Kimono Jacket Project

Kimono style jackets seem to be really ‘in’ this season, however I was loath to shell out £30 (or more) for one in a high street store. So one of my projects was to make my own. Originally I was going to sew it from scratch, and spent a lot of time on the internet searching for patterns and getting no where.

While charity shopping (as this blog progresses, you will come to understand just how much I love charity shops), I found this beach top.

The pattern was very Japanese-y with cherry blossoms and the fabric is nice and floaty (all you want for a kimono really!)

It is a size 14 (a size too big for me) but I would rather it hung loose than was too tight, and has actually turned out really nicely – more on that later! It also only cost £2.50, and it was for charity, so all in all very happy with my purchase!

 

So the first thing I had to do was chop the top into not-a-top, by slicing down the middle, turning it into a jacket.

Which was the easiest thing…

I had to unstich all the ruffles on the front of the top-now-a-jacket (very carefully as the material is super thin), resulting in a few small holes (boo), and also all the jewels on the lapel-y bit

This took for everrrr and was hard to iron as I didn’t want the material to burn (but I did want all the creases out… dilemmas). I also had to decide at what angle I wanted the jacket to be open at. This was also quite difficult, as the fabric was hard to work with (Shall we just say that although it was a lovely pattern, the actual fabric was awful?) Anyway, I snip snip snipped away, and then had to make a decision between red, pink or green ribbon to hem.

(Red won, as I had more of it, however still not enough as I want to do the bottom hem and the sleeves… something for another day I feel!) The collar was the most difficult, as it curved round, and I had to add an extra piece on the left hand side, so close up it looks a bit naff, but I have long hair which should cover it so hopefully it won’t be too noticeable!

This is the finished piece, with some close ups of the dreaded collar (don’t judge!). I haven’t taken a photo with me wearing it finished yet, so that will come afterwards!

 

I am very proud of myself (especially as I did that all in an afternoon) and I love wearing it! Plus it is a fraction (a really tiny one) of the price of a ‘real’ factory made kimono jacket, and has my own personal touch.

So it went from this

To this

(Please ignore my awkward poses!)

I hope that you enjoyed reading my post, comments are always welcome!