Braided hair tutorial

I've been doing different hair arrangement using braids lately. I like this one since its easy yet looks like I spent more time on it than I actually did :p I hope you like the tutorial!

1. You need two elastic bands and a couple of hair pins.
2. I like to start by curling my hair slightly with a curling iron, but this step  is totally up to you! I think this braided hair is great with straight hair, wavy or curled, as long as your hair has enough length to wrap a braided piece around the back of your head :)
3. First part your hair in the center. Then take a strand of hair right above your ear, leaving your bang, if you have it.
4. Then braid tightly.
5. Braid till the end, and tie it with the elastic band.
6. The side will look like this.
7-8. Do the same for the other side.
9. Take the braid, and wrap it around the back of your head and pin it right behind your ear. Make sure to hide the end under your non-braided hair.
10. Do the same for the other side.

And tada! It's so easy and takes less than 3 minutes:)

French chic

Stripe Back Cut Out Dress

I've never been to Europe, but this dress is my imagination (mostly coming from movies) of what French girl would be wearing..nautical stripes, black, and sitting at cafe with espresso and a cigarette.

I wanted to customize my favorite cut out dress design into something that's wearable for fall.
So for this one,
1) added elbow length sleeves
2) changed the top fabric from non-stretch cotton to jersey. I thought about adding fitted narrow sleeves with just regular cotton, but I figured it would not work.
3) Kept the square shape neckline, but omitted bust darts, because you don't need darts for stretchy fabric!
4) Used the interface for back, so I can sew the button hole easily.

Fall color

Thank you for everyone who wrote me a kind note to my previous post - I'm glad not everyone thinks the back straps look like a baby carrier:)

This dress was something I made last weekend - I love the deep purple color.
I didn't really plan anything for this dress, I kind of let my inspiration go and see what happens.



When my husband and I took those pictures last weekend, it was so nice and warm. Today, it's been pouring all day long! It started right after I hung some laundry outside:(

Back twist dress

My obsession with back details/open back continues... I posted a couple days ago about making a new dress with twist detail here. I completed the dress last weekend, and took some photos today.
I really liked the result at first, I liked the lace wast band the back... but then I looked at the pictures of my self wearing the dress, the back kind of reminded me of baby carrier?! Doesn't it look like I'm wearing baby carrier in half naked body?! :(

Playing with my new toy!

Just got a DSLR, finally! I've been wanting one forever, and I finally decided to buy it. It was not cheap, so I was procrastinating the purchase for a while. It is Nikon SLR, and it is fun to play with!

My sister came over today so we went out for a practice photo shoot session. We could not find any good place to shoot around my neightborhood, since it is just a residential area. We walked around a bit, but couldn't find park either. Sorry the back ground is not all that exciting!

Those two designs are something that I had been working last week. I still need to complete 8 dresses in next 3 days!

Revisiting old patterns

I can't believe it is September in two days! The summer went by so quick. Although, it is still unbearably hot here in Japan. You sweat a moment you step outside, it is over 90 degrees and it does not really cool down at night! I love Summer, I really do, but I could use some cooler, crisp air for a bit.

I just moved last Wednesday, and on top of that I had 12 hour work days two days in a row right after the move. I'm bit exhausted and I haven't touch my sewing machine since I moved.
I will be making curtains and small things around the house soon though.

For the Fall season, I would like to create new patterns and designs for dresses, skirts and shorts, but I just do not have enough time in a day these days! So I decided to revisit the patterns I used before, changed it up a bit to make them look like fall pieces.

Mustard yellow drapy dress
You must have seen this design a lot in my site this summer - I am really fond of cross over front (I think it works well for different bust sizes!) and the waist band. For the fall, I lengthen the sleeves and made the dress in fall color - mustard yellow.
Midnight blue cocktail dress
Guess which pattern is based on for this dress?! It's from BurdaStyle.
The Pattern is called Malissa. This dress does not look at all like the original Malissa, right? I cut the front dress pattern in two pieces, gathered the pieces with elastic thread, and added a waist band. For the top part, I made a small key hole detail - and voila! It's a cocktail dress for holiday season

Yukina dress in mustard yellow
This dress was based on a sketch I received from a girl, named Yukina. I made her a dress in shimmery green, two years ago! I totally forgot about the pattern after that, but found it in my pattern book and decided to give it a shot - This is a perfect work dress, I would wear this to work with tights, pumps and jacket!

Maxi dress for myself

I wrote a while ago that I hadn't made anything for my self for a long time since I've been busy keeping up with my etsy shop? I had a chance to make myself a maxi dress for summer, and I love it! I've already worn it a bunch of time.

I got this floral print fabric from Philly, when I went there in April. I got this from my favorite fabric shop, called Gaffney. It was pretty cheap, I don't remember how much exactly, but love how the fabric feels - It is soft, and don't stick to your body. Since here is very humid in Summer, the fabric worked out well for me.

I also made a skirt with the same fabric, which was posted here.

Marie skirt pattern

It has been a while since I used a new BurdaStyle pattern, but a couple of weeks ago, I printed out Marie skirt pattern. It is free at BurdaStyle! I wanted to make a cocoon skirt, and this pattern was perfect. It is very very easy, and the front and back part of the skirt has the same pattern. It has an interesting pleats which I liked. I connected with the pattern I made for front part to make it a dress.
Some improvements I would make for the next time is:
1) Make it shorter - I feel as though BurdaStyle patterns are always too long for me. Perhaps that's because I'm not particularly tall in American standard (I'm 5'5) but I prefer skirt to be a bit shorter than my knee.
2) Add a slit in the back. I find it a bit hard to walk, because the hem of the skirt is a bit tight. It's not like you cannot walk around, but I prefer having more room since I like to walk fast!

Tiger secretary dress

Green stripe secretary dress

Small back V detail from vintage pattern

One of my inspiration sources for sewing comes from vintage patterns. I love going through etsy or ebay for different vintage patterns. I've purchased some from etsy, and I cherish those patterns (something about these patterns I feel so special about), but unfortunately, when it comes to using vintage patterns, it usually does not come out as I imagine. Many times, shoulders are too wide, and the patterns require a lot of modification.

Nevertheless, I do like looking at vintage patterns and the drawing on the pattern package to be inspired for next creation.

These small back v dresses are inspired from the pattern I found at Flickr. I like how the dress itself is pretty moderate, but has a good amount of flirtation with small back V line.
I like the choker and a small flower in the waist belt as well.

Left: Mint Stripe Baby Doll Dress, Middle: Polkadot Back V Dress, Right: Mint Green Back V Dress

Image via Sandritocat's Flickr

Some shop updates

White lace bustier dress

Pink Bustier Dress

Vintage block print mini skirt

Vintage reconstructed floral skirt

Lavender block print fairy dress

Some new dresses and skirts updated over the last 2 weeks! Check more here:)
Have a great rest of the weekend...xx

Yakuza's wife

After Lasik surgery, I was not in the state of modeling clothes for my shop - my eyes were watery and no make up was allowed. So I begged my sister to model for me. I wish she was as corporative as she was yesterday all the time! Most of the time, she refuses to model my clothes. I much prefer taking pictures of the clothes on someone else than myself!

When I first showed her the fabric I bought, her reaction was, "ya...Yakuza's wife? You want to pretend to be a Yakuza's wife?". I guess Japanese people think tiger = Yakuza-ish. I wouldn't have gone for this fabric if it were not for this color scheme - black and white. If there were any other colors in it, I think it would be too much. But since it's monotone, it balances out with the unique print of tiger and cherry blossom...I think.

This season, I have a tendency to pick out quirky print with different animals on it, like crab print, because I'm so influenced by Miu Miu collection.

Tiger cut out dress

Two dresses: floral and stripes

Hello! Here are two dresses that I made about a month ago and added to my shop.
You might have seen similar dresses in my shop before, but I really like the crossed front detail. I think the design accommodates different bust sizes, and I, who have a flat chest, do not have to feel too embarrassed about not having any boobs with this design.

The floral print below is from my mother's sewing box. I am not sure what she intended to use it for, it was sitting there forever so I took it:p Since the print is pretty bright mix of color (red, pink and yellow), I didn't want to use the print for the entire dress. I wanted to balance it out with white to tone down the bright floral print. Then I added two belt loops on the side, and a sash.

Pink floral garden party dress

I personally like the stripe dress better, just because this is so comfortable. The top part is made out of cotton stretchy jersey, and I lined the entire top part with the same fabric, so it is not sheer. The back is opened in big V, and you can wear it with camisole to cover the back, or bandeau bra.

Blue stripe back V dress

These dresses are both knee length for someone who is around 5"5' (165cm), so they are great for work with a jacket on!

I got Lasik done this weekend! My eyes were very bad, I was legally blind without glasses or contacts. Now I see everything clearly! I was a bit scared before the surgery, but I am very glad that I got it done.

Crabs!

Ever since I found this fabric in Nippori fabric district, I had been dying to use it. But sometimes life gets in your way..finally last week I had some spare time to make some new stuff!

Inspiration is from Miu Mui collection, where they used cat prints and bird prints for their clothing.. I'm sure you've seen the photos of their collection somewhere, since it is all over the net!

At first, I was searching for cat print, but could not find anything that's stylish, and not too too quirky. Then I came across these little crabs and took the fabric roll right to the cutting board of the store.

I thought using this fabric all over the dress might be too much, so I used navy blue fabric for the skirt part.

Crabs and Polkadot Dress

Crabs Cut Out Dress

New dress and skirt

Here are some things that I sewed over last week and am planning to bring to the Artist Market in Yokohama. I must have a thing for sailor related items, helm prints, ships, etc. I love this print and was so happy to find it at Tomato in Nippori the other day.

Since the print of the fabric is unique, I made the shapes of the clothes rather simple.
As the artist market is coming up in less than 2 weeks, I still have a lot to sew!

By the way, congrats to Kayo, who is having a booth with me at the market for being a Burdastyle featured member! You can read her interview here.

Already used it, couldnt' wait.

If you know my character, you might know how impatient I am.. I always like things to happen NOW, and RIGHT HERE!. Same goes when it comes to sewing. The day after I got the lace zipper from Asakusa-Bashi, I sat in front of sewing machine and started sewing because I was dying to try my new zipper.

My impatience works both good and bad when it comes to sewing. Good, because I get on it quick, and am able to pump out good number of stuff in short time. Bad, because I know that I would end up making better stuff if I sit down, calm down and sketch the design before I touch the sewing machine.

I am okay with the result of this dress. I used gray and white stripes fabric, but in retrospect, I should have used black to make a contrast with white lace zipper, so the zipper pops out. Maybe next time.

The pattern I used is Mila, which is available for free on BurdaStyle. I like this pattern a lot, and used it to make this, this and this. For some reasons, it was only available in "Print at shop" version when it first came out. As impatient as I was, I took the pattern to a copy shop the next day it came out, and print it out. However, the person at Kinko's shrunk the pattern to fit the page, and it was shrunk for about 15 %. So the dress is pretty small, but fits me well.

Oh do you see the thread holder in behind? My husband made it for me! It's not quite straight, and the sticks that's sticking out are too thick to hold regular thread and only hold serger threads, but oh well, he tried:) <3

I happened to find this lace that matches the zipper perfectly in my sewing box. I probably had gotten in a while ago at 100 yen shop or something.

Lemon yellow bride's maid dresses

This was what I was working on last week. 5 bride's maid dresses! It feels like I've accomplished something, and I feel pretty good about it. Actually, it wasn't all that hard once I got on it, I made a mini production line - I cut all the fabric at the same time, iron at the same time and surged at the same time and finished them:)
I have made bride's maid dress before, but this was the first time I made five. I feel so honored to have asked to do such an important task as to make bridal parties dresses!

Sorry for my messy hair... I didn't realize it until I saw the photos on Photoshop. It was raining all day long here, plus, I had such a long day today running around to get my work done.

making, packing and mailing

I'm sure you are sick of seeing this cut out back dress by now. I don't even remember how many of them I made so far! I promise I will post something else soon, I have a lot of different ideas for new dress designs, and I am actually sketching the designs (which is pretty rare for me, lazy..), and I also want to do a post on a list of fabric shops in Philly.

But for now, I'm sewing, ironing, cutting our fabrics, ironing again, then packing and mailing! Packing the completed dresses is my favorite part of the whole thing. I love the sense of accomplishment.

May! Sunny days! and Flowers!

In Japan, we call a person who always get rain on dates, events or any important days "Ame Onna" - "Rain woman". It is as if the person brings the rain with her to wherever she goes.
Luckily, I think I'm the opposite.."Hare Onna" - sunny woman! As soon as I get back to Japan, we started to get sunny weather.. hehe:p Maybe it's just a coincidence, but still, sunny weather makes me happy. The past couple of days has been just beautiful!

Here is what I made and added to the shop recently. You can tell that I'm obsessed with open back?! I did something different for the dress on the top. I cut it differently and added a row of buttons for closure. I bought both fabrics in Philly.

Top: Back buttons dress
Bottom: Cut out dress

Something I worked on last week..

This is something I worked on last week. I never went for yellow clothes, because of my skin color, but I really do like this yellow floral print I found here in Philadelphia. It's very Springy and I would actually wear yellow if it's something like this.

I'm counting down days till I get to go back home, and I can't wait to get there, since it's my birthday! What a treat to be picked up by my beloved husband on my birthday after a month of separation.

Lots of hearts

I made this dress a while ago but never got around to post it on my blog. I thought of posting it today, because I miss my husband terribly and I want to give him all my hearts, kisses and love!

I still have 2 and a half weeks in the States by myself, and I think the latter half will be hard for me..

Anyway, I intended to make this dress with crossed straps in the back. I kind of drafted the patterns for the back, but the straps ended up being too short, it was like a kid's dress, and there was no way that a grown-up woman can wear.
Even worse, I did not have enough fabric left to make another set of straps. These kind of things happen to me all the time when I'm sewing. Sometimes things don't go as I plan.

So instead, I made it a halter neck, and added a strap thingy(?) in the back, with a covered button closure.
The result was not what I initially designed, but I like it. The back straps give an extra support as well:) m

Heart print back cut out dress