LB Pullover - tunic

Like many people in Australia (and worldwide) I've been working from home for quite a few weeks now. Or is it months? Who knows - time seems to have stopped making much sense lately.


During that time the weather has gone from warm to coolish as we head towards winter. I've been wearing the same leggings and tops during almost that whole time and am really lacking some comfortable, but not too pyjama-like clothes for "work".


I've not really felt much like sewing as my "office" now takes up the whole space where I usually sew. I hardly sewed at all last year as we lost the space due to our flat flooding so this work from home thing is really cramping my creative outlets.  BUT I looked through my fabric stash the other day and saw this knit fabric bought on our last trip to Tokyo and I thought it would make a nice top or tunic (IG poll said Tunic was the way to go).

I've used the LB Pullover by Paper Theory (again) and added some length to it. Intially I added 15.5" (39cm) to the pattern but I think that was a bit too long so chopped off an inch and sewed a 2.5" hem.


Intially I sewed up the size 20 but it was HUGE (previous vest version was meant to wear over tops so the size 20 was good) so I took it in quite a bit and perhaps it's now a size 16 - 18?

This dress feels comfortable to wear though the fabric is a little itchy. Looking at the photos it still looks a little big but it's for "working from home" so will be fine for that purpose. It's currently in the washing machine (I wash everything after I've made it and before wearing it for the first time) - I might chuck it into the dryer and see what happens to it size-wise.

My overlocker is currently set up behind my work computer on the tiny part of the dining table that is free. I've set up my sewing machine on a litte foldout table I bought when this all started as I wanted a space to write or colour or whatever. Cutting out fabric now happens on the kitchen floor - the only room with currently enough floor space to lay out big lenghts of fabric. This is the new sewing "normal" for now.
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Pattern: LB Pullover by Paper Theory
Size: size 16 - 18 (not quite sure)
Modifications: lengthend by 14.5"
Fabric: Knit of some sort from Tomato in Tokyo
Changes for next time: cut a smaller size (18) and reduce the lenght by another inch.

My Japanese Fabric "stash"

As promised, here is a little look at the fabulous fabrics I bought during our visit to Tokyo's "fabric town" area. All of the fabric came from a store called Tomato. The name of the store is so kawaii (cute) I can hardly handle it!

Of course, hindsight is twenty twenty and I'm kicking myself now that I didn't go wild and BUY EVERYTHING as I have so many things now I want to start sewing.  Meeting up with other sewists, plus a spate of classes has given me so much confidence and motivation!

First cab off the rank is a FANTASTIC cotton with an uber cute CAT print! I love cats (as evidenced from this post on Japan's cat cafes over on my other blog) so I couldn't walk away without 1m of this. I've earmarked this for another Grainline #tinyPocketTank...once I'm up to sewing another one. Or perhaps it will become some other sort of top (feel free to throw me ideas)...watch this space.



This is another lovely, lightweight cotton that I'm thinking will be nice in Tessuti's Gaby dress.  The Gaby might need a more...sturdy, crisp fabric...but I figure this will be a nice beach dress if all else fails. It feels as soft as a kitten and what could be better than that!

Another lovely cotton with palm trees! This fabric is slightly more heavy than the floral above and has a lovely feel....nice and soft almost like flannelette in a way. I'm thinking another April Rhodes Peplum Party Dress as I really like that sewing pattern and I think it suits my shape (though I may need to go down a size...still thinking about that).

I didn't want to buy anything I couldn't already sew with so I steered clear of ALL knits (which I'm now regretting since the release of the Coco Dress and my recent Mandy Boat Tee class at Tessuti). That said, I was quite taken with Tomato's huge selection of printed, lightweight corduroy. This will become a skirt...once I learn how to sew a skirt that is!
 

So there you have it. My very modest haul from Tokyo. What do you think of my plans for each fabric -- if you have some other/better suggestions I'd LOVE to hear them.

Fabric Shopping in Nippori, Tokyo (Japan)

Last month I was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday in Tokyo. Wow, WHAT A PLACE! It's such a vibrant city - so fast-paced, busy, noisy and frantic, yet also so orderly and calm in a way. I've never seen people queue to get on a train before...I LOVE Tokyo!

Besides eating, one of the things I was really keen to experience in Tokyo was shopping for fabric in Nippori "Sen-I Gai" or Fabric Town.

This area has over 80 shops selling all manner of fabrics, buttons, trims, clothes, leathers (and furs - yuck), lace, ribbons and kimono fabrics. If you can't find what you're looking for in fabric town, then you're not looking!

 

As I'm only new to sewing I decided to only buy fabrics that I know how to sew with - so that pretty much means cottons. This also helped to expedite the shopping processes which my husband was thankful for as he was tagging along behind me.  

I'm now KICKING myself that I wasn't looking for knits as Tilly and the Buttons has just released her new pattern, Coco - a perfect beginners knit dress. D'oh, d'oh d'oh! There were some FANTASTIC printed knits in the stores I went into but I hardly gave them a second glance.

For a new sewist an experience like Nippori "Sen-I Gai" is totally fascinating, and totally overwhelming.  In order to minimize the chance of me having a total fabric flip-out on the streets of Tokyo I decided to just visit a few stores...and get in, look around and get out. You could literally spend DAYS in this area. DAYS I didn't have!

The main store I visited was called Tomato (oh, LOL Japan you are so funny)! Tomato has a few stores along the main "fabric town" strip - some selling notions, some selling fabrics and some selling outlet fabrics and clothes. One of the stores had about EIGHT FLOORS of fabric...holy moly. There was about two floors just of knits (again, kicking myself)!

After our stint of fabric shopping we headed back towards Nippori JR station.  It was about 3 degrees outside yet we saw this poor old guy set up outside his shop, sewing away on the street. He must have been freezing, it was SO cold!

You know what's good for fighting of cold weather? A steaming hot bowl of ramen. We found this totally dodgy looking place right near Nippori JR station and wandered in when the waiter came out to confirm they did indeed serve ramen. Boy, it was good - some of the best ramen I've never had!

How to get there:  take the JR Yamanote line to Nippori Station.  From the South Exit turn right, and head towards Nippori Chuo Dori (that's a street name). Hopefully this (badly scanned) map will help you out.

Oh, and stay tuned for my next blog post - a show and tell of my Japanese fabric purchases!