A hanten is a short jacket that, like a haori, doesn’t have the okumi (the over lapping front flaps) of a kimono. There is the unpadded variety that groups like Taiko drummers wear, or the winter padded variety that were originally worn by everyday people in the winter to stay warm. It’s the second type I am setting out to make here. But the image below shows the basic construction. Unlike a haori, the sleeves are narrower, and tapered a little towards the cuff end. The bottom of the sleeve can be straight or, often for women, curved.
These jackets are not quilted, just padded, and the collar is not as formal, but thinner and also padded. They often have pockets, although the one I will be making only has a pocket on the inside as that was what the recipient requested.
I found this very helpful pattern that was kindly translated by Yifarn, who kindly reproduces and translates a lot of Japanese sewing patterns.
The fabrics for this project are an outer shell of a wool/cotton blend in charcoal grey with a nice woven texture and an inner lining of soft grey and white with a wispy design that I thought spoke to the softness and cosiness of the garment.
For the wadding, while cotton padding would have been ideal, I cannot purchase nice fluffy, light cotton wadding here, so I decided to opt for a polyester filling both for lightness and structure. Because the cotton wadding I have used in the past tends to compact itself, stretch, clump up and move around so much that it does require fairly close quilting lines to stay in place.
My approach was to construct the lining layer, creating something like a quilt sandwich, with some very cheap white cotton, first. You might notice that, while it would have been possible not to cut the back centre line of the garment, I did, because having that back centre seam provides a place to stabilise the wadding and also to attach it later, with a running stitch, to the outer shell of the garment.
Then basting the padding into place to stabilise it as I worked on the garment. Ultimately, it will be the garment seams itself that keep the padding in place.
Dora supervising the construction of the padded lining