When my friends Mark and Yvonne said they were moving house to a new place they fell in love with that had a big terrace, I decided to make them yukatas as housewarming gifts. I could imagine them in the morning, sitting on their massive terrace in their yukatas, enjoying their coffee. I measured them both, and asked them what colours they would prefer. Mark said he’d like one in a typical yukata colour – maybe indigo.
Had I been living in Japan, this would have been easy, because there are thousands of very classic indigo prints on sale to construct yukatas with. But we’re in Spain, and I was limited to what I could get my hands on here. I ran across this wonderful print in a semi-sturdy cotton.
It is from Ribes and Cassals African print collection: Batik Dinka. I love the mottled quality of the background blue and the irregular, simple flower patterns in white. While it is a print, and so it does eventually repeat, it isn’t often, so I loved the handmade, quirky essence of this, and I felt it carried the spirit of a simple, men’s summer yukata within it.
I did have one hurdle, and that was that the fabric wasn’t very wide. It was only 140 cm. And Mark is a tall man with wide shoulders and, therefore, a wide yuki. I could get the four strips of 1/2 yuki I needed out of it, but only if I was very sparing with my seam allowances, and eschewed a back seam. I also felt he needed a slightly wider okumi (the front overlap pieces), and so I decided to line these with white cotton because it meant I didn’t have to finish the raw edges with a double-fold.
The fabric was a pleasure to work with. It took a beautiful crease, and I did pretty much all the long seams with the machine. But I attached the collar, and finished the openings by hand. I was delighted to hear my phone ding, and receive a picture of him the following morning, proudly sporting his new yukata.
I want to underscore that there are so many wonderful fabrics that speak to the spirit of a yukata. This will not be the last time I choose African style prints to make one.
