Great Blue Heron

Japan - second week favorite photos (5)

Heading home

Japan - Sewing Stuffs 4

As I have needle related hobbies other than sewing, I purchased several needlework books.  The are (clockwise from the upper left corner):

Bird Embroidery (no English on this book), Applique (again, no English), Oya Lace ( also known as Turkish or Albanian Needle Lace and again, no English), El Nanduti del Paraguay, and Dorset Button weaving (and again, no English)

Detail from the Bird Embroidery book:

Detail from the Applique book:

I felt the line drawings would make good embroidery patterns.

Detail from Oya Lace:

Detail from Dorset Buttons:

I missed taking pictures of three other books - one on sewing, two on needlework.  Those will be done in a future post.

Japan - second week favorite photos (4)

Kyoto

Japan - Sewing Stuffs 3

No sewist's trip to Japan would be complete without purchasing some sewing and needlework books. 

Starting at the upper left is Everyday Clothes Simple and easy to mix-and-match, Kimono Remake, Men's Clothes for all Seasons, and Fu-Ko basics from the Heartwarming Life Series.

Garments included in Everyday Clothes Simple and easy to mix-and-match:

Garments included in  Fu-Ko basics:

Contents page with examples of garments from Men's Clothes for all Seasons:

And a couple pictures from Kimono Remake:

Two of the three women's pattern books have sizing that goes up to a LL (probably equal to a US L), the men's goes up to a 3L), I'm not sure what the size range is for the third book, and that doesn't worry me too much, the drafting instrutions are included - in pictures with metric measures. I have picked out several pieces from each book to have on my short list of future makes. 

Japan - second week favorite photos (3)

Peace Museum in Kyoto

Interesting textures on the way to the Golden Temple

Golden Temple - Kyoto 

Japan -Sewing Stuffs 2

I also did some notion shopping.  First stop was Misuyabari, the handmade needle shop (http://www.misuyabari.jp/) Purchased several of the boxes with the lids that fit so perfectly.

And also needs.  The box with the paper label is to store the packages of needles and includes a pair of stays to hold the needle packs in place.  The larger box to the right came with the snips holder (snips were extra), thimble and pincushion.  He small box at the bottom came with three pre-loaded thread cards, snips in a holder and a package of needles.  In addition, I purchased some of the pins with custom made decorations - but they are too small for me to successfully photograph.

Nomura Tailor had the most wonderful floor full of notions.  Starting at the upper left corner there are two packages of bra strap holders - these will be used on my sleeveless summer tops and dresses; measuring wheel used for measuring curved areas on patterns; bodkins for threading elastic or strings thru casing. The middle item is another variation on the bokin for pulling elastic through casings.

The bottom left items are forms to use as pins, cover with a pretty piece of fabric or a small embroidery, add a pin back, and you have a new pieces of jewelry.  The package on the bottom right is some woven iron on interfacing for light weight fabrics. 

Moving on to Idola, the bead and button shop, I have 4 packets of glass dust with hole (about a size 22 seed bead, or smaller), several embroidered appliques, and some cute wooden beads with faces painted on.

I could have purchased so much more, but money and weight were limitations...

Japan - second week favorite photos (2)

Sightseeing trip to Kyoto

Bullet trains at a train yard

 reflection of a tower in the glass roof of the JR (Japan Rail) station in Kyoto

Zen Garden