Safari Dress

My first dress from a Japanese Pattern Book and part of my personal challenge to complete three more projects from ‘Feminine Wardrobe’ by Jinko Matsumoto. Meet the Safari Dress.

I must say this was a much better experience than making the refashioned ruffle blouse. Yes! They included some detailed diagrams for this project and all pattern pieces were on the pattern sheet! I used black poplin and a white tiger stripe fabric from Jennifer Paganelli’s Flower Power Collection. Actually, this is my first animal print dress and I liked that it does look feminine but not wild.

I lengthened the ruffle sleeves by 4 inches for more arm coverage and also made the side hems longer than the front and back which I thought added cuteness to the attire.

This is a very roomy dress but I decided not to take in the seams. Now I understand why all these dresses from the book didn’t need any zippers on them. This one does have two buttons behind though.

Here’s a photo of the original design from the book, in a much more demure color scheme.

One down and two to go!

14 thoughts on “Safari Dress”

Great dress! I love your use of fabric in this. Are those Japanese books simple to follow for an English speaker? I Really want to make that dress!

Cute dress! I’m glad you had a better experience with this one. ^_^

i loved this dress in the book… and now, i love the dress you made!!! still a little afraid to try it myself… but you make it sound so easy… i’m intrigued…

i can tell you from experience, the other ruffle blouse w/ the ribbon is super easy – especially because you’ve already made the ruffle “dress”…. btw – the back facing/yoke measurements are the same. 🙂

can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

Oh this is beautiful!! It’s chic and feminine!! I gotta check out more Japanese book!!!

Thanks Ophelia, the Japanese patterns are fab. You really should since language isn’t an issue for you:)

Thanks Geraly! Go for it, I actually found this easier cos of the detailed diagrams. The facing portion can be a little challenging to figure out but still not too bad. I will be doing the other ruffle blouse today so it’s good to know!

Thanks Angela! I’m glad too. Major phew!

Thanks KristenMakes! From my little experience with only 2 Japanese sewing books, I will say it depends on which book. The two I have used are not too bad (In fact ‘Les couleurs francaises’ is easy in my opinion) if you have already have some experience using other sewing patterns and can sew following diagrams.