In the Mail

A couple of days ago I got in the mail several Japanese language craft books. I ordered them after hearing on a lot of blogs about the clear, illustrated instructions and the general quality of the projects presented. I went to Yes Asia and had a browse around as the initial welcome screen did not seem to have anything I would like - lots of ads for Korean, Japanese and Chinese movies, music and television shows. When I searched on sewing a whole other world opened up. Here is what I ended up ordering:

The two books on the lower right are published by Ondori and are part of a series. They cost $4.49 each and are excellent resources for felting and sashiko. Sashiko is a particular style of hand stitching origianlly used to create padded jackets for outdoor workers. Both the sashiko and felting books are excellent resources if you are interested in these topics. The projects were unique and beautiful and look like you can do them from the illustrations without reading the Japanese instructions. Both are well worth the price.

The handmade Zakka book speaks to a phenomenom in Japan defined, by Wikipedia, as "the art of seeing the savvy in the ordinary and mundane. To qualify as a zakka, a product must be attractive, sensitive, and laden with subtext.". This book is essentially eye candy. Beautiful pictures of items to make plus pictures of various venues with the projects artfuly arranged. The instructions are a little less clear than the Ondori books but doable.

The book in the upper left with the beautiful blue and white tote on the cover seems to have the theme of items for travelling. There are ten quilted handbags/totes, half a dozen pieces of clothing (including a gorgeous wrap dress) and a couple of home dec items. This book is a lush combination of eye candy and doable projects. There is a lot of attention to detail and the handbag finishing is laden with hand stitching to give these projects a wonderfully finished look. The garments are lovely but, as you can imagine, too small for me BUT I bet a talented pattern maker could size them up easily.

The last book is the most interesting to me. It was advertised as a sewing book but it is so much more. This book has about 15 basic patterns with 2 - 4 variations of each pattern. The key to successfully completing these garments is accurate measurement taking which is very well illustrated. There are four sizes included for each garment - S, M, L annd LL. The book shows detailed diagrams on how to draw the patterns for your size, detailed layouts of your pattern on the chosen fabric and excellent illustrations on how to make each garment. I am definitely bigger than the LL size... heck, I am even three inches taller than the LL size but the clear pattern drawing instructions should make it easier for me to up-size the patterns to a more American size.

The best part about all this is that Paul's girlfriend should like some of these styles and is closer to the sizes shown. I will probably be able to experiment on things for her before plunging into garments for myself. The last couple of pages have detailed instructions on general sewing including how to insert different styles of zippers. The very last page of the book has the simplest design of all so you can try your hand at garment sewing without a huge expenditure in either time or money. The project is a pull-on elastic waist skirt with side slits. I wish I could read Japanese so I could understand the item labelled, in English, 'One Point Advice'.

Except for the sewing book, all of the books open like western style books. Scattered throughout there are English words for things like 'how to make p. 72' but 99.9% is in Japanese. If you are not a visual learner you might want to find a Japanese speaker to help you over the rough spots. I am having a hard time deciding what to start on first but since I have some travelling coming up I will probably try the sashiko book first. One final note, there are several projects in these books for book covers where the back cover slips into a pocket and the rest wraps around the book to close with a button and ribbon. A very nice design and easily adapted for all standard paperback book sizes.