Turning Japanese

Japanese craft book, originally uploaded by icewerks.

In my sewing pattern book quest, I've gone way outside of my comfort zone. There is a whole craft underbelly devoted to Japanese pattern books, zakka ("good useful things") for the most part, but also clothing-- clean lined modern clothing for kids at that!

I found this book online and ordered it from Japan. It's called (I think) New York Kids Style and it's somehow affiliated with the Makie store in NY. There are patterns in here for sizes 0 to 3 years old and it is amazing! Hooded coats, modern dresses, felt shoes, reversible pants, gorgeous linen shirts, even bags and hats. I want to make everything in here.

The catch, however, is that it's all written in Japanese. The overlapping patterns resemble a Tokyo subway map and are printed on both sides of the paper. They must be traced to be used and they don't include a seam allowance, meaning you have to figure that out yourself. This is not a project book for a newbie and I honestly thought I might be in over my head.

Not being able to read the directions, I had to rely on the extensive diagrams in the book as my guide. To tackle anything out of these books, you'll need to be able to think in 3D or have extensive knowledge of sewing. If you can visualize what you're doing and understand when wrong sides should be sewn together or the order in which the pattern pieces are to be used, then you'll be fine. At least, this polka dot smock turned out okay!

The pocket was supposed to have a button, but I'm not a buttonhole maker so I skipped that part. The plain white pocket looked a little boring, so I decided to embroider a funny polka dot bird. I'm trying to make myself take the making of Miss LoodyLoo's clothes a bit less seriously and allow myself to not be such a perfectionist. Children's clothes should be lighthearted and I think I've achieved that with this project.

Now, does anyone have a good Japanese/English dictionary I can borrow?