ISBN # 978-4-7966-5419-7
I just received another wonderful Japanese craft book in the mail. The aesthetic sensibility of these books in general is so appealing — clean and beautiful with lovely color schemes. The writing in the books is in Japanese, but there are clear how-to diagrams making the projects fairly easy to follow. Japanese craft books can be found online at Amazon.jp , YesAsia, eBay, and now there are several shops on Etsy that also sell them. Amazon.jp (On Amazon.jp you can use a credit card, but to actually see how much you are spending, the site Universal Currency Converter is very helpful.) and YesAsia both have English shopping options. If you put in an ISBN number in a search, the book page will come up if it is available. For eBay and Etsy, do a search for “Japanese craft books” to find the sellers. Shipping can be expensive because many times they are coming directly from Japan, but YesAsia has free shipping for orders over $39.00
Here are a few of my favorites on reconstructing clothing. The one at the beginning of the post and the one below have examples of new clothing designs created from old clothing, scarves, t-shirts. The ingenuity used in the reconstructions is fun and inspiring. My favorite section is the way the author approached reconstructing sweaters.
This photo is from the interior of the above book. It shows two versions for wearing the same reconstructed pullover. One is worn upside-down.
The third book shows how to make wonderful stuffed animals from socks and gloves. It has also been translated into an English version, Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-Off Socks and Gloves, which is available here.
ISBN #4-579-11061-7
The original Japanese book can be bought here.
Below is Riina, a red plaid dog I made from a pair of socks. I followed the diagrams in the Japanese version. I made her as a sample for a Renagade Sewing class I was teaching.
Here is Riina wearing one of my daughter’s American Girl doll dresses (one of Addy’s dresses).
For some more on reconstructing clothing, please see previous post on the “Renegade Sewing” class I taught to a group of teenage girls.
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Renegade Sewing class? Sign me up! I must admit that when I read that I was so excited that I lost my train of thought on the japanese craftbooks!
I love the creativity and and diversity of the projects that you chose to display here. So many fun ideas!
Fantastic article, very in depth. I like the look of those clothes
Anita
Thank you both for the kind words
The Renegade Sewing class was taught to a group of teenage girls. We had a great time and I was so impressed with their creativity and fearlessness in not using patterns. It would be fun to teach it to adults someday.
I love crafts and sewing stuffs.
Now I have your blog add to my favorites.
Very nice and creative blog idea!
P.S.Thank you for your comment at my blog too.
Hi Ellifolks!
I came to sewing from a different direction, engineering, once I started learning about drafting and leaving allowances for bends, fit, etc. in design/drafting classes. I started by sewing covers for some equipment. Of course, that stodgy background didn’t stop me from sewing the legs from my old olive-green corduroy bell-bottom pants in to replace the sleeves of a yellow and brown striped tee-shirt. I had plans to put my old Dijon-mustard colored dress shirt’s French-cuff sleeves onto the top part of a pair of grey slacks as new legs, primarily to be able to wear cufflinks over my dress boots, but fell prey to fashion cowardice and fell on semi-hard creative times, joining the marching band. Your post brings back some fun and crazy messing-about with the notions of style. You and your class of teens pulled off some much more practical remakes, very nice work! I enjoyed this and the other posts I’ve been perusing on your place here, as well. The refrigerated bread stock sounds like a great way to have a wonderful olfactory treat every few days, as well as a source of bread for which you know the ingredients. Very nice blog. More!
Cheers,
pete
Thank you for the kind words, rainbow19 and pete S.!!
Pete, I’d love to see your reconstructed t-shirt, and I hope you get a chance to make your French-cuffed grey slacks. They both sound like such fun. Those slacks would be amazing! The deli rye from the book is so good. It tastes like the real stuff to me.
Thoroughly enjoyed your site – your choice of pictures and comments about the books made me want to order them:)
Ellifolks, how about a tutorial on making the SockDog
on your blog?
Hi Violet
I followed directions in the book, Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-Off Socks and Gloves, mentioned in the post. The English version should be available at a library.
I bought this book 2 years ago and It’s already so excellent. I realised the model which it’s presented… if you want to see it on my blog, you’re welcome. Sorry for my english. crealicia from france.
http://crealicia.canalblog.com/archives/2009/06/22/index.html
crealicia´s last blog ..Reconstructing – collection printemps été 2010 – modèle5