Hello Internet friends!
If you’ve been following along with my Instagram (@beccamadethat) you’ll know that I recently arrived back from Japan for our honeymoon! (if you want to see some pictures check out the saved stories on my Instagram profile). Going to Japan has been a long time dream of mine and I was so glad to get to go and explore with the #fluffyblondemonster In between taking in all the amazing sights and eating ALL the food I snuck in some fabric and yarn shopping! A bunch of my Instagram followers have requested a ‘Japan fabric/yarn/crafting haul’ so here it is!
First up let’s go through some of the yarn and yarn kits that I picked up! After a busy day of sight seeing I convinced the #fluffyblondemonster to take a quick trip to Avril Kyoto, an amazing yarn shop! I loved going in and seeing the wall of yarn cones with all kinds of crazy textures like pom noms and fuzzy threads! I previously scoped out their Instagram and website and spotted a beautiful sweater kit that I really wanted to try my hand at making despite the instructions being in Japanese. At the store they had a sample of the sweater and after I tried it on the two girls in the shop squealed ‘kawaii’ (cute in Japanese, so it was meant for me to make lol. They didn’t have any of that kit pre-made on hand but offered to quickly make one up for me! All of their yarns are sold by the gram and they have this cool machine that windings it not cones and measures it. In a few min they had wound everything up, put little sticker tags on each thread so I would know which colour to use when, put it in a cute clear bag and tied it all up! I’m so excited to get knitting on this sweater as soon as I finish my current projects (and translate the patter into english)
Next up is a crochet kit and some yarn that I bought at Okadaya I love yoshi games so when yoshi’s crafted world came out a few years ago you better believe that it was at the top of my Christmas wish list! the #fluffyblondemonster went one step further an bought me the game bundle along with a knitted yoshi amibo! I’ve always wanted to make a second yoshi (or maybe a family of them) but never found a pattern that i liked. While perusing the yarn section I came across this officially licensed crochet yoshi kit!! So excited to a) re-learn to crochet and b) to translate the pattern! I also picked up two skeins of self patterning sock yarn that I can’t wait to test out on the sock knitting machine at my LYS as well as some beautiful Noro sock yarn to make a few more pairs of my favourite pucker socks.
Now it’s time for the fabric! And boy did i buy a lot lol While in Kyoto I spent an hour or two unsupervised in Norma Tailor and I had a blast!! They have a huge selection of Liberty fabrics, including some Japan only liberty fabrics. I even found some prints with tiny hello kitties hidden in the motif! (I’m kicking myself now for not getting any). I also bought some additional liberty fabrics from a shop in Kagoshima on our last day of our trip, they had a 20-30% off sale on all their fabrics so of course I had to get more fabric! most of the liberty that I bought I got in 1 yard cuts, enough to make a tank top or scout tee. I’m really excited to add some more vibrant prints to my summer wardrobe!
This pile of fabric are the nani IRO Fabrics that I snagged at both Norma Tailor and Makino the white floral print I’ve loved for years so I’m so glad that I was able to snag enough for a dress! The blue, white, and orange print Is destined for a cropped Kalle shirt (one of my fave patterns). The abstract mint green print is a canvas that I’ll be making into a project bag as well as some smaller make up bags I hope!
This lovely stack of fabric (which happens to coordinate, I must have been really feeling the mustard yellow and navy). Are all 100% linen or linen blends. I love the feel of a nicely washed linen top or dress so i’m really excited to whip up a few things for my summer closet! I’m also planning on making another pair of Darlow pants with the slubby blue linen :)
This final stack of fabric contain a cotton stripped seersucker, some soft and stretchy denim and a lovely spotted sweater knit. The denim will become a pair of ginger jeans (obviously lol) while the sweater knit was originally going to be come a linden sweater or a Monarch jacket but due to a defect in the fabric and it being the end of the bolt it was cut in two pieces so I’ll have to see which pattern fits the two cut pieces. Finally the cotton stripped seasucker doesn’t have a plan just yet but I’m sure it’ll find a home with a pattern soon!
Speaking of patterns I got two Japanese sewing patterns, one is a really stylish top/shirt dress and the second is for a yukata (we really loved lounging around in yukatas in all the onsens we visited!), I’m looking forward to translating these patterns soon!
I also picked up a few sewing tools on my trip. I love clover sewing tools and i’ve been wanting some of their wonder clips so I quickly snapped up a baggie of them as well as a really nice pair of all metal thread snips to replace the plastic ones that I have. I got a replacement pink chalk liner, my old pink one got a bit destroyed during a quilt making session, the little wheel sticks and doesn’t make a smooth line. I also picked up 3 different point turning tools! Making straps for tops and dresses as well as fabric belts always makes me frustrated so when I saw so many different tools to help I decided to buy a few and do a bit of user testing to see which one works best! I’ll do a follow up post with my results. Finally, I got some beautiful hand made pins from a 400 year old pin and needle shop in Kyoto. I fell in love with their collection of decorative pins so I picked up a few to brighten up my sewing space! I also got a little set of hand made needles with glass heads (love glass headed needles as you can use them with the iron which is great for pressing hems!) I wish I had bought a few more boxes of pins since they are a sewing tool that you always use but often over look!
The final category of crafty things that I picked up was a large stationary haul! In addition to sewing and knitting I really like flexing my creative muscles in my bullet journal, in particular doing some brush calligraphy. I was super stoked to find my favourite brand of midliners now come in brush pen form :D so I grabbed a few colours. Brush pen lovers will also know all about tombow fudenosuke brush pens, I bought one of each type (they are so cheep in Japan! like a $1.50 vs the $5+ you see them for here). I also got some nerdy and geeky wash tape (some science ones and some Pokemon ones!), and a little travel washi tape holder that lets you take around 6 tapes around in a pen like holder with a cutting portion for the tape! I got a cute pair of travel scissors and glue tape which were really helpful to glue little snippets of tickets and things from our trip into my journal, and finally a selection of shiba dog stickers and note pads :D To store everything I bought this journal’s dream pencil case, it has a solid frame portion that allows you to open up the entire case and see all your supplies and a little pocket at the top to help organize smaller bits, I love it! it’s completely replaced my other pencil case.
Hope you guys enjoyed this review of my Japan crafting haul! I can’t wait to dig into all these fabrics and yarns :D