3 April 2013

Why I love Kimono - Reason 7

So you would have thought making a kimono is this complicated process but in reality it rather easy.

All you are working with is strips of 36cm and 18cm wide cloth and since nothing is wasted, you don't even have to trim the excess fabric.  Instead you just tuck them away to give a neat appearance.


Here is one of the few photos I take when I am making my own kimono.  As you can see it is a lot of rectangle pieces of fabric which are just sewed and folded into a kimono shape.

Of course there are some technical issues which need to be mastered like attaching the collar is quite an art form but it is amazing what you can get away with.

And once you got the general idea of making kimono you just repeat the process.

Here is my latest attempt!


There is one issue with this kimono in the fact that outer collar is a bit  short but you will never notice with this pattern and I would prefer to have a proper fitted kimono then one that has been compromised just to make it technically correct.

2 comments:

Kaeru said...

This is very interesting!!
Does it exist some tutorial or pattern to follow for making kimono for the first time ?

Kitty Kanzashi said...

You can buy books on "how to make kimono" but the best one I have found are normally Japanese.

The one I use is this one and it even comes with a dvd.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%81%AF%E3%81%98%E3%82%81%E3%81%A6%E3%81%AE%E5%92%8C%E8%A3%81-DVD%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8D%E6%89%8B%E7%BF%92%E3%81%84%E5%B8%96-%E9%AB%98%E9%87%8E-%E9%81%93%E5%AD%90/dp/4522424078

Another one which is good is this one.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%9F%E3%82%B7%E3%83%B3%E3%81%A7%E7%9D%80%E7%89%A9-%E7%B6%BF%E3%83%BB%E9%BA%BB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%86%E3%81%8B%E3%81%9F-%E3%82%84%E3%81%BE%E3%82%82%E3%81%A8%E3%82%86%E3%81%BF/dp/4766119010/ref=pd_sim_b_3/376-1447841-8698812

I hope this helps ^_^