KCW: Japanese culottes and a Japanese top

Started well before Kid's Clothes Week, then put on the backburner, here's a little outfit I made for R: a pair of culottes with a piped yoke (and side pockets, yay) and a simple knit top with an interesting shoulder detail. The culottes are from my newest Japanese pattern book Kids Clothes Style Book and I made them in the same beautiful Three Cats shweshwe fabric that I used for R's kimono slippers. I'm really happy with the style and the fit of this cute little skort, and it works well with tights underneath in our cool Autumn weather.

The top is pattern 8 from Fu-Ko Basics and, while it's hard to tell from the illustration contained in the book, it has an unusual design with the back piece extending over the shoulders to form an interesting seam detail at the front (which I totally failed to photograph properly). The back hem is a little lower than the front hem, which is another nice feature. For this top I used a not-too-stretchy cotton knit from Spotlight; good thing I bought heaps of it on clearance as my first top ended up too wide at the neck and I had to throw it out and start again. This top is intended to have a wide neckline, but taking a few centimetres off the neck width ended up being a very helpful adjustment.

It rained solidly all day today and the light indoors was rather gloomy, so photographing this outfit wasn't much fun. But never mind, R likes her new clothes and happily wore them for the rest of the day. Now to work on a much-needed winter coat!

The relax dress

Another dress from Fu-Ko Basics, probably the simplest pattern in the whole book - just two pieces plus facings for the neckline. I wasn't sure how this would look on R or whether I really liked it at all, but I was after a nice quick sew after the confusing front placket dress, and that's exactly what I got.

A Japanese friend informs me that the pattern is called a 'Relax Dress', and that the fabrics used for the two dresses pictured in the book are French terry and jacquard knit. I used some rather colourful cotton jersey I'd picked up on clearance a while back, which wasn't quite the understated style I was after, but this was right in between Christmas and New Year and I couldn't be bothered to go shopping. As it turns out, I really like the way the big floral design lends the dress a summery, beachy feeling. Perfect with a pair of thongs for a day at the beach or pool... and having just had an amusing conversation with my son about the different meanings of certain words in American versus UK/Australian English, I feel obliged to clarify the word 'thongs'. These are not undergarments but footwear - what others might call flip-flops, only you'd sound like an idiot if you said that here, because thongs are the national shoe of Australia!

The Relax Dress has a high-low hem and the waist is pulled in by means of a strip of elastic stretched out and stitched to the inside (I sewed mine about 5cm lower than the line indicated on the pattern pieces). The back opening is meant to have a button but I skipped this to avoid tangly hair issues and put in a snap instead. The dress could be simplified even further by omitting the facings and back opening and binding the neckline using a stretch stitch - providing, of course, that you're using stretchy fabric, because I think the dress would be really nice in a light woven as well.

A quick and rewarding sew with a comfy, calming name - there's lots to love about the Relax Dress. And check out K photobombing the picture below!

Front placket dress and a summer cardi

This is the front-placket dress from the lovely Japanese book Fu-Ko Basics: Girls' Clothes I Want to Make, and I would have given up on it pretty quickly were it not for this fabulous tutorial that Sanae put together (thank you! thank you!). There's nothing especially complicated about the dress, but the diagrams for constructing the placket are not very clear, and I suspect that even if the book were in English I'd find this particular pattern hopelessly confusing. With the tutorial, though, it's very do-able and I enjoyed seeing the dress come together. R insists that this is actually a tunic, and perhaps she's right - it did turn out on the short side. It's pictured in the book worn with leggings, a pattern for which is also included, so I tried them out and lo and behold, I seem to have found the perfect pattern for R's skinny legs. I used a lovely light linen from Kim Anh for the tunic and cotton/elastane jersey from my stash for the leggings, pictured below.

I found some beautiful (if overpriced) cotton knit at Spotlight - I don't know what it is, but it's not stretchy enough to be a jersey and not thick enough to be sweatshirt knit - which worked beautifully for this little short-sleeved cardigan. I used pattern F from A Sunny Spot, which is a bolero-length cardigan with buttons down the front, but I made mine waist-length with just two metal snaps at the top. It's comfy, easy to wear and goes with lots of R's clothes, so I imagine it'll get a lot of use. I'm less sure about the dress/tunic, because much as I love it, I suspect it might not be R's cup of tea.

All in all, a satisfying little outfit to sew, even if it's not exactly leggings weather around here. Next up, another dress from Fu-ko Basics - and it isn't blue!