STYLISH PARTY DRESSES . TAKE 1

Do you love Japanese Sewing Books as much as I do? Then stay tuned as this week my good friends from London Sew Social will be sharing some wonderful clothes made with patterns from several books translated to English by Tuttle Publishing. I am delighted to host this informal series while also showing you some decapitated photos of the garments I’ve been making…

For the second time, Tuttle was our sponsor and was kind enough to let each of us choose a book from their nice collection of – children, women and accessories - Japanese Sewing Books. I already had all their children books (and several women books too) so, though I never go to stylish parties anymore, I picked Stylish Party Dresses…

I am so impressed with this book! Don’t, please don’t, get fooled by the book’s tittle! This book is full everyday wearable clothes. Not only dresses but also blouses, skirts, jackets and even a jumpsuit. I think it would not be difficult to build and entire wardrobe just using pattern from Stylish Party Dresses.

PATTERN: View W (Dress with Decorative Collar) from Stylish Party Dresses. I loved the simplicity of this dress and thought it would be a wonderful everyday summer uniform for me. It is such a comfortable, yet stylish, dress. Love it! I made a couple of simple changes to the original pattern: left the decorative collar out and added a central seam by cutting the front piece mirrored, and adding 1cm seam allowance, instead of on fold. The sleeve hems were hard for me to sew and I think they are not perfect yet. Tough I’ve staystitched them before hemming, they still look a little bit wavy. Maybe I need to practice a little bit more… The dress length is the original and, though it is much longer them most of my dresses, I kind of like it as it lengths my body.

FABRIC: Beige linen from my local shop (Feira dos Tecidos). I bought this fabric last summer mostly because it was a super cheap linen. And I love linen! And cheap linen is hard to find! I was not too sure about the color, tough… But now it is growing on me and I am actually loving it. Of course it is hard to iron and it easily gets wrinkled but how cares!

Since I’ve omitted the decorative collar, I thought it would be nice to wear this dress with a nice matching wrap. This wonderful geometric cotton gauze came all the way from Miss Matatabi, was on my stash for almost one year (I loved it so much, I was afraid to cut it!), and was the perfect match for my new dress. Lucky me!
I didn’t feel like hemming it so I followed the instructions for the Linen Gauze Wrap byPurl Soho. Fringe-pulling the hem threads was fun and easy and I think this finishing is perfect for this fabric. I think I will wear this wrap a lot!

Today my good friend Eva, from the blog Eva Maria, is sharing a stunning blouse with a pattern from one of my favorite Japanese Sewing Books. Don’t forget to check it out!

Once again, thank you so much Tuttle Publishing for sponsoring London Sew Social! And thank you for translating these amazing books for us!