Finished Garments

Padded Hanten Jacket – Part 2

Madeleine — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 08:17:48 +0000

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 look, but I cannot say I like it. I somehow feel it is not in keeping with the spirit of the hanten, which I feel should be all natural, easy to wash, wear and iron if necessary.

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Sheer Over-Jacket Haori

Madeleine — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:54:15 +0000

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 able to allow for shifting to match. The challenge of matching the lines also necessitated adjusting the yuki measurement on the parts. I basically cut at…

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Swiss Dot Jinbei

Madeleine — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 15:12:13 +0000

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 sale at my local fabric store, I decided to make another, even lighter one. The fabric was 145 cm wide, and 2 meters long, but now I know that I can actually do fine with 1.6 meters for my yuki.

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Lined Haori in Mushroom Gauze with Gingko Motif

Madeleine — Wed, 21 May 2025 21:52:07 +0000

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 it, I noticed that the store must have left the folded up fabric in the sun, because there was a bleached fold about 1/2 a meter from one end. This was a bit disappointing…

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My First Yukata

Madeleine — Fri, 16 May 2025 14:46:05 +0000

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 reasonable price here) . I just watched the entire playlist to start, and then bought some cheap white cotton fabric just as he has, to really understand the construction and seam…

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Mint Green with Cherry Sprigs Yukata

Madeleine — Fri, 16 May 2025 14:15:44 +0000

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…

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Bold African Print Yukata

Madeleine — Fri, 16 May 2025 14:04:38 +0000

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…

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Blue Lined Haori with Dragonflies

Madeleine — Fri, 16 May 2025 13:57:53 +0000

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 I still loved it and thought if I made something that aimed for ‘casual’, the fabric’s scars would be part of the aesthetics. One variation I made to the classic…

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Plain White Haori

Madeleine — Fri, 16 May 2025 13:52:17 +0000

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…

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Shades of Grey

Madeleine — Fri, 16 May 2025 13:47:44 +0000

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 arrived. It is ultra soft and light, and has the most amazing drape. Yes… the drape. Lovely and flowy and feels like it has a life of its own. And had I been a more experienced seamstress…

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