Vol 1. The Cape Vest

Drape Drape, written by Hisako Sato, is a Japanese pattern book that features full-scale patterns for 17 garments. Last fall, Kathryn Blackmore of The Vamoose wrote about Drape Drape on her blog and I was so smitten by the simplicity of the garments that I ordered the book immediately.

After stewing over which pattern to make first, I finally chose the cape vest pictured on the left in the image below. 

Drape Drape is written entirely in Japanese, but, as Kathryn also pointed out, the diagrams are clear enough to get through the construction without an understanding of the text. I did find some resources for Japanese-English sewing vocabulary from Japan Couture Addicts and Moving Hands should you be interested. 

Language barrier aside, I had enough concerns regarding the fit that I made the cape vest in muslin first. You may recall this image from a Sunday Funday post awhile back.

Even though I knew that the side panels and sleeves would be made out of jersey, thus making those pieces less stiff in the final version of the cape vest, I remained hesitant. Something about those side panels reminded me of saddle bags. I feared that I would look frumpy, so I eliminated them. 

The one on the right looks much better, don't you think? 

My fabric choices were: A painterly, pollock-esque Liberty of London print for the bodice, a cotton/bamboo jersey in ivory for the sleeve, and a cotton batiste in ivory for the lining. 

Above: The cape vest in construction.

Here's the finished cape vest! 

Above: Finished cape vest from front.

Above: Finished cape vest from side-front.

Above: Finished cape vest from back, side-back.

The cotton/bamboo jersey drapes beautifully! I thought that I may have trouble with it puckering as I was sewing it the the bodice, but it went into place without so much as a hitch. 

Here I am sporting the cape vest in the backyard yesterday. The sun was out(!), so the shades were required. 

I like how the the cape vest is looks from the side best.

Today, I did a little shopping to see if I could find something better for underneath the cape vest - the little cami just wasn't doing it for me. I came across this deep teal tank that I thought would look great.

The sort of "drape on drape" is much closer to what I wanted. Now, on to choosing buttons. 

The ivory guys match the sleeve perfectly. I like hope they pop out against the print. On the other hand, the little red ones remind me of red hot candies (yum!). What do do, what to do!?

Feel free to vote for the buttons you like in the comment section!

p.s. The book is available from Pomadour's Craft Cafe on etsy.