Photo inspiration for Spring collection shoot

The photoshoot of my mini Spring collection is coming up this weekend! I am busy sewing, preparing and coordinating for the shoot, and really excited to share the result here sometime next week. I am working on a fun collaboration which I can't wait to share with you very soon..

Here are some of the photo inspirations that I've collected for the shoot. All the top photos are from Liebemarlene Vintage and two bottom are from That's Chic.

We are aiming to catch the soft light from the background, and the main shoot will be done right before sunset..I'm really hoping that it won't rain this weekend! Wish me a luck❤

Friday shop update and some thoughts on international shipping fee

Happy Friday!
Here are some things that were recently added to my shop. Lots of prints!
Top left: Black and White stripes scarf, $12
Top right: Black & White rose kimono dress, $50
Bottom left: 50's inspired plaid dress, $90
Bottom right: 50's inspired floral dress, $90

A recent purchase I made online got me thinking about the cost of international shipping fees. I found a dress I liked for $10, and the listing said it includes domestic shipping fee within the U.S. So, I emailed the seller to ask how much the shipping fee be to Japan. It was extra $10, so the total would be $20. Double the price?
I decided to ask her to ship the item to my family's address in NY, so they can forward the item to me, which in the end, will cost me less money. Honestly, it does not cost $10 to ship a light weight summer dress to Japan from the U.S.  I know because I ship world constantly!

Granted, I have only lived in the U.S. and Japan, and have most of my experience working within those countries but, I often feel like etsy and ebay sellers are overcharging the international shipping fee. I don't know if they are including the so called "handling fee", but many times it makes me feel that they are trying to make money by overcharging on shipping fees. I understand higher shipping fee cost if you are getting a wedding dress in a big box, or industrial coffee maker but honestly, it really turns me off to see sellers charging exorbitant for no reason.

I usually charge $5 for orders from the U.S., and $7 for other countries. I charge a standard $5 for U.S., shipping even though, many times, I end up paying a slight difference out of my pocket.  The way I see it, most of my customers are from the U.S., and I do not want the shipping fee to be deterrent from ordering from my shop. Also as I see it, the seller should be quick to refund if they cost is less than had been previously expected.

Just my two cents.....what is your take on shipping fees?

28 weeks

28 weeks! I officially started the third trimester of pregnancy. It's crazy! Everything is going so fast. Not much change from last week..just having some sleeping problems time to time. I don't sleep well 2 nights out of 3. I wake myself up trying to change sleeping position...

So I'm wearing my first self-made maternity clothes! I did not intend it to be maternity dress, but it turned out the dress is so comfortable and has some slimming effect because I used black jersey for skirt part. I made this to be part of my mini Spring collection, and the photos on models (not pregnant) will be up soon! But in the meantime, you can see more pictures on mannequin on my flickr page here. It will be available in white &black and solid black.

I like the dress because I know I will be able to continue wearing it even after the birth..I'm just not a big fan of some Japanese maternity dresses, that makes you look obviously pregnant and shapeless.. like this one or this one.

Last week, I spent one night sewing up two little baby girl's dresses - aren't they cute?! I love how they turned out! I simply used some left over fabrics from making adult clothes, and I thought it was a great way to use up my left over fabric stash.

I used the pattern downloaded from a Japanese website, called Handmade no Kokoro. They have many patterns download for free in pdf file. If you are used to using BurdaStyle patterns, it will not be a problem figuring out how to use them. The only thing to note is to add seam allowances. I used pattern no. 12 dress for these dresses.

Inspiration: Primark Spring 2011

Primark Spring 2011 via calvintage.

Wow, I love this collection so much. Everything looks so fresh and new after gray and black dominant winter collections.

I am inspired by the top left dress, and hoping that I will be able to find similar fabric to make a dress like that sometime!
I also like how conservative and classy these clothes are - the neckline is higher and those pink and beige pleated skirts have moderate length. It seems a bit hard to pull off the below knee length skirt, but I certainly want to try this Spring.

Wide leg pants are in my to-sew list as well. I think Bella pattern from Burdastyle fits the bill. I already have pattern downloaded and cut out. Unfortunately high waisted design is not really working for my pregnant body, so I have to wait for a bit until I give birth!

Five lovely things.

I always enjoy reading Emily's (from Cupcake and Cashmere) Friday "Five Things" posts. She posts five lovely things in her life that make her happy. Although it's not Friday, I imitated her and decided to share some lovely things in my life that made me smile this week.

1. Pumpkin square cake in the morning. I recently discovered this simple pumpkin cake recipe from the book I borrowed from a library. This morning I made it for the second time. It is more like muffin than a cake, and goes perfect with a cup of coffee (decaf) in the morning.

2. I finally switched to iPhone! I love it so much. Emails, twitter and etsy convos are made so much easier with this little gadget.

3. Flowers my husband randomly pick up for me. Although he always ended up buying me kind of flowers we give to dead people in Japan (because those flowers are sold everywhere), it still makes me smile! I love how he tries:p

4. I got these Tory Burch flats as a Christmas gift to myself.I love the exaggerated gold medallions. I could not decide whether I should go for regular black or gold medallions for, literally a week. But I finally decided to go for gold, and I'm really happy with it.

5. Free yarns from mom's friend. I got bunch of colorful yarns - pink, orange, red... I feel happy thinking about what I should make with them.

Finding perfect teal fabric..

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend❤ Mine was nice, but it went all too quick. One of the things I did this weekend was to go to Nippori fabric district to get some fabrics I needed for custom orders. I went there at around 2pm, and ended up wandering around there for about 3 hours, trying to find this perfect, teal color that matches with the ribbon that my customer sent me (right). You have no idea how happy I was when I finally came across with the perfect match! 


My usual routine was to go straight to Tomato and get all my shopping done there. I'm used to Tomato, and I felt like I knew my way around - also thought they had the most reasonable prices in Nippori. However, after checking out bunch of other stores in Nippori this weeknd, I was convinced otherwise. 

Through this 3 hours of wandering around, I found a new shop called "Zak Zak". I think you would love or hate Zak Zak, because the place is not all well organized. It's like a warehouse type of place, and reminds me of the warehouse fabric place I used to go in Philly, called "Jomar".  I love it because it is like a treasure hunt, and I can find good deals there at amazing prices - if you have time to kill, that's the place to check out. Also it's great when you don't have any particular fabric shopping list, to enjoy what you can find in such a mess! 


Also the other shop I like is "Miki". I go there if I am looking for dressy fabrics, like satin or silk. They have different varieties of higher end fabrics, and that's where I found the teal fabric. Although the satin is in polyester, it is rather higher quality and drapes it well as compared to some 290yen (3 bucks) a meter poly satin you find at Tomato. 


I also enjoyed reading this article on Sew, Mama, Sew! blog about Japanese craft store.The writer of the article, Karen has a cute blog, called Seam Ripper.
If you live in Europe, this article about European sewing scene might interest you:)

Guest blogger: tips on buying fabric online by Petite Republic

Good morning! Remember I had my very first online fabric purchase the other day? It was a success in a way that I did not have to take a trip in crowded train with hand full of heavy fabrics, and that I did not have to pay for train fair (the website I used provided free shipping within Japan). However, some fabrics turned out to be different than I expected. So I needed to pick a brain of talented seamstress, Jue from Petite Republic, who seems to be an expert on shopping fabrics online! I asked her the tips for buying fabrics online and also her favorite online shopping places. Here is Jue❤
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Hello Vivat Veritas Readers! I am Juebejue from Petite Republic. I am honored to be writing a guest blog entry for Chie's blog. She asked me to do a piece for online fabric shopping, which is PERFECT because I had just bought a bunch of fabrics online!

I used to visit Joanns or Hancock quite often for my apparel fabric. But after sewing for a while, I notice that their apparel fabric is just not on par with store-bought cloth's fabric. I usually have slightly more luck at Hancock -- their winter wool selection is quite good. But often times I come home with crappy fabric, or empty handed.

I dont remember how, but I searched for some fabric shops online through google. To my surprise, there are plenty of online stores selling good quality apparel fabric!

fabric.com
My first fabric site was fabric.com. It has very good selections on variety of fabric. Its website is decent, and its fabrics are divided into intuitive categories. It always has free shipping for over $35 dollars, and it also has free return shipping. However, they have mixed up my order quite a few times. At least twice, they shippied some other fabric instead of the one I ordered. The first time it happened, they told me to keep the wrong fabric and shipped the correct one over. The second time when it happened, they did not respond --so I cant remember if they just credited my credit card or not. They do sell a variety of fabric -- I got some beautiful fabric, but I also bought some cheap looking ones. These are some projects I made with fabric from fabric.com

fashionfabricsclub.com

This site has TONS of fabric choices! I generally find that their search engine sucks a little, and it takes me forever to browse through the site! But, choices are good, right? I always thought I had bought fabric from here, as I browse through the site quite often. However, looking through my gmail history, I dont think I ever have! oops! If anyone has, let us know!

fabricmartfabrics.com

Absolutely one of my favorite sites! There isnt as many fabric as the other two, but they seem to only present me with great quality apparel fabric! They have designer fabric, and fancy coating material made with camel hair or cashmere. Love how everything is categorized on the left side as well. It also saves your order history so you can figure out what you have ordered and their fabric content. I have made these outfits from fabric bought there:

The shipping is always $8, but I think it is thoroughly worth it!

A general key to buying fabric online -- unless you really know what you are doing, ALWAYS buy natural fibers. It is always hard to predict how polyester fabric may feel like. With cotton, linen, wool, silk, etc, there's less change of getting cheap looking fabric or one that is not comfortable. Read the description for the fabric, google the name of the fabric to get a feel for its weight and texture. Most fabric shops also suggest good uses for the fabric -- whether its shirt weight, bottom weight, or for coats. However, sometimes even after some research, you may still make the wrong decision -- I once bought raw silk thinking it would be more like a charmeuse, but turned out it is more like rough linen! So when in doubt, a swatch shall be ordered!

In addition, I also refer to a book quite often to get a feel of how certain fabric are -- I do wish they come with sample fabric swatch though! hmm, that would make a great book idea :) This is the book I often refer to:

Knowledge is power! I hope this guide had been useful. Happy sewing, fellow fabric lovers! Keep that stash full and happy! :)

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Thank you so much Jue! Be sure to check out all her creations on BurdaStyle too. 

27 weeks!

27 weeks! I decided to do something new for the pregnancy series - video blog! I feel extremely awkward to talk in front of camera, but I tried my best!

Some links to share this week...

❤ Just bought this adorable castle decal from Vinyl Wall Decal for the nursery. Mine is in violet!
❤ I love the adorable dresses she made for her daughter at mairuru.
❤ Mousevox vintage has baby section in her shop, "baby mouse". Super cute vintage baby dresses for all less than $22!
❤ How cute is this handmade baby cardigan by wikstenmade?!

Inspiration: Hetterson Fall10/11

Hetterson via WishWishWish

Hetterson somehow reminds me of wikstenmade. Perhaps the combination of simple neutral colors and pop color (in this case red), small round collar and tunic type cut of the dresses.. I love the small details such as the scalloped hem of the beige dress. I also adore the photos of their collection, something I would love to do with my clothing line as well!

Swing dress sew-along at Casey's!

I'm happy to announce that I'm participating in 1940's swing dress sew-along that's going on at Casey's elegant musings! This will be my first sew-along, and I'm pretty excited! I really wanted to participate in Gertie's Lady Gray coat sew-along, but I kind of missed the chance. Besides, sewing a coat is a lot of work and I didn't think I could juggle with other projects going on at that time. I know there are a lot of sew-alongs going on, including men's shirt sew-along by Peter at male pattern boldness, and Trouser sew-along by Sunni at The Cupcake Goddess, to name a few. I thought about participating in the men's shirt sew-along, and give the shirt to my husband as a valentine's day's gift, but considering my husband's uniform is jeans and a wife beater, I decided against it. Sorry Andy.

Schedule for swing dress sew-along can be viewed here, and pattern can be purchased here. I think the dress is very pretty, and has numerous possibilities for variations. I adore the wide waist band and cross over front. Cross over front might be good for nursing in the future maybe?

Right now, I'm thinking of making one in default pattern with pale pink polyester fabric for Spring.

I searched "swing dress patterns" on etsy for some inspirations for possible alterations. The bottom left, uses two different fabrics for top and skirt, and I think it's a great idea for the 2nd dress. Also considering altering the neckline to make it like the 3rd one from the left, to sweet heart neckline.

Anyway, I will document my first sew-along experience here:)

What I've been working on...

Hello! How was your weekend? Mine went too quick. I have a day off today for MLK's day, but I basically sat at a tax office to get my taxes filed all day long...sad. The weather was beautiful out, and I wanted to do something fun, but I really needed to get my taxes filed before I forget.

Here is a sneak peak of what I've been working on the past couple of weeks - mini Spring collection! I wanted to make a small collection and a lookbook of it before the baby comes. It's "mini" because it will be a collection of dresses in 2-3 different designs, made in different colors and patterns.

The one below is one of them. I wanted to incorporate my favorite "cut out" detail, this time in the front, and sweet heart neckline. This black one is just a proto-type, and the actual collection will be in more Springy color, like lavender or light blue. The black one is available for sample sale in my shop, here.
I've worked with friend photographers to shoot for a lookbook in the past, but this time it will be my first time working with real photographer and coordinating with models and hair & make-up person. I'm excited, but it is a lot of work! The entire collection will be available sometime in mid February, so stay tuned:)

Interview: Meet Anna!

I'm not sure how I stumbled across Anna's blog, but as soon as I saw the pictures of her handmade clothes, I added her blog to my daily reading list, regardless of my lack of ability to read Polish. Her clothes is stylish, perfect for daily wear, and most of all look so comfortable.

She has two blogs, aniomatronika and anio prezentuje przedipo, and burdastyle page. Be sure to check them out for more of her creations!

I had a chance to ask her background, inspiration sources and more.. Here is Anna!

1. Please introduce yourself Where do you live, and what do you do?

Hi. My name is Anna. I live in Lodz, its a large city in the centre of Poland. I am currently attending University majoring in Psychology.

2. When did you start sewing?

Growing up my home we always had a sewing machine. My first “creation” was a dress for my plush elephant. I was around seven when I made it. I distinctly remember sewing way too fast, neglecting every rule and braking many needles. It was not until much later that I started sewing professionally. About two years ago, I decided to do this more as a side job than basic side hobby. In 2010 I bought a new sewing machine and really started to work.

3. What's your favorite creation you've made so far and why?

Tough question... All of my creations teach me something and are important to me. Probably, each "latest" creation is my favorite. That is until I finish the next one. If I had to choose a particular creation, I would, surprisingly my wallets. they are something totally different from the rest of things that I generally make. Also, I really love lace+tracksuit-like fabric dress, I love this contrast and how the dress looks.

4. What's your favorite place to shop fabric and other sewing materials? Any recommendations?

I don't have one favorite place. I shop in second hand stores a lot. I also use curtains, tablecloths, big skirts along with other various things. My mother and grandma are “fabric pack rats” so I can use some of their vintage fabric as well, lucky me. Also when I see a shop with sewing materials I always stop in.
My recommendation? Keep your eyes open and use what you can have around you....its cheaper that way.

5. What inspires you when you design and sew?

I really don't know. Of course sewing and personal style blogs, fellow Burdastyle member creations among other things. Musicians sense of style also inspires me. My favorite artists have a fashion sense that reflects their personality. Sometimes when I see fabric or piece of clothing I know what exactly I want to make out of it. More than anything, I feel so inspired when I talk with my boyfriend and some friends... I believe that everything around a person influences them.

6. What's your next goal in sewing?

At the moment, II have a lot of sewing goals, resolutions and ideas. The new year does that to me I guess. I decided to stop buying new clothes for the next 6 months and I hope that it will force me to sew more. I want to sew more, be more precise and develop my skills in general. I would love to make more winter clothing something like a jacket. A jacket would be a “serious project” for me.

I don't feel good enough to give advice but from my experience you should accept the fact that some of your creations (in the beginning the most of them) won't be perfect. It's never a total waste because you can't learn sewing any other way but from building on your own experiences.

26 weeks - it's a girl!

26 weeks! We finally found out last weekend that we are having a girl! It came as a surprise, because as you could tell from my previous posts, I've been calling the baby "he". I didn't want to call the baby "it" obviously, and I was convinced that it was a boy, because my husband's side has many boys. Now we have to get used to calling the baby "she":) I'm very excited! Pink and ruffles!

My husband's parents are especially thrilled, since they've always wanted a girl but had all boys.

So at the doctor's visit, the nurse nagged me about weight gain again, but I managed to brushed it off. I'm getting used to it now.
Other than that, the baby is doing well, she moves a lot, now her head measures 7.5 cm in diameter, and she weights little less than 1000 grams. I can't believe she will triple in size in the rest of 3 months of my pregnancy!


Right now I'm loving this little vintage dress I bought from brown bag vintage on etsy. It's not maternity, but I made a little trick when I wore this dress. The dress closes with buttons all the way down in center back. I unbottoned one around waist to fit my growing belly, and with a cardigan one, no one can tell my dress is open a bit:p It seems like I can wear this dress with backside in front as well, and it will be great for nursing..oh oops just realized that the material is 100% silk and dry clean only!

Inspiration: Minna Hepburn A/W 2010

Images via Liebemarlene Vintage

You can never have enough of good little black dresses - I love the collections of Minna Hepburn A/W 2010. I've been wearing more dark colors lately as I think they have slimming effect:p Those black dresses are chic as well as comfortable to wear..

Early Valentine's Day gift guide

I feel like time flies, just a month ago we had Christmas, and now I'm talking about Valentine's day! Have you decided what you'd like to give to your boyfriend/husband? I have an idea, but can't share it here since my husband might find out what I'm going to give him, if he reads this post. So instead, I made a list of things that I've been eyeing to get for my self. They are all from etsy!


Top: Hanamik DSLR lense cap case, Bottom right: Valentine's day soup, Bottom left: Imyourpresent valentine's day cardi

I also made some Valentine's day themed stuff for my shop. It was really fun coming up with ideas with Valentine's day theme in mind. I added pink heart applique for the red lounge wear, and red heart patch pockets for the pink PJ set. Oops, excuse my belly button!

Valentine's day lounge wear

Valentine's day PJ gift set

American Valentine's day and Japanese Valentine's day are much different - In Japan, Valentine's day is a day girls confess their love to their loved ones. So much pressure and effort required on girls. When my husband and I started dating when we were in college, my husband took me to a dinner and Broadway musical in NYC on our first Valentine's day, and I was thrilled! So different from Japanese Valentine's day. Since then, in our household we abide by American Valentine's day rules..

Saturday date in Machida and thrift shopping

Hi! I hope everyone's weekend was nice and relaxing. My husband and I went out a little date on Saturday to a city called Machida. It's close to where we live and has two fabric shops that I like, Yuzawaya and Okadaya. Besides going to fabric shops and grabbing a bite, we stopped by at a thrift shop called "390". Literally everything they have is 390 yen (about less than $4). I like the shop because they actually have vintage clothing imported from the U.S. and Europe, not just someone's old clothes from GAP. Besides vintage clothes, they have new scarves, i-phone case shaped like candy bar, head phones and other cute goodies.

There I found this 70's (maybe 80's? tag was removed) dress. I love the dusty pale pink color, bat/dolmen sleeves and, peplum, but the dress seems to be able to use some tweaking.

So I removed the shoulder pads, shorten the length, and added lining for the skirt part.
It's kind of hard to see the difference between before & after in the photos, but I like after version much better, and I think it's more wearable!

Buying fabric online for the first time

I bought fabric online this week, for the first time in my life. I know, I've been sewing and selling my clothes online for over 2 years now, but I had never purchased fabrics online before. I always went to fabric stores, touch the fabrics as much as I want before I decide to buy it. Fabric shopping is one of the most crucial parts of my creating process, since I come up with so many new ideas for new clothes while I'm staring and touching different fabrics at the shop.

This week, I finally decided to buy fabrics online, since I found a good online shop in Japan, where it offers free shipping for order above 3000 yen (30 dollars). I also felt a bit lazy to go all the way to Nippori fabric district this week, simply because it has been so cold here! It hasn't snowed yet so I should not complain, but the air is icing cold. I truly miss Summer!

Here is what I bought online:

from left to right:

1. black cotton jersey
2. black white and red plaid wool
3. grayish white cotton jersey
4. pink jersey (?) although it doesnt have much stretch. mix of cotton and poly. percentage unknown
5. animal print for baby clothes

As a conclusion, I'm pretty satisfied with fabrics I received. The service was great, I received my order within two days, which I think is pretty good. Online fabric shopping will come really handy once the baby is born, when I will have less time to travel & carry around heavy fabrics in train.

One drawback to this experience was that I could not expect how much stretch the fabrics had. Some of my orders were jersey, but #4 pink jersey wasn't really jersey. It has very minimal stretch, and I was a bit disappointed because I intended to use the fabric to make T-shirt type stuff.

Do you online shop fabrics much? Any tips or advice on how to get what you are really looking for without feeling the fabrics?

25 weeks - Letter to my baby

Since this is the first pregnancy series post in 2011, I decided to write a short letter to my baby. I really cannot wait to see him or her in person! Sometimes I play "kicking game" with my baby. I tap my belly and he kicks back. When I tap twice, he kicks back twice too! I have an OB appointment this Friday, and I might finally find out the gender. Honestly, I'm happy with boy or girl. This is my first baby and I will be excited either way:)

I have been a bit emotional the past couple of days. Although my husband thanked me for not acting like Rita from Dexter when she was pregnant (constant bitching etc), there are some days that I can't seem to control my emotions. I think I'm relatively emotionally stable, so this kind of throws me off. Once my friend commented that I'm like a robot (since I'm not overly emotional or don't seem that way), and she was surprised that I cried at her wedding. It's not like anything special happened in the past couple of days to make me emotional. It's some stupid thing, like, I ate too many cookies, felt useless for not being able to control my appetite, and I cried. haha. I'm sure I will feel better soon:)

Inspiration: twentysevennames

Images from twentysevennames

Today's inspiration comes from a New Zealand designer, twentysevennames. I think I need all of the above added to my closet. Love the 60's feel to it, yet casual enough for daily wear..
Found out about this via Daydream Lily blog.

Shop update: coasters and baby doll dresses

Here are some new stuff that had been added to my shop recently. As I wrote in my 2011 resolutions, I'm trying not to waste the scraps and use them as much as possible. So I made some fabric coasters - My favorite ones are the cat polkadot:)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a nice & relaxing Holiday time. My husband and I wend back to my parents' house on New Year's Eve and spent two nights there. I would say Japanese New Year Eve is more like Thanksgiving in the U.S. - lot of food and family time.

I came up with some New Year's resolution for year 2011:

Image via weheartit

1. Bake more.
Since my husband and I moved into a place of our own in August last year, we have had more chance to have friends over. I rarely bake for two of ourselves (we both try to cut down on some sugar:p ), but I love baking for other people, and want to be better at it.

image via weheartit

2. Learn to surf.
I surfed for the first time in Bali last year, and I absolutely loved it. Now we moved closer to the beaches (30 min away, as opposed to 1.5 hour away before we moved), I can't wait to start surfing once I give birth.

image via weheartit

3. Continue sewing, and don't waste scraps.
Being a mom and wife, working full time and keeping up with my etsy shop could be a lot, but I would love to continue sewing and crafting. Last year I learned I do better when I'm busy than not busy, and giving myself a small project helps me stay focused. I have some projects that I would like to share here soon!
Also I decided to use scrap fabrics from clothes making more wisely - as you can see in these fabric coasters!

image via weheartit

4. Learn to use camera
I have a nice camera - Nikon DSLR, but I still haven't figured out how I can use it well. So that's one of my 2011 New Year resolutions!

What are your resolutions this year?