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, because the fabric is charming and it meant that I had to shorten the design. I was aiming at quite a long, dramatic haori that stopped just above the knee, and I’d bought two meters for that purpose. But that was no longer possible. The sun-bleached blotch was very noticeable. The good thing about Haoris is that there’s no rule as to their length. It’s a matter of taste and what you plan to wear it on top of. Indeed, I noticed that, during the 1950s, short haoris over very plain, neat kimonos were all the rage for a while.
Both fabrics were 140 cm in width.
Having already navigated the eccentricities of working with double gauzes and haoris, I used a little starch to get the marker folds – the kata-yama and sode-yama creases – into the fabric. But, as you can see, Dora was ‘helping’ with the pressing. Pressing double gauze is always dicy. You want to get rid of any really big wrinkles that will affect the measuring and cutting, and you do want to get those structural folds in, but too much ironing/flattening, is going to give you a wider, longer piece of fabric which will make nonsense of your measurements once the humidity hits it. So I really did some pretty light sweeps to even it out, but not a heavy ironing.
And much like last double gauze haori I created, I did have a debate about whether or not to use the lining fabric for the collar. The double gauze doesn’t really have much of a structure, and won’t stand proudly, but the pumpkin coloured lining was really dramatic, and I was envisioning it flashing as the garment opened, but not on permanent display, so I decided to use a strip of fusible interfacing to give the gauze some body for the collar part.
Here is the body piece beneath, and the two sleeves laid out and pinned. It’s easy to get a sense of what too intense an ironing could do to the measuring and marking process with this fabric. Just the process of marking and pinning the sleeves on really convinced me that, while the smooth cotton lining would be fine going through the sewing machine for the big seams, the double gauze wasn’t going to like the machine’s presser foot anymore than it liked the iron. So I decided to hand-sew the entire outer layer. What a difference! I can honestly say that the seams look so much better than they do on the Ballet Pink Double Gauze Haori. Take a look at how forced the sleeve seams and the collar look on that project. With the hand-sewing, they lie straight and soft, there’s no rippling, the garment folds right at the seam.
Now, if only I could actually improve my accuracy and speed with hand-sewing. I’ve been trying to learn how to hand sew in the ‘unshin’ manner. But my coordination sucks, and so I’m still very slow. If you’re interested, Nami Kato, a certified kimono tailor, has a series of videos teaching the technique here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUnEkkg5xGQ
So now there’s just the collar to attach, and the finishing at the hem and openings to join the outer and inner pieces together.
Here’s my collar, with a bit of interfacing on it to give it a little form
See my pathetic hand stitching? I want you to know that it doesn’t matter. As long as the stitches are small enough and close enough together, go slow and correct course as you drift, no one is going to see these, and they’re going to hold the collar on fine. There’s another seam coming once the collar is folded over, that will double the strength of this one.
And here is the finished garment, collar on, lining attached to outer shell, and hem complete. And it looks and feels beautiful. I’m delighted with this piece. The seams fold like hinges, as they should, because of that wonky hand-sewing.
