Japanese Sewing Class, Part 2

Here it is! Stylish Dress Book (#1) Dress E which is the same dress on the front cover. I learned a lot about sewing from Japanese sewing books with this dress.

First of all, why didn't I hear about using Swedish Tracing Paper before? This stuff is amazing! It's sort of halfway between tissue paper and a thin interfacing fabric. You can see through it enough to trace off a pattern. It cuts up nicely and is more sturdy than tissue paper. In fact, I've been told you can even baste pieces together if you're not sure whether the pattern will fit correctly.

Secondly, I learned how to add seam allowances to the Japanese patterns and how to determine sizing.

And that brings me to the third fact I learned: Japanese women are tiny, tiny, tiny. I'll admit that a bit of swearing occurred when trying to figure out how to make the largest Japanese size (probably a US size 8 or 10) fit me (size 12/14). Fortunately most of the Stylish Dress Books are meant to have ample ease so an exact fit isn't necessary.

Apparently Blogger and my laptop are fighting a death duel this week so I am attempting to post from Flickr instead. My apologies if this looks a little goofy. I mean, I know the PICTURE looks a little goofy--that's me trying to pose and I don't like that side of a camera lens very well--but the actual post might look a little goofy too.