Sasa's sister took a trip to New York recently and brought me back this wonderful book. I was so overwhelmed with the number of things I marked to make out of it. Every page is full of beautiful and simple styles. The one problem? It's in Japanese. All Japanese. I know I tackled this shirt, but that was out of a book with step by step instructions in full colored pictures. This book has a few drawings, and that's about it.
So I picked one of the easiest (looking) dresses and after some initial confusion on how to find the actual pattern pieces amongst the jumbled pattern pages, I turned this dress out in a little under two hours.
I used some light-weight denim chambray I had been saving since last summer for myself, and an Amy Butler print I received in a fabric swap from Ella for the bias and ruffle. I've found that I really like Japanese patterns. Just two winters ago, I found myself using one of my very first patterns (in English!) and had so many problems that I enlisted the help of many experienced sewers. But in Japanese? Well, you have the basics and a template to work from, and you get to make up the steps yourself. And for me, that's way easier!
And the vintage boots? Well, let's just say that somebody loves me...a lot!
