Wednesday 4 November 2009

Pattern Magic, all wrapped up!

I have a few favourite books. Books that I love, that I've kept for a long time, return to and never get bored with. Among them are two Japanese books about pattern construction, Pattern Magic vol 1 and vol 2.

They are both full of projects that make me want to immediately get my roll of pattern-paper, rulers and pencil out and get busy! Do you want to make a dress with a bunch of knots in the front? No, then maybe a top with a collared cowl-neck might be something for you? Or a jacket or shirt with a necktie incorporated in the collar? That one has been posted on Burdastyle recently, look at it here.

























I have only one problem with Pattern Magic, really (except that the books are in Japanese, but that's a small problem thanks to the very clever, very instructive, very Japanese pictures that show the different pattern construction-methods step by step), it's impossible to choose what project to begin with!

Like these bows for example, which one is the nicest? I can't decide. It's actually an even draw between three of them for me... pick a straw?






















I bought my copies on the internet, from a site I can truly recommend, Yesasia, fast shipping and great service; my books were shipped from Germany and arrived within a week.

I've noticed that Yesasia sell many Japanese sewing-books that are not on Amazon.com, so it's worth a look for those who search for Japanese pattern-books (or manga, or clothes, or movies...)!

6 comments:

  1. I own Pattern Magic Vol.1. There are so many wonderful ideas in it. So far I've made this criss-crossed top: http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/japanese-white-criss-crossed-top. I'm deciding on my next project.

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  2. Oh, that one was the first one I attemped to try too :-)!
    I gave up trying to assemble it on myself, it was too difficult to get it right. I will when I've finally got a dress-form (I bought TWO earlier this autum and returned them both, they didn't look enough like me).
    I'm thinking of a top with a twisted front now... on page 58 in Pattern Magic vol 1!

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  3. Lol! I'm thinking of making the same one! I have some shantung silk and I'd love to make that top from it, I'm just not sure how it would look, maybe I'd need a softer fabric for it. I'll post the result on my blog when I'm finished. ;)

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  4. Hehe, we must have simliar taste - or are they simply the nicest projects in PM? Well, if so we have really good taste, both of us ;-)!

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  5. Be careful of Yesasia, some of the books I picked up there turned out to be either banged up (seconds) or used. I wrote to them to complain and after a lot of too-ing and fro-ing (they wanted pictures of all the damaged parts and paper doesn't photograph so well) they 'refunded' me with a $5 coupon to use on their site (as if I ever could again!). Also, their shipping can take upto 3 months =S

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  6. TJ: Thanks for posting that info! I buy all my asian books on etsy nowadays (www.etsy.com), I've found it much much quicker than Yesasia, and I like supporting small scale businesses!

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