Gathered Pullover in nani IRO "Fuccra : rakuen カウアイ" (nani IRO 2013)

The front (IG)

Finally completed my first human garment — a gathered pullover for my own wardrobe, made with nani IRO "Fuccra : rakuen カウアイ" double gauze cotton, using Pattern D-1 from Okawa Tomomi's Simple Chic¹ (English translation in PDF here and translation of pages 33-34 in PDF here.) The original pattern has bias-cut flutter raglan sleeves, but I modified them to balloon sleeves. It's a little too big at the sides, so I guess it's back to the drawing board for some pattern resizing.

This particular nani IRO print is my all-time No. 1 favourite fabric. When I bought the fabric in Kyoto (posted here), a large part of it was earmarked for clothes for myself, and a smaller portion for Blythe projects. Sometimes, the more we love and treasure a particular fabric, the harder it is to use it. Well, it sat around for 2 years until I started using it on some Blythe projects (Tirin & Katten's cap sleeve dress, an empire-line version, and Hanon smocked dresses). And finally, I got down to using it for my own clothes project.

The back (IG)

Alas! I made a mistake with the back of the pullover. Σ(っﾟДﾟ；)っ The back was supposed to be made up of 2 separate pieces, stitched together down the middle. I forgot to check the instructions before tracing and cutting the pattern. And so I cut out the back part as a single piece. But I did manage to fix it. (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و  Fortunately my mistake did not affect the placement of the original loop-button closure. But...it's not pretty on the reverse side....

Took me over a month before I finally got down to working on the garments proper. Mostly because I kept changing my mind over which pattern to use.... Originally decided on a one-piece with pin-tucks from Kayaki Machiko's My Favourite Shirt² (pattern D) but scrapped that thought soon after.

A post shared by @yotsub4 on Oct 27, 2017 at 3:56am PDT

After changing my mind for the nth time, I finally settled on 2 patterns. First is a simple one-piece dress from Takahashi Emiko's Tenuide Tsukuru Sawayakana Otona Fuku³ (currently WIP completed in January 2018).

The 2nd garment is this gathered pullover, taken from Okawa-san's Simple Chic. Would've preferred to make the stand collar blouse from Simple Chic (pattern A-1), or the linen shirt from Kayaki Machiko's My Favourite Shirt (pattern N), but didn't have enough fabric leftover after cutting what was needed for the one-piece.

Used tracing paper to transfer the patterns, and avoided using the original pattern paper.

Had to buy tracing paper for the pattern transfer, another reason for the long delay. I wanted to keep the original pattern paper intact for future use. It was also useful for me to see if I had enough fabric, as I didn't have the dimensions specified in the pattern book.

Pattern D-1 from Okawa Tomomi's Simple Chic, with modifications (IG)

I really like Okawa-san's Simple Chic. It has fantastic pictures and very wearable designs (see the review by Japanese Sewing Books). That said, it does tend toward the baggy, shapeless styles that is common among many Japanese pattern books. Some of the garments are not entirely suitable for my body shape or age demographic, nonetheless, there are several styles that do work for me, and are fairly versatile.

As mentioned above, I made a working translation into English which I've shared in PDF here. So, the book's sewing instructions are not really beginner-friendly — only some steps are illustrated with diagrams, but the written instructions are fairly easy to understand. That is, if you can read Japanese. My grasp of kanji isn't great, but I got by thanks to the guide by Japanese Sewing Books (here), Google Translate and Jisho.


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1. Full title:「シンプルシック Simple Chic －自分が似合うバランスで着る－」大川 友美 (著)、文化出版局 (2011/3/18). Romaji: Shinpuru Shikku —Jibun ga niau baransu de kiru—. Author: Okawa Tomomi. Publisher: Bunka (18 March 2011) (Amazon JP)

2. Full title:「私の好きなシャツスタイル - my favorite shirt」茅木 真知子 (著)、文化出版局) (2009/04/01). Romaji: Watashi no sukina shatsu sutairu, translates as "My favourite shirt style". Author: Kayaki Machiko. Publisher: Bunka (1 April 2009) (Amazon Jp).

3. Full title:「手ぬいで作るさわやかな大人服 (レディブティックシリーズ No. 3564)」高橋 恵美子(著)、ブティック社 (2013/4/22). Romaji: Tenuide Tsukuru Sawayakana Otona Fuku (Redi Butikku Shirīzu No. 3564), loosely translates to "Hand-sewn Refreshing Adult Clothing (Lady Boutique Series No. 3564)". Author: Takahashi Emiko. Publisher: Boutique Co. (22 April 2013) (Amazon Jp)