As I said in my post on the blue and white African print men’s yukata, this was also a housewarming gift for a friend. Yvonne told me she liked pale green as a colour and, I can tell you, it was hard to find a good natural fabric in that shade. Perhaps it’s just not very trendy this year. But I eventually found this lovely, very feminine print.

Yvonne is a mature lady, and she potters around the kitchen a lot. So we decided on quite short sleeves so that they wouldn’t catch on things or dip into things.
Because these yukatas were unlined, the raw edge finishing was important. I don’t own an overlocker, and even if I did, I don’t think I’d care to use one on a yukata unless it was lined and I was just using it to control the unravelling of threads. Also, there’s something pleasing about seeing the inside of the garment with neat, even seams with well-finished seam allowances. So getting them neat was important. I did use a machine on these, because my hand-sewing is not neat enough yet.

I do apologise for not having a photo of this yukata properly ironed. It doesn’t look its best, but you get the idea. Once properly pressed, you can see that the nice generous seam allowances, well finished, become rather nice to see from the inside. The fabric does have a lovely, flow drape. I just wish I’d had time to give it an iron before I photographed it.
