Going back for two more: Big Clothes & Small Clothes (i & K)

At the risk of being repetitive, but also with no apologies for being repetitive, here’s another outfit brought to you almost entirely by my FAVOURITE Japanese pattern book – Asuka Hamada’s Big Clothes & Small Clothes.

Let me start with the pants. These are pattern ‘K’ and the very same as those I blogged here. I’ve worn that denim pair SO much and SO often and I knew that, come summer, I’d both be needing and wanting a lighter version. I’ve now sewn a black denim pair and a blue denim pair, so a quick scan around the store led me to our Linvis Almond, a linen/viscose that hit my sweet spot for both colour, practicality and weight. It’s soft and drapey but with just enough good weight for (good) loose summer pants.

I thought my denim pair were comfortable but in this lighter fabric, these are a whole new level of comfortable. I made exactly the same fit adjustments as I did with my denim pair – deepening the back darts and pleats (the ones on either side of the zip).  With this pair, I decided against stitching down those front pleats. During the sewing phase, I wasn’t sure if I’d be happy with this change but figured if I wasn’t, I’d just topstitch them down after the fact. As it turns out, and because the fabric isn’t as thick as my previous denim pairs, those ‘free’ pleats work just fine and I just give them a light press to keep them flat where they’d have otherwise been stitched. Oh, and I also added a little bit of length to these.

Three pairs down and I can confidently say I’m not *quite* done with this pants pattern just yet. I’m feeling like a lightweight woollen pair might be a winter winner, and then maybe – just maybe – I’ll be done.

But let’s move on to the shirt, shall we? Which is actually what came first in my making order of these two and the very reason why I sewed up those pants.

This shirt is marked as (small) ‘i’ from the book and it’s the companion pattern to this shirt dress. Unlike the boxiness of that one, this is more of a traditional shirt style with a set-in sleeve and a lovely curved hem at the sides.

Like it’s sister pattern, it has a deep inverted pleat at the back…

..and the shirt works equally well as a leave-it-open or button-it-up. Since making, I’ve worn it happily and easily both ways.

The fabric is our Tempered Garden cotton poplin which unfortunately sold out a few weeks ago. But we still have so many fabulous cotton prints that would work perfectly for this style of shirt. I love Just Doodling, Serendipity, Ishihara Test and pretty much every Liberty tana lawn. And because I really can’t get enough of shirts right now, I’m making a plain one next – most likely in one of these Calais cottons.

Australian readers – on a blog comment recommendation (thanks Kay!), I recently purchased this book from Kinokuniya in Sydney for a gift and it arrived SUPER fast. Here’s the link.