Making a first garment in cheap white cotton served me well when learning the structure and challenges of a yukata, so I decided to repeat the experiment when I embarked on sewing my first haori.
Traditionally, a haori is a shorter jacket worn over a kimono. It has the same sleeve and collar structure so as to accommodate the sleeve bags of a kimono, and sit elegantly on top of the kimono collar. While they can be viewed as the Japanese version of a topcoat, and give the ensemble a very formal feel, they are also wonderfully wearable on top of western clothing. They make a great loose summer jacket on top of an evening dress, or worn with a pair of jeans and a hoodie in the winter, for a little extra protection against the wind.
For my first go at this, I decided on making one without a lining, so finishing the seams beautifully felt important. It was going to be worn open, with no closure loop, so I knew the seams would be visible as it flapped. I also decided to keep the sleeve bags relatively short for the sake of practicality, and not to include a miyatsu guchi: the traditional opening between the body and the inner sleeve, which is the mark of a female version of the garment.
Once I cut out the fabric, before I brought any of the pieces together, I turned and straight-stitched every raw edge in sight
This made the construction of the garment extremely quick, and I highly recommend this work flow in all kimono projects. Yes, of course, you could overlock the edges if you had an overlocker, but, quite honestly, it feels aesthetically jarring to me on a garment where the edge finishing is going to show. I don’t own a serger. If I did, I might very well use one to finish the raw edges of a garment where the lining would hide those overlocked edges. But, and this is just my own obsessive nature showing through, this is a garment where every stitch you see should be beautiful and simple. I can’t boast that I always manage to achieve this, but it’s my aim.
As you can see, I am still unsatisfied with the tension on my stitching. The hand-sewing on the hem is just infinitely neater. I will eventually learn to embrace hand sewing for a lot of things, but I wasn’t there yet on this project.
Here’s the finished garment, which was so comfortable and wearable, I decided to make it mine with some sashiko patch pockets on the front.
This project prompted me to create my own pattern for haori. It isn’t a print-pattern, just a visual aid to cutting out the fabric into its parts. Also, Billy Matsunaga has a really clear, easy video on making an unlined haori for summer.