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Otome no Sewing–Book 7 (Spring 2015)
16 Tuesday Feb 2016
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in16 Tuesday Feb 2016
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13 Saturday Feb 2016
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inAnn of Green Gables – OTS 6 (lite)
I included the following scans because of Kira Imai’s adorable illustration on these pages. 🙂
12 Friday Feb 2016
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11 Thursday Feb 2016
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I think this is one of the first in the Otome series to feature a Kodona style to make. It included a pair of pumpkin pants with built in suspenders, a capelet, and a hat. Not too impressive to me, as I think the previous Gosu Rori books had better “aristocratic” styles for men, like those long coats that I don’t see too often these days. Have we moved away from visual kei or is it still a thing? Someone tell me!
Anyway, here are the patterns within this volume.
02 Tuesday Feb 2016
Posted Patterns
inI think it goes without saying that this pattern book series is my absolute favorite. Ever. Of All Time.
So many patterns! All the basic shapes to make absolutely fabulous Lolita garments. Endless possibilities. Your only limitation is your own creativity.
Flipping through the pages of the latest edition of Lady Boutique’s Otome no Sewing books, I find myself totally in love with so many of the patterns you can find within this volume. There seem to be a lot more patterns available in this one, with variations of beautiful silhouettes. I think it’s the sleeves that have drawn me to love this edition the best. I have a thing for ruffled and bell sleeves.
Also, you finally have a decent coat pattern, with lining! It made me very excited to see that they were finally branching out into a more expert sewing realm to include a lovely lined coat with instructions. And a bonnet that wasn’t the floppy Little Miss Muffet kind.
31 Sunday Jan 2016
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inTags
accessories, Bloomers, Bolero, Hat, headdress, JSK, op, otome no sewing, Skirt
Published in Spring 2013, this is the third installment of the revised Lolita sewing pattern magazines. As I may have mentioned in previous articles, this series originally began as Gosu Rori sewing magazines, in which enthusiasts of Lolita fashion would send in their design ideas and a lucky handful would be chosen to have their designs realized. The revision significantly cleaned up not only the look and format of this high quality color magazine, but also the patterns themselves are more carefully and professionally drafted.
The patterns in most of these magazines still cater to the home seamstress/tailor, and simplify certain design elements in order to make the construction process a little less intimidating. You won’t find plackets on the sleeves, or linings on the inside of a one-piece. However, some of the patterns are only diagrams in which the reader is expected to be able to draft. So there is some simplicity, but also a level of sophistication. I would say these are definitely intended for intermediate tailors and designers.
These are my favorite pattern books, and I’m proud to boast a complete collection, currently up to volume 8. 🙂
I think this particular jumpskirt is one of my absolute favorites. I love the yoke on the front, and the three tiny tiers of beautiful ruffles at the bottom. In this coord, you have the option of a high waisted skirt, or the yoke front JSK.
This is the darling little sailor dress that I once made and wore. Instead of making it with three tiers, I made the skirt a full traditional 2 panel kind, using two lines of navy ribbon over white fabric. As an alternate to this coord, there’s also a seifuku-type skirt
This Otome sewing volume must be my favorite with all the things I made out of it so far! Here’s that bunny hoodie. Already sold out on Etsy. I made mine out of slightly heavier sweatshirt fabric with a very soft fleece inside. I have enough of this fabric for potentially two more pieces.
Someone also suggested making it in black, and perhaps doing a kitty or bear version too.
22 Thursday Jan 2015
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inI feel that perhaps an analysis of one of these mooks is long in coming. With the new free online OCR, I can finally translate these books a little better. Japanese character recognition has been very elusive up until now.
This is a sewing pattern book/magazine (mook) that is published by Boutique SHA (They have a blog in English!). This is the same publishing house that released the earlier versions of these books called Gosu Rori, but have since cleaned up their format to make a nice layout that’s much less busy than originally presented.
So here is Otome no Sewing Book 2, handmade Lolita fashion.
On the little blue seal, it says “Tojikomi furoku” which apparently means “Filing Appendix”, describing that inside, all the patterns come in three sizes (S-M-L no saizu). Underneath that, “Jitsubutsu-dai no katagami”, telling you it comes with a “life sized paper” or the giant pattern sheet.
Please note that not all the designs included in the book are on the pattern sheet. Variations on the featured patterns might need to be drafted with the diagrams and instructions provided. For this, all the measurements are in metric, so if you’re going to draft the pieces yourself, you’ll need a metric draftman’s ruler (or before I got one of those, I just used the metric side of my tailor’s measuring tape). You’ll still need the metal pattern drafting rulers for the rest of it, as those are standard. Those DO NOT need to be in metric. 🙂
The second line says:
布からひろがる不思議なものがたり
… which apparently comes to mean something to the extent of “Mysterious story spread from cloth.” If you want to take a gander at a better translation, I’d love your input!
Classical Modern Print で作る服 (Suggested fabric to use with the patterns)
聖なる夜を手作り服で遺ごして…
夢見るクリスマスドレス
Something about “Holy Night handmade clothes to be treasured…?” And “The Christmas dress you’ve been dreaming of…” Please correct me if this is inaccurate. I can only glean what they mean when I break down the sentences by word clusters.
The main coordinates in this issue are featured on the front cover, modeled Misako Aoki and Midori. Each coord has six elements that you can make in different arrangements, which are suggested in the following pages.
Coord 1:
Coord 2:
Others:
Hopefully this little bit helps you when choosing your patterns from these books. Presenting the beginning pages is for cataloging purposes only, as a reference. If you’re looking for copies of these books, ebay is a good source for back issues.
15 Wednesday Aug 2012
Posted Patterns
inReleased in April 2012 by Boutique Publishing, Let’s Lolita Sewing is an exclusive pattern book featuring Lolita fashion in their spring issue of the Lady Boutique pattern book series. I’ve had the pleasure of drooling over these pages, even while not exactly able to read any of the instructions. The great thing about these Japanese pattern books is that a lot of their instructions are mainly visual with easy to follow measurements in centimeters.
I won’t lie and say it’s not challenging, but I’m fairly confident I can figure out how to make any of these pieces featured in the book. I’m currently trying my hand at a bolero, the short sleeve version in this book.
Also – I freakin’ LOVE this book. Just sayin’…
The patterns come in three sizes, S, M, and L.
07 Friday Jul 2023
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inAll this time, I never realized I hadn’t uploaded any patterns or photos of this issue. This was the last issue of Gosu Rori before the same publishing company went in a different direction and began the Otome no Sewing books.
20 Thursday Feb 2020
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inThis is a question I’ve gotten a lot over the years since I started this blog. Originally, I started it to catalog my own collection of various official Lolita patterns in the Gothic and Lolita Bibles, Gosu Rori, and Otome no Sewing and it became a reference for others as well.
You need a particular pattern? Don’t know which of those books have it? I made a searchable database you could use before you went to buy the exact volume you needed. I realize that the database for the GLBs is incomplete (scanning takes a long time, guys).
I started sharing select diagram pages from the Gosu Rori and Otome no Sewing books as well. Those are the patterns. I can’t very well scan the pattern sheets themselves, since they are too big and would need to be scaled correctly if they were to be printed.
Instead, I offered what the published books already have: the diagrams. I teach how to draft the patterns using the measurements (all those multitude of numbers!) in metric. I have videos on what tools you need, and the essentials on how to do it.
Pattern drafting isn’t as hard as you might think. Doing it from scratch might prove difficult, but the diagrams in all those pattern books are telling you exactly where and how long to measure lines. You can do this with one tool to start. It’s about $20 at Joann’s. You need wide format paper, found at Staples (banner paper 30″ wide, $7). You need pencils.
The moment you begin this process, you realize it becomes easier as you go. EGL patterns are hard to come by, and a lot of the first run of the Otome no Sewing books are no longer available. You could find them on ebay if drafting from the diagrams is not something your interested or comfortable in trying. Still, it’s what I offer on this site and hope that it’s useful for some.
I hope this answers some questions some of you may have had, and I’ll try to answer more as they come in.
Happy sewing!