased that I could look through the patterns inside the books. A couple of the books I'd been eyeing online turned out to be WAY too complicated for me to follow, with super small diagrams and a whole heaps of Japanese text (which I do not read/speak, just fyi).

I ended up coming away with the following 3 books - Girly Style Wardrobe, Stylish Dress Book (the pre-cursor to Stylish Dress Book 2 - I wouldn't have guessed, I know) and Girl's Everyday Dress.


All I need to do now is get some tracing paper to copy out the patterns and see if I can make head or tail of the diagrams!

Due to time constraints I didn't make it to Menya (sorry Frannie!) but there was a cafe called Ichi-ban Boshi just outside of Kinokuniya that looked like it had some decent Japanese fare so we decided to do lunch there and then. The food was given 2 thumbs up by all!


Princess S enjoying her edemame - she ate the whole lot!



My super yummy salmon don set

All in all a great day spent before jetting off to the airport - couldn't have asked for much more than my share of good food, exciting purchases, gorgeous weather (a sunny 28 degrees in the middle of winter!) and great company!

Meet Me at Mike's

I received a lovely gift from my great friend KazKaz as a thank you for hemming up her skirt. Totally unnecessary since I quite enjoyed doing it, but it was very sweet of her. The gift itself was very welcome, as it was a copy of the newly published Meet Me at Mike's book.


I'd seen the book around in a few places but hadn't thought about purchasing since it would have meant additional distractions from the other projects I have literally piling up around the house. I instead made do with taking a few sneak peeks whenever I had a few minutes in a bookshop, and checking out Pip's related blog instead.

It's chock-full of gorgeous little projects and the presentation is a work of art in itself.



For those of you who might not have the opportunity to buy it from a local bookstore, you can order a copy from Readings online, where the book is described as:

"From Melbourne’s best loved crafty store comes Meet Me at Mike’s, a cornucopia of crafty fun and inspiration. Queen of Crafters Pip Lincolne has gathered 25 of the best projects from the country’s most creative cleverbods -everything from baby yoga pants and clutch purses to hankies and softies. You can sew, knit, crochet, collage and screenprint yourself into a frenzy! Each cute and quirky project comes with easy-to-follow instructions and full-size fold out patterns. With such a fabulous range of ideas, you’ll find something to make for all your favourite pals. If you’re looking for fun and creative things to brighten up everyone’s day, have a peek inside and get crafty!"


I've got my eye on these pretty fabric coasters for my first project but there are so many other gorgeous things in there I might change my mind a few times over!

Thanks HEAPS KazKaz! ;D

Another distraction - the Stylish Dress Book

I was soooo excited to get this package in the mail! After seeing several blogs such as Japan Craft Journal and Domesticali mentioning this Japanese pattern book and after always admiring the simplicity and clean lines of some Japanese clothing, I knew I had to get my grubby little hands on one of these.



After a bit of research, I decided I would buy the book from a seller on Etsy. Landmark moment - my first Etsy purchase - and I was happy I picked well since the book arrived in speedily from Japan, and in pristine condition, so thanks very much to ichigonopantsu!

Even though I can't read Japanese, the illustrations in the book seem clear enough, so hopefully when the time comes for me to have a go at one of these patterns (ideally after everything on my to-do list has been completed!), I won't be too confused.



There are a couple of patterns I am really liking, but am refraining from getting carried away until I have proper time to sit down and plan what I want to make. In the meantime, check out some of the designs below.



Thoughts?

Sew U x 2

I'm excited - I picked up my Xmas present from my mum today from Dymocks. Yes, a bit late for Xmas, but they had to be ordered in from whereever books are made so they arrived today. I must say I am quite impressed that they now send SMSs to notify customers to pick up their orders.

Anyhoos, I thought I would share my excitement since it has been quite awhile since I have been this interested or stuck to something for a long-ish period of time (i.e. more than a month).

I'm currently reading through the first of the 2 books by Wendy Mullin titled 'Sew U'. It's about sewing (*duh*) and her approach is to teach people the basics and then explain how you can change a plain item into something completely different by altering the design slightly or adding some embellishments.




The 2nd book, 'Sew U: Home Stretch', builds on the first book but deals with stretch materials, which are a whole different kettle of fish. A quick glance through it has made me think I need an overlocker but seeing as I am broke, and lacking space, I may not be working with stretch materials in the near future. I do however want to be able to make a hoodie, so watch this space.



For any blossoming seamspeople (is that a word?) out there, I highly recommend these books (especially Sew U) based on what I have seen so far.

Best bit about these books is that they each come with 3 basic sewing patterns. Meh you might be thinking, what's the big deal about that? Well let me tell you, all other books I have seen either provide patterns for things that are not to scale, or are rough drawings that you have to draft into patterns. The way I see it, what's the point? Nice pictures of finished items are great and all, but I don't really see them helping me along with developing my sewing skills.

If all goes well, you may see creations using the patterns from the book in my blog somewhere along the line *yay*