My Challenge.

The other day I was shopping on-line at SuperBuzzy for fabric to use for a couple of birthday gifts when I clicked on the link for books and magazines. The page contained a variety of Japanese pattern books and I immediately fell in love with the one pictured in the above picture. I ordered it despite the fact that it is written in Japanese. The description for the book included the following: Note that the magazine is written in Japanese, but patterns and schematics are included. Crafters who cannot read Japanese but who have some sewing experience are usually able to interpret the instructions without any trouble, and others can use the projects as inspiration for their own creations.

I studied the patterns and the instructions last week and decided my first attempt would be the dress on the cover, but for some reason at the very last minutes I decided to make the one on the right in this picture.


The first step was to trace the pattern on to wax paper. It took almost an hour to figure out how to cut out the white inset on the bodice of the dress. It was during this process that I decided to pull out some inexpensive fabric and make a dress with it first. It took three more hours to sew the rest of the dress together. (For those of you that are wondering when I find the time. I started at eight last night and didn't finish until eleven. The kids were asleep.) It was a challenge and that's putting it mildly. I was able to figure it out because each pattern has detailed drawing like this one.



Here it is....

Here's a shot of Lilly modeling for me.



And here's one of her screaming her head off because Ryan barged in on her photo shoot.


Now I plan to make make one with more traditional fabrics. I am thinking about a cream colored linen, or muslin trimmed in black. I may even embroider something from Sublime Stitching at the hem.