In Part 2 of the sew along for Dress T from Stylish Dress Book: Wear with Freedom by Yoshiko Tsukiori, I cut the fabric, using the paper patterns we made in Part 1. I also applied interfacing to the yoke.

Cutting Fabric

I’m using crepe de chine, which is beautiful but extremely slinky and difficult to cut. I used paper weights to hold the fabric still, and snipped very carefully with the very end of my fabric scissors.

My fabric has a decorative border, so I’ve decided to show the border along the hem. I’ve shortened the skirt about 5cm (2″).

Applying Interfacing

You need to apply interfacing to the front and back yokes, which form the neckline of the dress. To cut the interfacing, I like to pin the fabric on to the interfacing and cut around the fabric. I find this gives me the most accurate fit.

In Part 3, let’s start sewing the dress!

Yay, let’s start making Dress T from Stylish Dress Book: Wear with Freedom! This is Part 1 of a sew-along, where I’ll be breaking down the sewing steps in a series of blog posts.

I already chose my crepe de chine fabric last month, what did you choose?

Let’s start tracing

The pull-out sewing patterns in this book are printed on both sides, so it took me a while to locate all 7 pieces which need to be traced.

Tip 1: Before you start tracing, use your finger to follow along the outline of each pattern piece. You’ll get a better feel for the final size and shape of the piece you will trace. Some pieces are shared with other designs, so it can get really confusing.

Remember, the patterns do not include seam allowance, so you need to add them yourself. This step is explained with photos, step-by-step in my ebook, How to Sew Japanese Sewing Patterns 🙂

Tip 2: Although the book gives you seam allowance measurements in inches and metric, try to use the metric measurements, as it is more accurate.

Don’t forget to mark the double sided arrows for the fabric grain.

Cutting out the patterns

The curved sections are more tricky to cut, but if you’ve drawn each line carefully (I used a curved ruler), you’ll end up with a more accurate paper sewing pattern.

We’ll cut the fabric in the next part of this sew-along. Good luck with your tracing!

The Sew Japanese Sew-Along is a Flickr group, and we’re going to make something from a Japanese sewing book before the end of April. I’ve decided to join in and make Dress T, from Stylish Dress Book 1: Wear with freedom by Yoshiko Tsukiori.

This dress is a baby doll style dress with a contrasting trim. I’m very excited to make this dress not only out of silk, but designer silk! I have a gorgeous crepe de chine from Marc by Marc Jacobs. I bought from Mood Fabrics online. Love that store.

The contrasting trim will also be crepe de chine, a solid black one also from Mood.

I’ll break down the sewing process into a few blog posts, similar to the Burdastyle Andrew cardigan sew-along. I plan on starting before the end of this month (March 2014). I hope you can join in! The Flickr group link is here.