Dear international community of seamstresses: THANK YOU for supporting my little Etsy shop! I did not expect such high interest in Japanese sewing notions! My little shop received many more orders in a week that I expected to get in a month!

Thanks to you, I've already learnt so much and am working on the improvements. For example, yesterday I re-took all of the pictures, I ordered business cards and return address stickers.

Due to the amount of time I have had to dedicate to it and my travel expenses to purchase additional stock, I have decided to slightly increase the prices for some products. I hope you understand!

I appreciate your suggestions about the additional Japanese notions you'd like to see in the shop. The newly featured products are: Japanese dressmaking pins, leather thimbles, double (or fork) pins and Japanese thread scissors. And here's a little overview of why they are so good:

Double pins or fork pins

Quilters often use these pins for better precision in sewing parts of the quilt together. The first time I saw how they were used in sewing was from Susan Khalje. When I tried the double pins myself, I realized the advantage of using them: due to their forked nature, they hold the fabric tightly preventing it from moving very much when sewing. Fork pins are especially great for sewing with striped or plaid fabric. You can get the fabric perfectly aligned and avoid ripping your seams.


Dressmaking pins

The quality of the picture below is not great, but that's the best I could make with my little amateur camera.

For the sake of experiment, I put two pins together: the yellow one is a pin from my shop, the black one from a manufacturer from Europe. I hope you can see that the yellow pin is way thinner and a bit longer.

Now I'll try to explain the feeling when you insert these two pins into fabric. It feels like the black pin is struggling to go through the fibers and does not slide very smoothly. My hand gets the feeling as if the surface of the pin is not smooth. The yellow pin seems to glide through fabric and I don't need to force it. It stops or moves where I want it to.

Also, the black pins leave tiny holes in the fabric, whereas the yellow ones do not.


Japanese thread scissors

As with many other Japanese sewing notions, I was introduced to these scissors by Ayumi-sensei. At first sight, they looked very strange and ugly. But my skepticism vanished as soon as I tried working with them.

Their advantage over classical embroidery scissors is that they spare you lots of time and effort due to the absence of the circular handle. Just think about it: every time you need to cut a piece of thread, you put your fingers through the handle (sometimes my fingers get stuck). With the Japanese thread scissors, it is just one easy movement - click -and then you are done!

Don't forget that kimonos are 100% hand-sewn and require lots of running stitching and consequently lots of thread cutting. Scissors like this significantly speed up the process! They are so smart, these Japanese inventors!

Another huuuge advantage is that they are for life. Made of metal, they never break! Contrary to the scissors where the handle is made of plastic. When the blades become blunt, it's recommended to sharpen them with a special sharpening stone. But the traditional "western" way at a professional sharpener works just as well.

If you live in an area with a high level of humidity, it's always better to keep the scissors inside a box.

Personally, I own two pair of scissors: the 100% metal scissors featured in my Etsy shop and another blue pair, from this post. I like the blue scissors less because of the ceramic blade. After using them for three years, the blade is not as sharp as it used to be.


Leather thimble

I added the thimble to my shop because two customers asked about it. You can read more about it here.  I can only say that having used it since November, I am more than happy with it. Despite its rather odd appearance, it feels very natural on my finger and protects it perfectly well!

Let me introduce you my new neighbor flatmate: Totoro! In fact, there are 13 Totoros sitting on the yoke of my jumper.


It all started from Ravelry: I was searching for a new pattern of something warm and cuddly. First I saw the original Paper Dolls by Kate Davies, Scottish knitwear designer. But then my eyes caught one of the jumper's variations: TOTORO! On the same day, I ran to the yarn shop. Thus began two weeks of Totoro-mania, because not only did I knit Totoro, but I also watched the movie and sang karaoke Totoro songs.

If you don't know Kate Davies and if you are into knitting or pictures of gorgeous Scottish scenarios,  I would tell you: go check out her site! Several more of Kate's designs are on my knitting list; seriously, who can resist?????



I knitted size 5 without major changes. But I should've done 4 for the lower body and 6 for the upper body to accommodate my swimmer's shoulders. Well, it's not that bad after all. I also decided to go for the long sleeves


From doing this project, I've acquired three new techniques: knitting i-cord cast on and bind off, stranded color work and wrap & turn technique, which considerably improved not only the knitting experience but also the look of the finished garment

The thread for this jumper is an amazing mix of 80% wool and 20% LAMB LINEN from Avril: 1200m of the main color,  and less than 100m of the two contrasting colors.

NO, no, I did not forget about sewing! Yesterday I even accepted a sewing dare from Gillian which is to finish my Matthew Williamson dress by the end of next week!

Now that the holidays are over and everybody has gone back to their routines, I've decided to share a couple of memories from the holiday season!

Not so long ago, I met my future Santa-to-be: Gillian! We started following each other's blogs and Twitter accounts and got chatting and at some stage, we decided to swap goodies. How surprised I was when a postman rang on my door-bell on the morning of the 24th of January and brought me a package from Canada!

The package contained a whole lot of sewing essentials: several metres of horsehair braid, knit stay tape, a needle holder (the one that looks more like a lipstick), Kleenex(!) and a beautiful handmade garland! You ask why Kleenex? Japanese tissues are of very poor quality and every time I am out of Japan I bring Kleenex, the best brand of tissues. So in my stock I've got some Thai, English, American, French, Australian and even Israeli Kleenex. Now my collection has been replenished with Canadian Kleenex!

 What are your nicest memories from the holiday period?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have opened a tiiiny Etsy shop to re-sell a few Japanese sewing notions. Let me praise these products and explain to you why I use them.

T.E.C. Tokyo hand sewing needles 

Amongst all of the brands of hand-sewing needles in Japan, I went for this one because my teacher at ESMOD recommended them. So like a good student, I followed her advice and was not disappointed.  Extra thin and sharp, these needles do the job: they penetrate easily through multiple layers of fabric; they go through coating wool or silks like a hot knife through butter and transform hand-sewing into a more enjoyable experience. A good thimble can be helpful, though, as the needles are really thin and sharp.


Japanese basting cotton thread


My ESMOD teacher also told me that this cotton thread is ideal for basting! When we temporarily put two or more layers of fabric together, we baste them by machine or by hand. Nothing against machine basting! But after machine basting, I find it more difficult to remove the thread and control what I am doing. I manage my fabric better when basting it by hand and, because the cotton thread breaks much more easily than polyester, I can remove it in the blink of an eye. If your seam is very long, just snip it every couple of centimeters/inches and voilà!

Another important use of this thread is for making tailor tacks. And yes, Ayumi-sensei also taught me this :) Two years ago, when I had just started at ESMOD, we used tailor tacks even for skirts! So not only for tailoring! Wondering what a tailor tack is? It's a way of marking fabric using only thread; avoiding pins, chalk or other markers on the fabric. A tailor tack looks like a loop. In fact, this can be a topic for another post!


A tip for the best use and maintenance of the cotton thread: Knot a piece of contrasting thread or ribbon across the entire bundle of threads. Then cut through all of the threads, opposite from the knot as shown below. Keeping your basting thread this way will allow you to easily pull individual strings of thread and keep it together at the same time.

That's the way I do it

Japanese basting silk thread

In the construction and assembly of my woolen skirt and the Matthew Williamson dress (still unfinished), I used silk thread for both basting and sewing. From your own experience, you might know that when pressing/ironing some very sensitive fabrics like wool or silk, seams leave marks on the right side of the fabric. To prevent this from happening, use silk thread for basting. Oh boy, this woolen skirt required lots and lots of pressing and none of the basting thread marks could be seen. I even experimented with different types of thread and then tried to press it. Unfortunately, no photos was taken, but you can take my word for it.

In my Etsy shop, I currently sell only N4 silk thread. If I am not mistaken, it's the finest you can find. The following number is N9 and the thread is thicker by a fraction of a millimeter. The reason I am selling only N4 is because I've used it myself. For my next couture project I'll try N9 and only after testing it will I recommend it to other seamstresses.

I used this silk thread to put the skirt together, considering that it was done mostly by hand. Despite being so thin, the silk thread is very strong. But before I start sewing, I pass a piece of silk thread through a piece of wax and iron it once or twice. By doing this, the wax settles within the thread and makes it stronger, preventing the thread from twisting.

Are there other Japanese sewing notions which you are interested in and would like to see in my shop? 

To execute the project, I used this brown plum suiting wool from Mood Fabrics because my wardrobe is lacking calm, solid colors and classic shapes. The skirt is underlined with silk organza and lined with black crêpe-de-chine. To add a bit of flair and movement to the skirt, I decided to add a horsehair braid on the bottom. During the sewing process, I was not 100% sure about the horsehair braid, but once I tried it on, the feel and look justified my choice.


Adding organza strips to the pocket edges creates a neat and crisp look. This little detail is often omitted from the "Making of" description on patterns but I think it makes a big difference.



Another important practice which we underestimate or don't do enough of in sewing: pressing. I spent maybe 20% of the time invested in making the skirt pressing it because I wanted all of the seams to look immaculate! Thread Magazine even describes a point presser/clapper as one of the five must-have sewing tools. And there's a reason for it! Working with heavier materials such as wool or bulkier seams requires serious pressing.

On the subject of time distribution, hand-sewing took me over 70% of the time. I used the sewing machine only to sew darts and to put the eight panels and the pockets together. The rest of the garment was hand-sewn, including attaching the horsehair braid.

A few points about the waistband. Claire Schaeffer in her book Couture Techniques says that only three techniques are used in couture to finish the waist edge of skirts and pants: the self-fabric band, the faced band, and the faced edge, which does not have a band. I hesitated between the second and third options and it took me a day to think it through. But then I remembered that during my seminar with Susan Khalje, she said that there is no right or wrong; the couture techniques are there to be used when appropriate for a particular construction or design. So I opted for the latter solution: a faced waistline. Following the instructions from the book, I attached a piece of grosgrain ribbon to both the seam allowance of the skirt and the underlining. For this, I used fell stitches or appliqué stitches. When working on the bottom part of the grosgrain, I snipped it to fit the curve of the waist and overcast the raw edges. So far I have worn this skirt twice and I don't feel any discomfort due to the choice of waistband.


The only thing I am not happy about is the front closure. According to the Burda instructions for the version I chose to make, the buttons are hidden inside. Because the underlining and lining give my skirt some extra weight, the panel with the buttons is slightly bulging, even after adding little hooks. To fix this problem, and also to reduce some bulk at the waist, I'll insert an invisible zipper in front. This might be unusual, but it seems a rather convenient solution to me. I don't think it will spoil the skirt visually.

It took me a few weeks to finish this skirt. Most of the work was manual, repetitive and sometimes even boring. I tried to entertain myself by watching movies and listening to audiobooks. In the end, it was so worth it! When I pick up the skirt and feel the weight of it, when I wear it and feel the soft touch of silk - I am glad I spent all this time making it and used quality materials for it.

That leads me to my final point: the opening of my Etsy shop. I am not offering couture skirts, oh no! I am just re-selling Japanese sewing notions which I used for this project and which are so amazing and nice to work with! During my seminar with Susan, many seamstresses praised my basting cotton and silk threads, saying that they cost a fortune in the US or Europe. One of them encouraged me to re-sell them through Etsy. At the moment, I feature only three products: needles for hand-sewing, basting cotton and silk threads. I want to reiterate that I make absolutely no money from this shop: the price is based on the real value of a product + Etsy fees + shipping. You are all very welcome to have a look and leave me feedback. Are there any other products from Japan which you would like to see there?

Hello everyone! I am alive and kicking again, full of energy for more sewing and knitting!

Yes, I picked up my knitting needles again and nothing can stop me now. In fact, knitting was the first craft I mastered. When I was four or five, my mum showed me how to do basic stitches and subsequently tiny scarfs and blankets filled my dolls' wardrobes.

Before I embarked on my last trip, it was out of the question to take some sewing with me; nobody would let me sew in a hospital :) So knitting seemed a natural alternative and also fitting for the season. I ran to a yarn shop - an amazing place which I am going to dedicate an entire post to - to get some beautiful wool for a very simple cardigan. And look how nicely it matches the autumnal landscape!


The other day I visited a friend who is expecting a baby to transform her regular jeans into maternity ones. She lives near Tokyo University, famous for its gorgeous park; the park is packed every spring for hanami and in autumn for momijigari. Now you can understand why!

Don't you think my new cardigan could be a perfect camouflage if I played "hide & seek"?

The combination of the warm weather, the smell of autumn leaves and the chai tea which we drank beforehand made me absolutely mad and uncontrollable!


The cardigan, classified as 'easy', is based on Phildar pattern from Catalogue n63. To knit a similar cardigan, you need to know two basic stitches: knit and purl stitches. My knitting style is Continental, as opposed to what is known as English style.

Construction-wise, you cannot find anything easier! The cardigan is made up of two parts, with integrated sleeves represented in the middle of the scheme. Once you've finished both parts, sew them together stopping at the notch. Don't forget to make buttonholes!


I'd especially like to draw your attention to the buttons! I found them in a vintage shop and each button was the price of a meter of fine silk. With my eyes closed, I gave my credit card to the shop assistant and immediately threw away the receipt. But to me, it was worth it. I think they match the colors of the cardigan perfectly! In the end, if we want to justify ourselves we can always find a way, can't we?


As great as sewing is for self-reflection, knitting is good for watching movies - this cardigan equals seven movies and one audio book! Whilst I am working on more knitting, I am also continuing with sewing projects. A couture skirt which I've been working on over a week is only waiting to be lined. I can't wait to show it on here and share a couple of new techniques!