Final Kimono

When my friend David offered me bolts of kimono and yukata fabric for cheap in April, I jumped at the chance. I was intending to only get a couple, but ended up with five. Of them, four were kimono length, while the last one is only haori length. I started with the cotton one, which I sewed up in a week and a half, all the way back in April. 

I then moved on to make the two that were wool/nylon blend into kimono for the girls. Rachel's is here, and Sophie's here. I took the final kimono bolt with us on our Winter Travels, after washing it out, for something to hand sew in the after dinner conversation time. 

Of all the kimono, that last one took the longest to make. I did sew it while we were travelling, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. When we returned home, I just took it to church with us each week and sewed while listening to the sermon. It was a nice little project to keep my legs warm each week, even if it did mean that it felt like it was taking a comparatively long time to complete. 

At last though, I did finish it. I was actually inspired to get it done so I could wear it to the Australia Japan Society 50th anniversary celebration at the Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens, so I spent two nights attaching the collar while Steve and I watched TV together. 

Unfortunately, even though I finished in time, I didn't end up wearing it to the celebration evening at all. The event was a picnic in the Japanese gardens, with traditional entertainment, but when it came to it, it had been cold and rainy the night before, and the friend I had been planning on going with bailed on me. Suddenly, I had two delicious bento made and no one to eat them with. 

So I did a call around, but the last minute notice left no one available. In the end I took the girls, thinking that if they couldn't handle it we would just leave early and no one would be worse for wear. Sadly though, because all the ringing around took time, and I was even on the edge of calling it and not going at one point, I left it too late to get into a kimono before we had to leave. 

Oh well. I put it on last week for photos, but being a 100% wool blend, I was feeling overly toasty pretty quickly. This will definitely be a kimono that is only for winter. Still, happy to have it done and it really is so pretty. Photos don't do it justice, but the colours are just lovely and the feel is beautiful. 

 

Looking back, sewing four kimono in five months is a pretty great achievement and I think has really sparked a love of hand sewing for me. I've always enjoyed the slower pace of hand sewing for a change, but I think having something that I can transport with me, and keep my hands busy while my mind thinks of other things is really amazing. 

The girls and I did have a great night together at the Japanese event, by the way. They were really delighted that I had decided to take them with me and were just so well behaved. We had our picnic, they listened to the speeches (a surprising number actually, but I think that's because I didn't realise it was a 50th anniversary event) and we enjoyed the traditional performances together. 

Ahh, delicious Japanese bento. So so good. 

Now I only have the haori to sew, but as I've never sewn one before, I'm taking a bit of a break before I tackle that. Also, I started another sewing project that I'm pretty excited about and that's taking up all of my brain space at the moment. Well, that and extra work days that I've picked up for next term, not to mention all the end of year performances that my choirs have coming up. And report cards. Can't forget those. 

Sophie's Kimono

There is something wonderful about hand sewing. It takes time, is peaceful and is very portable. I did most of sewing Sophie's kimono at church on Sundays over about four weeks. It was really great to keep my hands busy and my mind focused on what our minster was teaching (mostly how David is an example of the kind of anointed king that we need in Jesus from 2 Samuel, if you are interested). 

Everything I needed fit into one bag, and as the weeks got colder, the kimono kept my legs warm while I sewed. So that's another one done.

The collar for this one was the trickiest thing ever. I'm not sure why, but maybe I need to actually document the process each time, rather than having to remember and reference my original work. Can't say I think there is much need for a fully documented process though, given that I don't think there is much need for hand sewn kimono in general, especially in Australia, but maybe I'm supposed to change that? 

In any case, this is done. 

I had to wash the fabric for Sophie's because there was some light marking on the initial bit of the bolt. It came out, but I noticed a sizeable shrink and had to go back and wash the other 11 metres of fabric as well so it would all shrink down to the same size. Then I ironed the life out of it, and I hope now that it will be fine forever. I'm a little worried for Rachel's, since it was the same kind of wool but I didn't wash it to start with. Hopefully she'll never wear it in the rain and it won't be a problem.

Cute kimono Sophie. So cute. 

I did actually try it on before I took in the sleeves to fit Sophie, but getting photos is super hard, and I wasn't thrilled with any of them, except this one of Rachel and I. 

She's so tall because she was standing on the big stool trying to take photos for me. Too bad none of them turned out. You can, however, see Rachel's kimono here. Or find out more about sewing kimono and yukata in general by clicking the tags at the bottom. Have fun!

Yukata

This is a very short post because I took hardly any photos at all and also don't know if anyone will really care that I did this. 

I turned this 12m kimono-bolt (35cm wide) of cotton fabric into a yukata. Completely by hand. In a week and a half. 

Might make another soon.