Dress – Handmade
Shoes – Seychelles from endless.com
Sunglasses – Elwood (borrowed from husband)
Bracelets – Random collection from travels
I have been busy busy busy at work lately, so I haven’t had a chance to do any blogging, sadly. I did get a nice break over the October Labour Day long weekend though, where I rented a beach house with seven girlfriends. It was crazy, fun, somewhat relaxing and an absolutely wonderful time away. I don’t know what I’d do with my girls – I love you all so much xx.
I thought a beach getaway was a great excuse to whip up a denim smock dress, so I rushed to get this dress finished before our holiday. Unfortunately, it was still a little too cold to take on my trip. No matter, I’ms sure I’ll get plenty of wear out of it over the coming summer.
Lots of free Japanese sewing patterns at Nani Iro
Nani Iro makes and sells beautiful fabrics, using really natural colours and designs. They also have a section on their website where you can download many sewing patterns. This is where I found the sewing pattern for my smock dress. You can download the free denim smock dress pattern here.
It’s a french sleeve dress with pintuck detailing along the front. There’s no zips or buttons, so you just throw it on over you head. Too easy!
Japanese Sewing Pattern Translated
But of course, the Nani Iro sewing patterns are all in Japanese. I’ve translated the pattern for you here as well as the instructions.
Materials:
Fabric 106cm (w) x 3m (l)
Method:
All measurements are in cm. The pattern is for Japanese ladies size M. You can refer to my Japanese to Western size conversion chart to check the measurements for this size.
First you need to cut the pattern out of the fabric. I drew the pattern directly on the the wrong side of the fabric, adding on the seam allowance. For the front and back body pieces, just fold your fabric in half and ensure that the centre of each piece lines up to the fold in the fabric. Please refer to the instructions as well as the corresponding diagrams given in the sewing pattern.
Step 1
Create pintuck folds on the front body piece at the neckline at 1.5cm intervals. There should be 10 pintucks in total, 5 on each side of the centre-line of the garment. Stitch 3mm from the edge of each fold, making each stitch shorter as you move outwards from the centre (10cm, 9.5cm, 9cm, 8.5cm, 8cm). Press with an iron so that the folds fall outwards from the centre.
Step 2
Sew 2 straight stitches along the outer edge of each sleeve. There is no hem for the sleeve, so be careful when washing the garment if you use a fabric that frays easily. Attach the sleeve to the front and back body pieces and overlock the edge.
Step 3
Make bias binding from fabric (3cm x 75cm). Use this to finish off the neck hole. A Clover bias binding maker comes in very handy at time like these.
Step 4
Sew the sides of the dress together and overlock the edge.
Step 5
Hem the dress.
Notes: I shortened the dress by about 40cm. The fabric I used was a denim chambray type of fabric.
12 comments
Thanks for posting this. It´s really kind of you to translate the pattern. I have shared it on Twitter
Thanks for sharing 🙂
I am an avid fan of your blog for I am a Japanese pattern lover too. I’d like to thank you for sharing your ideas and your sewing projects especially for this dress.
You’re very welcome Ai! Thanks for your kind words. I am a lady of leisure for a few months now that I’ve moved to SF, so I’m working on lots of things to post up on the blog. Hope to see you here again soon xx
I’m really impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare
to see a nice blog like this one nowadays.
[…] Free Japanese denim smock dress pattern (translated) […]
It says you can refer to my Japanese to Western size conversion chart to check the measurements for this size. but it tells me the page is unavaliable The page you are looking for cannot be found.
Hi Thelma! Thanks so much for letting me know – I did this blog post ages ago so things have changed a lot on the blog since then.
Here’s the new sizing chart: http://www.japanesesewingpatterns.com/understanding-japanese-patterns/2015/08/25/japanese-clothing-size-conversion-chart-to-western-size.html
how can I download the pattern for denim smock dress please?
Yes, just click on the link in the blog post 🙂
hello rin,
thanks for the description! what does the pattern say on the right side? especially where there seem to be described the sleeves.
i found that pattern on the naniiro site and tonight started to sew it, but now i got stuck because i need some more fabric, for the sleeves. unfortunately i already closed the side parts… you think it would be better to open that again? also i use linen and i don’t have overlock nor zigzag as i am using a 120 year old sewing machine. so i think the right part of the pattern graphic could tell me how to sew the parts together?
well and now i was looking if i could find a picture of that dress in better quality and now i found your site, even with instruction. nice! 🙂
Hi Elisabeth,
The right side of the instructions just describe how to attach the sleeve, which I have translated here in the blog post. The overlock / zig-zag is simply to keep the fabric from fraying. I would do this especially if you are using linen!