No Idle Hands

One of the best things that happened to me in life is learning to read Japanese. The Japanese have a talent of writing meticulous instructions whatever the topic is: travel guides, cooking recipes, etc. In this case I want to say Thank You to Japanese sewing and crafts books.

On a recently trip to Tokyo to visit friends I finally picked up a sewing book I’ve been thinking for a while but was too timid to try – The Book of Men’s Shirts by Shimazaki Ryuichiro. What makes this book a treasure is – 1. Every single shirt is something I would love to have my husband wear. 2. The instructions are painstaking and there’s no guesswork even for someone new to menswear.

My husband went on a week long mission trip to Ukraine last December and I dedicated the week alone at home to “project secret” – a shirt as his Christmas present. We picked the fabric together during a trip to Shanghai at the huge textile market there. It’s a lovely blue-purple-white striped cotton shirting.

I used the pattern No. 4 – Semi widespread collar shirt, with a small variation on the sleeve to replace the gathers with more traditional pleats. I chose smaller than usual 9mm chunky 4-hole buttons with pink button holes for a little character.

Size medium fits my hubby like a dream but these patterns do run much smaller than standard US/European sizes so make sure you read the measurements first.

Needless to say hubby was happy and proud. I’m secretly smiling every time he picks it out of the closet in the morning, which is quite often. Now the problem is he wants more 😉

Tags: japanese sewing book, menswear, shirt, stripes