Last summer, my parents traveled to Los Angeles to visit relatives.  Traditionally, they send us a box of various Japanese and Hawaiian foodstuffs, that are often hard to find in Middle America.  This time, in addition to boxes of Kauai Cookies and Japanese candy, I put in the request for a Japanese sewing book.

Mom came through with a book of super cute clothes for both girls and boys.  (Perhaps a hint that The Boy is getting the short end of the stick regarding my sewing projects?)  I’ve spent many hours looking through the pages and making a long mental list of projects I want to try.  A few weeks ago, I finally worked up the courage to trace a pattern.  Of course, the first time I traced it I forgot to include the seam allowance.  For all the clever, cute and wonderful things that Japan produces, you’d think they could include the seam allowances in the patterns.

Anyway, I finally got the pattern traced properly and decided on fabric.  I had ordered a few yards of this fabric from Jenean a while back to make Big Girl a new dress for Easter.  I ended up finishing a different dress for her instead, so I knew I wanted to use some of the fabric for this project.

I chose the pattern because it looked simple but, simple isn’t always easy.  At least when you are trying to follow a pattern written in a different language.  One of my problems is that I read just enough Japanese to confuse myself, but not enough to really follow the directions.  This is a source of great annoyance to me.  I majored in Japanese language in college.  I was always too self-conscious to speak really well, but writing and reading were always my strength.  I guess after 14 years of not practicing, skills do tend to atrophy.  *sigh*

After some time with a stack of Japanese reference books, I finally gave up on reading the pattern.  I was able to fudge my way through and ended up with a wearable product.  Fortunately, the parts I really botched aren’t visible and I doubt Baby Girl is going to complain.