Padded Hanten Jacket – Part 2
I used polyester wadding for this project. Since the outer shell of the garment was a wool/poly blend, I wasn’t worried about wrinkles or the need to iron the garment in the future. It gave the garment a nice, puffy…
Sewing Kimonos with Cats
Sewing Kimonos with Cats
Finished Garments
Sheer Over-Jacket Haori
I chose this sheer man-made fabric for an elegant over-jacket style Haori. One of the biggest challenges for this project was ensuring that the opaque lines joined neatly across seams. It required purchasing a little bit more fabric to be…
Swiss Dot Jinbei
Not only did I have a lot of fun making that first jinbei, but I slept in it and just loved how comfortable and light it was, so when I found that the white cotton swiss dot fabric was on…
Lined Haori in Mushroom Gauze with Gingko Motif
The two fabrics for this project came from the same place as the grey plaid I used for the yukata. And like the plaid, I ran into problems with the double gauze fabric. After washing it, when I was ironing…
My First Yukata
My very first attempt at making a kimono-like garment was inspired by seeing House of Kimono’s brilliant step-by-step tutorial. I didn’t buy his pattern at the time (I did buy it later, and you can purchase it for a very…
Mint Green with Cherry Sprigs Yukata
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…
Bold African Print Yukata
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…
Blue Lined Haori with Dragonflies
This is the second serious garment I attempted, after the men’s kimono. I found this charming dark blue cotton fabric with a tiny dragonfly pattern, but it wasn’t in great shape. It had fade marks and bleached crease marks, but…
Plain White Haori
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…
Shades of Grey
I should have known better than to buy fabric off the internet, untouched. But I saw it and thought it had a lovely soft texture and would work well for a lined yukata for me. I was delighted when it…