Phew! Looks like the Japanese Sewing Book Series is already over! I’m sad, but so so grateful for my awesome guests for all of their hard work! I didn’t even realize it until halfway through the series, but this was the first time guest posting for three of my guest bloggers (Sanae, Frances and Robin). Bet you couldn’t tell though, huh – they were all such pros!
And I’m super grateful for all of you for joining us! YOU are what made it all worth it!
Thanks to everyone who entered the sewing book giveaway. I LOOOOOVED reading your comments, and even though I won’t be able to respond to every one, I was really excited to hear that people are feeling more confident about trying Japanese patterns, or that some of you never knew about Japanese patterns before the series. I’m glad that so many of you learned something new, or have bookmarked the posts to reference when you’re sewing. When I had the idea for this series, I wanted to do something fun, but also something that would be really informational and serve as a great resource for seamstresses for a long time to come. I’m hoping the series was a success!
Oh and the giveaway winners! You thought I’d forgotten? Congrats to:
Laura who won the Easy to Understand Baby and Little Kids Clothes and
Ajaire who won the Kid’s Clothes Sewing Lesson Book!
You should have received an email from me 🙂
And for those of you who didn’t win, check out Kristin’s post for some ideas for where you can buy your own!
After sewing from a few Japanese patterns myself and reading through my guests’ awesome posts, I think the greatest lesson that I’m walking away with is to just GO FOR IT. It’s super intimidating at first, but pick a simple pattern and use some not-so-expensive fabric and just take your time to work through it. Trust your sewing knowledge and instincts. Refer back to this series or look things up online. See how it goes. And then try another pattern. Things will already feel a little different the second time. And I’m pretty sure that by the third pattern you sew, you will start to feel more confident, the patterns, words and diagrams will start to look more familiar, and your eye will be trained as to what you need to look for.
This Thursday, I get to share with you a really fun project that I got to be a part of, and though I won’t say what it is yet, I will say that I sewed my third Japanese pattern for it and I’m really proud of how it came out! And if I can do it – you can do it too!
So here are the 5 posts from the series, in case you missed them or want the links all in one place. A HUGE thanks again to my wonderful friends and guests, Kristin, Sanae, Meg, Frances and Robin for making this series everything that it was!
I had so much fun with this series and I feel like there are so many of you out there already sewing with Japanese patterns or interested in starting, that I’ve been thinking about a way to do another series (in the way future) with more of a community aspect – a sewalong perhaps? Anyone interested? I’d love your thoughts!
Until next time, happy sewing!
you and mie 
Again, a great series! Thank you for putting it together, and bringing so much talent to one space!
I would LOVE a sewalong! A while back I ordered Girls Style Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori which is being released (in English) TODAY…super excited. (The English translations that are starting to appear make things a bit less intimidating for me, but I think the information you’ve put together in your great series is still relevant and totally helpful even when working with an English version of one of these books.) Anyway, as soon as Amazon gets it over to me I am ready to get tracing!
Thanks for having me, Cherie, I had so much fun working with you! And yes! to a sewalong.
Thank you so much for this wonderful series. I loved it! A sewalong would be fantastic!
This series was SO great. And no idea three of them were first-time-guest-bloggers – they were all great 😉 You should consider a Flickr Group for people who got the courage to sew Japanese patterns after reading your series. I have a dress ready for it…in fact working on my blog post for it right now.
So, so fun working on this series with you and the other guest bloggers, Cherie – THANK YOU! I’ve been sewing from these books for years and I learned a bunch. And I’m totally in for a sew-along!
Thank you for the series and the giveaway! I am so excited to start my first Japanese pattern. I think the idea of a sew along would be great. I know so little about Japanese patterns that I’d love to see others’ interpretations too.
i was going to suggest that now that you’ve gotten us all fired up on japanese patterns, you have to host a sew along! it would be great to continue helping each other trouble shoot, and sew alongs are generally just fun.
A sew-a-long would be fantastic, especially if there were some way to find a free pattern online, so we could all work from the same pattern. BIG thanks to Sanae, especially, whose post was so rich and detailed, and so well researched! I have put a good amount of time into my books myself and feel like her post really helped push me farther ahead than I could have gone alone. Thank you! I’ve been sick but will post photos of the three projects I made during this series to the group in a bit!
I would love to see a sew-along as well- what fun that would be:) This series was so inspirational and encouraging- lots of great tips and stunning photos of finished products. A huge thanks to you, Cherie, as well as to your fabulous guests. You certainly had great talent in there!
Thank you again! I think a sew-a-long would be fantastic!!
Wonderfully run series, Cherie! You were supposed to rig it so I won a pattern book though…
I can’t thank you enough for this series…I knew I was drawn to Japanese Patterns (well, at first it was just the images), but I don’t think I ever would have felt confident enough to jump in without information like this gathered in one place. So grateful!
~Monica
Thanks so much for this great series! I purchased a few books before I even knew it was happening, BUT… I know I would not have been able to make anything from them without your help! I made my first pattern during KWC, and it turned out great! If your interested, I blogged about it here: http://erickmarnae.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/kwc-days-2-7-tackling-a-japanese-sewing-pattern/
Also I would love to do a sew-along, or maybe just a sew-along week (kind of like KCW), where we are not necessarily making the same pattern, but sharing clothing made from Japanese Patterns??? Thanks again!
Marnae
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Lovely series. Now I need some little help.. where can I find sewing patterns for boys or books.. Japanese sites are so difficult to browse.. some titles ?
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