I don't speak Japanese

I spent the better part of my three day weekend (which is not quite over yet, I'll have you all know) looking at this:

Well, actually, I was mostly looking at the next page. The one with all the diagrams and instructions in Japanese, but I figured that this would be more interesting for you all. In any case...I think I did a pretty good job considering my lack of comprehension of the Japanese language. But let's backup just a bit. Despite my ever increasing fabric stash, I decided that I needed to venture out on Saturday (despite the -20 temperature) to JoAnns, a different one than I normally go to, in the hopes that they would have a better fabric selection. Oh did they. And huge sales (seriously- on the order of $2/yard fabrics). So I stocked up on some fabric for clothing and some other supplies for a commission piece I'm working on. I came home and immediately set to work on this dress. I was so impressed with myself for getting it done in three hours, only to quickly realize that I had made it way too big (I'm seeing a pattern here). This was not my fault though- it seems that the sizing guide from the ebay listing of this book was just wrong. So, I got over myself and redid it. I'm pretty happy with it.

Day 2 of weekend (aka Sunday): Decided to make another version of this dress- the shirt. Ready to make it in the correct size, chose fabric, cut out. Hmm, not quite right. I added some darts in the back and I'm still feeling like it puffs out a little to much in the front, but I'm hoping that some wear and a few washings will take care of this. I think the fabric I chose for this one was maybe a bit too heavy (it's some kind of heavyweight linen? this is the problem with acquiring fabric from random sources).

I was originally thinking of doing some kind of simple embroidery along the bottom of the front of this one, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe just a running stitch with a simple pattern. Maybe in a dark blue. Any thoughts?

Anyways, I'm pretty proud of myself. A few more shots of these two pieces here. There's a number of other patterns in this book that I'd like to try out soon. The patterns are so far pretty easy to follow, despite being in Japanese. I'm sure there's some details that I'm missing out on (while making the shirt I realized that I was supposed to use bias binding around the armholes and neckline- oops, I missed that on the dress), but I feel like I have enough experience now to make it work. Wow. That's a thought. I'm really into this "jumper" style with the long sleeved shirt underneath. Although I think I may need to expand my collection of long sleeved shirts. Needless to say, a solo weekend with freaking freezing temps has done wonders for my productivity (read: I haven't left the house since returning from errands Saturday afternoon). I'm hoping to work on some Valentine's Day cards before I go pick Jared up from the airport this afternoon. And then maybe, a date night?