The Otome no Sewing series has been gaining popularity with seamstresses over the past year. The fourth book was released earlier this month and features some ouji patterns! The ouji specific patterns include a mini hat, a capelet, and suspender shorts. Additionally, most of the blouses (from the past volumes, too) also work for ouji coordinates.

Image courtesy of kaoriloveage

The drawback is that the entire book is in Japanese meaning you'll have to rely on the diagrams unless you can read it. The sizing will also be limited especially for the pants, so pattern alteration is most likely needed.

Mook info: 
English Title: Otome no Sewing Book 4/Sewing Book of Girls 4
Japanese Title: 乙女のソーイングBOOK 4
ISBN-10: 4834736806
ISBN-13: 978-4834736809
96 pages

Available to purchase from these online shops:
YesAsia - This book is an item for free international shipping.
Kinokuniya - The link is for the US branches, but all Kinokunuya stores should be able to order it.
Kanga Kanga
Amazon JP
Rakuten JP

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 Maybe it's time to start an ouji sewing pattern list, eh?

King of Bodyline Mr. Yan's in Wonderland Birthday Sale

Greece is now wonderland according to the boss.

Every once in a while, I browse the Bodyline website, but I rarely buy anything because Mr. Yan needs to learn how to take better stock photos. This year I noticed they started adding a bunch of ouji items, so when I saw the sale, I had to buy these items since they were so cheap. There are never enough Bodyline reviews, right? The yen conversion trick shaved off a good amount of my order.

Timeline
September 1: order placed with airmail tracking
September 5: tracking number received
September 6: order shipped
September 17: arrival in the US
September 23: arrival to me
September 23: sent a customer service e-mail and refunded the same day

Items

Blouse with jabot

Product No: p227
Size:Type:(owh)-Size:(s)
Price: ¥1,199 

Length 51.5cm
Bust 90cm
Waist 78cm
Shoulder length 34cm
Sleeve length 19.5cm

Comments: Bodyline's measurements are accurate. The black bow and neck strap on the jabot is made of satin. There is some shine to it, but it's not awful. The neck strap closes with a button. The lace on the top tier of the jabot is low quality, but not scratchy. The jabot does not come with chains like in the stock photo. The color of the blouse is supposed to be offwhite, but I think it looks closer to pure white.


High-waisted shorts
Product No: P230
Size:Type:(blk)-Size:(m)
Price: ¥1,199
Length 52cm
Waist 66cm
Hip 96cm

Comments: Bodyline's measurements are a little small. They were sold out of the size I wanted, so I went a size down (although you should always size up for comfort). Luckily, the actual waist of these pants are 72 cm. The hip measurement is at least 10 cm larger than the BL measurements. The ribbon is awful, so I will be getting rid of it. Plus, it looks a bit silly to have corset lacing on the front and the back at the same time. The waistband has 4 channels of plastic boning. It doesn't seem like the boning will stab through the fabric any time soon (common problem with Alice and the Pirates's boning). The fabric wrinkles a bit easily, so sometimes it looks like you have a wedgie from the backside. They seem to be sold out now. Most importantly, these pants have functional pockets!

Rockinghorse boots

Product No:shoes277
Size:Type:(brw)-Size:(230)
Price: ¥3,199

Comments: Bodyline's sizing is accurate. The insole measures exactly 23 cm. My usual bodyline size is 225, but based on the old pair of BL ribbon RHS I had, 225 destroyed my toes. The shaft is pretty generous. Even when I laced the tightly tied the laces, the ankle area was still a little roomy for me. For reference my ankle circumference is 22 cm, so hopefully I won't fall and twist my ankle in the future. The max calf measurement at the top of the boot is about 30 cm. Much to my surprise, these were inside of a shoebox. I'm used to BL just throwing shoes in a plastic shipping bag. However, when I received the package, the boots were already tearing apart. On one boot, the front of the boot, platform, and sole were detached from each other. On the other boot, the heel was coming apart from the platform. I sent BL a message with the picture to the right.
"Hi bodyline, I just received my package. I have a problem with shoes277. The glue you used is not very good. The foam came separated from the boot. I received it in the condition in the picture. Can I have partial refund? Thank you for your attention."
I honestly wasn't expecting a reply because everyone knows BL's customer service is awful. Surprisingly though, I got a full refund for the boots within 7 minutes! When I got the refund, it was like 6 AM in Japan time, so I'm very satisfied with the response time. I'll be attempting to glue these back together.  


Wristcuffs
Product No: Acc1031
Size:Type:(blk)-Size:(blk), Type:(owh)-Size:(blk)
Price: ¥799*2

Comments: They are exactly like the stock image. The minimum circumference (elastic not stretched) is 20 cm and the maximum stretch is 31 cm. I actually ended up getting the wrong color because BL only labeled their chart with "size" and "type" which doesn't help at all. "Type" ended up being the bow color and "size" ended up being the cuff color. Here's are the correct labels, so no one makes the mistake I did.

Total cost of this coordinate is 1198 yen + 1198 yen + (3199-3199 yen) + 750 yen (shipping) = 3148 yen. That's roughly $32 which was a great price. Sales are great and perfect for an ouji on a budget! Here's a picture of everything together minus the wristcuffs. I actually hope to see BL add more ouji designs in the future.

Q and A: Does Black Miquri restock?

The school semester has started, so I haven't had time to write much, but I promise that I'm working on the next part of the Ouji Overview! In the mean time, I saw this question in my blog statistics: "Does Black MiQuri restock?"

Answer: Yes, Black MiQuri does restock about once or twice a year, but only a few of their most popular designs which are usually the Napoleon designs. Two examples I can recall are their LANCER jodhpur pants and the Napoleon parka which have both been released twice. They will also tweak some of their past clothes. This Napoleon dinner jacket is a longer version of this 4way Napoleon jacket without the chiffon part. Some of their products are actually old designs from the designer's previous brand BANANA FISH. Black MiQuri is still a fairly new brand, so don't expect too many re-releases.

If what you're looking for is sold out on their online shop, you can try having a shopping service check one of the physical KERA Shop locations. If it's not available there, then the only other option is to look on second-hand sites. If you're feeling a bit lucky, you can try tweeting @BlackMiquri. Designer 九朗-san checks very often and sometimes replies back in English, too. Do keep in mind that they do not currently ship overseas and they are not very popular internationally yet, so every request is not possible.

Feel free to ask me any questions over on my tumblr or message me via LJ!