Dear ISBN978-4-529-04700-5,
I love you and hate you. Why did you come now? I ordered you like 2 months ago and you decide to show up on my doorstep right when I haven't a free minute to sew.
Don't you know how vulnerable I am right now to gorgeous book design? Are you trying to make me cry?
And why don't you have at least one sucky pattern. There's not one single 'pass' in your whole book.
And man, you look difficult! Why are you in Japanese?
Wow. You’re brave. Not sure I’d want to try anything writtein in Japanese. 🙂 Still, looks like a really tempting book. 🙂 Good luck with that!
I’ve been eyeing that one too. Put it away, quickly!
I lived 3 years in Japan, I learned to speak Japanese but still it is very HARD to read Japanese. Fortunatelly those books usually have good ilustrations and after all, you can develop a wonderful imagination just like I did during those years 🙂
Ah, I have that book on my wishlist, thanks for showing some scans from inside.
I’ve been slowly teaching myself Japanese for the past 4 years. I still can’t read any of the pattern books, but I can recognize words here and there–and using them has been good practice.
tee hee. i liked your letter – hilarious. and oh my GOSH does that # 1. dress look beautiful with that subtle ruffle. surely you’ve got the time to just tinker & spit that out right quick. [ha]
That book lookes amazing!!! Why is it that all the cool stuff is in Japanese?
I’ve got a couple of those Japanese books and they do have a lovely look and oh the patterns! I’m in love with that grey/green dress with the little neck ruffle. How gorgeous and simple-looking. Hmmmm… (thanks for providing the isbn number!)
I fell in love with that book, too. It was nightly reading for at least a week. I made #11, the circular skirt. More to come…but where is the time?
I was about to buy that book too! I wonder if they have it in stock at mitsuwa. I’m going to chicago area next week and mitsuwa is definitely on my to go list. anywhere else I should go that’s craft and fabric and yarn related?
I have several Japanese sewing books and it’s torture! I haven’t figured out how to use the patterns but they are very inspirational.
I just got my fat quarter pack in the mail. Your picks are so lovely together. I didn’t realize that one of the prints had little tiny mice! 🙂
An offshoot of Amanda’s post above… I just recently discovered The Needle Shop in Chicago. They are a super cute fabric store and have a fun selection of Amy Butler, Heather Ross, etc. and I found the staff to be very helpful. To repeat Amanda’s question…. what other must-see shops are in Chi. for crafters?
I did a chicago post a while ago…
http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/wee_wonderfuls/2006/04/any_chicagoans_.html
I want it too! Where did you order it? It looks so great, and I love sewing with Japanese patterns.
I bought my first Japanese book today. I want to make pretty much everything in it, although the instructions are plain scary. Thing is, I know that even if I don’t make a single thing from it, I’ll still enjoy sitting there looking at the lovely pictures…
oh that one looks good.
i have yet to sew from the one children’s japanese book i have.
mine is not old enough yet for any of the patterns so that has been making me okay with it so far…
I thought I should pop back in and say to everyone who hasn’t yet attempted to make something from one of these books that it’s actually not as intimidating as it might first appear and I love love love the kids clothes I’ve made from mine. If you’ve got reasonable experience with basic sewing techniques you can generally figure out what you need to do from the diagrams if you stare at them for long enough! The patterns tend to be quite simple too, which helps. There are also increasing numbers of blogs that focus on using these books, including some great translations of terms, like this wonderful .pdf http://www.antipope.org/feorag/gosurori/gr-patterns.pdf or here http://movinghands.wordpress.com/japanese-sewing-and-pattern-terms/, and Japan Couture http://japancouture.canalblog.com/ offers help as well, albeit in French, but I stand a much better chance of translating that with high school French than I do with non-existent Japanese!
LOL, I took Japanese in both high school and college, and believe me, I never learned vocabulary like “seam allowance”! I can sound a few things out, but mostly I’m still starting from scratch.
what cute dresses for little girls! as someone mentioned above, at least you’ll get inspiration if not any sewing done!!!
wow — those do look fabulous!! I have a few books i’m eyeing too… but haven’t had the nerve to buy/attempt it!!
I know just how you feel. I was in NYC and bought the most wonderful Japanese beading book, can’t read a word.
I have the same book and I can read Japanese. I’ll be happy to help walk you through the steps for any of the patterns. If you can make a dress already it’s pretty intuitive but I can translate some of the finer bits.
I’m kind of addicted to Japanese girly dress books right now….there are a lot out there!
I actually asked if I could take Japanese at another school for my language credit in both high school and college, but it had to be one of the ‘romantic’ languages. Now I have 5 wasted years of Spanish under my belt and forgot nearly all of it. But I started studying Japanese on my own this Christmas and am feeling a little glad I never tried to go through a class. I think the self-study is going so much better & quicker than a class ever would.
Wow, that is amazing! Thank you for sharing (I think LOL) I like that some of the Japanese books are being translated into English
Nutmeg
http://www.materialmama.com