Japanese sewing and pattern terms

: seam allowance : full-sized pattern pieces enclosed (this is sometimes written on the cover of a book or magazine) : right side (also written in hiragana as ) : wrong side (also written in hiragana as ) : fabric cutting diagram : underarm : shoulder : waist : materials (materials list) : finished (sewing) line; for example, this is the main line on a pattern, to which one would add a seam allowance : elastic (also called ) zipper : fabric : bias fabric width (usually used for fabric width, e.g. 110cm250cm means that you need two-and-a-half meters of 110 cm width fabric) : sew : French seam : clip (like for the seam allowance of a curve) : length (like for a skirt) : center : back : front : interfacing (: medium weight, : heavy weight, : leightweight) to tie (in a knot, or a bow) : leather tie : running stitch, quilting stitch baste ( is basting thread, thick and easy to run through fabric, usually sold in hanks in Japan) : facing : topstitch hem stitch handstitch pattern button linen cotton serger, or part to be serged/zig-zag stitched sleeve thread : lace bias tape maker (usually written with the respective size, 12 mm, 25 mm, etc. front and back (i.e. , which, when written on the pattern piece, means you cut two pieces) gather (usually written between two points to show where to gather fabric) the space to leave open for turning to the right side (usually slipstitched after turning)

 fancy way of saying 6-strand embroidery floss (DMC no. 25) chest measurement fold (usually written to show where to fold and sew, or where to place the pattern piece on the fabric fold for cutting) grainline (usually accompanied by a line/arrows on the paper pattern) dart(s) frill

Sizes and Supplies

This is the second article of my series how to sew from Japanese books. In Part [ untranslated - NDT ] , I explained how I find projects to do and where to buy books. This post will focus on the size and supplies . If you do not want to read the entire way I do , here's a few Japanese words that sewing can begin : : chest : size : hips : Supplies : fabric : width : lining : elastic : button : Cotton : Flax : zip ( zip ) : bias : wire : clip , hook I hope you can see the Japanese characters . Otherwise voila image. Ok , for the rest of you, go! When I sew for a Japanese sewing book , I use a lot of assumptions : looking at the pictures , I can usually imagine what I need . If this does not work, I make a guess about the word, the pat on the Google's online translator and then checks if the Japanese word matches. Or I watch the translations of others. I used the pdf of My Little Mochi , Help for Japanese bosses, or that of batty chan Understanding patterns gosurori. A novelty for me: Under Japanese sewing and pattern Jennifer , of Moving Hands. This may be a bit long to grasp it but it is better to have everything at hand when you sew . This is something that often makes me terribly lacking. I often start with just the fabric . I 'm going as far as I can and then find myself stuck because I'm missing something . But I want to teach you the proper way and not how Korallin running around like a headless chicken . But of course there are no rules , you can also make the way Headless Chicken

Size
The first thing you need to find is the size . There should be an array in your book or on the board pattern that looks like this:

It is as usual an array of sizes with measurements in centimeters. If you want to know what it represents in inches and you've misplaced your feet , like me, you can go on Google for unit conversions. All you have to do is type ' number ' cm inches in the search bar and it will convert for you. For example if you type " 78cm in inches " it will give you the result " 30.7086614 inches . Go ahead, try . I also use this to do math. IT'S JUST GREAT! No need to open a calculator to do calculations mentally boring . Ok , back to our table. There has sizes 7.9 , 11 and 13. Consider the size 7 for example, are the following: : chest 78cm : size 59cm : 86cm hips I do not quite understand what it means but the bottom line is always 160. This does not change from one size to another , so I 'm not very worried. Does anyone know what this word mean ? Should I worry? * EDIT - The 160 is the size of the person . Thank you all for your comments ! * Now with this information you can find what size you are and how much more advanced than I was when I started sewing clothes Japanese . If I could read the sizing chart I realized that everything I sew for my daughter would be too big and for me , too small. Now, what happens if you 're like me outside of these sizes ? Well, I just found recently: you can adjust the size of the boss . This pageOn Sense and SensibilityYou will learn how .

Supplies
Now it is time to make sure we have all the equipment needed for our project. Let the first page of instructionsFor the shirt dress chosen as an example . These are the words that you have to find to see the list of supplies. They are usually located at the top of the page of instructions . These words translate literally as " material " Now there are four lines after that, so I know I need 4 things . First in the list, using my method of hypothesis testing, I see I need fabric. And the 'm 'for " meters "is a logical conclusion . The word you see in front of the line is the word " clothing "

So I need 3.5 meters of fabric 110cm wide. "Wide "in Japanese is And damn , using Google converter yards I realize that I do not have enough fabric . I miss 10 inches . Ok I 'll have to use another fabric . Next on my list is the interlining : Looking at the pictures I realize that I 'm going to need some interfacing parts that are shaded differently. But I had to search and search to verify this definition ! Then we have the elastic If you look closely there are 4 different numbers : 80cm , 85cm , 90cm and 95cm . They correspond to different sizes: 7, 9, 11 and 13 . And looking at the picture I know I'll need 4 buttons 1.3 cm in diameter.