Slenderette 2: Fully-Lined & Finished!

Here's my 2nd take on Simplicity 2847, a Slenderette pattern (just love that name!).  I finished it a few weeks ago & have worn it twice--and received lots of comments about people needing a vacation!  

Close-ups of the fabric & the pattern are here.  

The Roommate thought the fabric was for him when I first pulled it out!  I set him straight on that, explaining that it was 4 yards, not 2, so unless we each got matching shirts, I was turning it into a dress.  He decided he didn't need another surf-themed shirt.  

I also fully-lined this with some 60/40 (poly/cotton) I got on sale at Hancock's.  I think I bought 10 yards.  I mostly had the lining figured out but got a bit of help from Allison at Bits of Thread.  

I am still using up bits of my old hapi coat from Japan; I'm really having trouble giving it up.  You'll see to the right that I used it to line the sleeve-cuff, and I also used it for the pocket-lining.  I like having those little reminders.  

This is a great summer dress.  Nice enough that it looks good for teaching or conducting tours at work, but it's very comfortable & has pockets.  I also think it's flattering...although I'm not sure I look slender in it!  But I can dream. 

Me-Made May Miracle: One Evening, Three Items

My hapi-coat inspired
summer housecoat &
slipper-socks

Believe me, all of you amazing sewists, who are showing off your creations for all 31 days this month, I am so impressed & following along avidly.  A whole wardrobe of things I've made?!  I'll call that Me-Made-Maybe, A.D. 2045 edition!

A first attempt at copying
a store-bought nightgown.

In the meantime, after spending the day running errands, going to yoga, going to the gym, fighting w/ a sewing pattern (which is what I feel like I do about 90% of the time), and needing a shower, I finally took one after we got dinner ready and just before we ate.  

BTW, We've joined the community garden nearby and our sweat equity has really paid off...the greens & herbs have been abundant, fresh & delicious the last 5-6 weeks.  Rainbow chard, beet greens, spinach, every possible variation on lettuce, cilantro, etc.  Yum!

Anyway, we made an amazing salad, and I got dressed and it just so happened that all 3 items I put on were me-made!  I'd call that a me-made miracle.  It all definitely came together because it got quite cold yesterday, so I needed the fuzzy slipper-socks, in addition to the nightgown (never blogged) and the hapi-coat (not really a yukata because of the length).  

Here are a few photos (sorry they're not the greatest quality), with my own tiny tribute to Me-Made May.  

Yukata! - In which I decide I need a dress form...

So, I finished it.  Again, I need to reiterate how pleased I am about how well the batik (blue) goes w/ the Japanese poet print.  You can see from the photo at right how messy my house is...NO! you can see that it is really a boxy Japanese kimono pattern, modified a bit to hopefully be a bit more flattering.  However, there is so much bulk under the arms, at the side seams.  I do like the final result & will wear it a lot (it's so loose that I can wear my pajamas underneath it easily)...but, I may try to think of a way to take in the side seams to reduce some of said bulk.

I need to mention though, that kimono are not meant to be shaped, the pieces are rectangles made to efficiently use the narrow woven fabric.  When we lived in Japan, one of my students was studying tea ceremony (the Japanese make everything an art & it always involves lots of study & practice)...and she had to wear a kimono.  She told me that her kimono hated her!  This student, Akiko, was a normal female shape, but she said that when you wear kimono, you have to have no shape.  "Like the trunk of a tree," was how Akiko put it!  Which surprised me, but if you think about it, she's correct (look at some photos from Kyoto, if you need more evidence).  Which again brings me to the question of why I thought I would get a shapely housecoat if I copied a kimono pattern?  Oh well...it was a fun project.

A reminder, a yukata is a kimono, but made from cotton, not silk or wool.  It's a summer kimono, essentially.  If you've ever spent a summer in hot, muggy, Japan, you know why they invented this version of the kimono!

Here's the back--you can see I added some darts in the back to give it some shape.  I also added them in the front, but they don't show much because of the overlap.

Under the arm, where the
sleeve (R) is attached

I had to look at the Roommate's yukata to figure out how to do the underarms.  Attaching the sleeves was easy enough--just lots of straight line sewing, but after sewing up that little flap at the bottom of the sleeve, there's actually a gap in the fabric.  I top-stitched that to make it lay smooth & look nice.

I tried it on w/ my hapi coat belt, but the Roommate & I didn't think it looked very good, so I decided to make tie fasteners.  There are 4 of them, and I'm also quite pleased with them--I made them by folding the fabric 4 times and sewing a few times--so they are rather sturdy & flat--and I think they make nice little knots.  2 are inside, where they don't show, so that the overlap stays put.

One thing I kept coming up against over & over was how to fix it while it was on me.  The Roommate is extremely helpful & willing to do most anything w/ regards to textiles & sewing, but he doesn't always "get" what I'm talking about.  I really feel like a tailor's dummy, or dress form, or adjustable mannequin is the next item I want for my sewing room.  I may have to wait a while--we have to pay for our new south wing, first! The duct tape version is looking better and better!

Another issue...of course I don't have any matching pajamas!  Uh oh.  I do have some great stretchy fabric that sort of matches, maybe I'll make some pants out of that. 

Not OK Kimono!

Okay, we can all have a little think about What was I thinking? now.   Here's what's up: I did translate most of the kimono pattern into English; at least I did enough so I could use it to make myself another yukata.  And I could have used the measurements in the pattern (it's in centimeters), but for some dumb reason I decided to use the old measurements for my hapi coat.  Which was big & boxy.  I realize that the kimono would have been boxy, too, but narrow boxes, not wide boxes.  Why did I do that?  Now I have a voluminous housecoat that doesn't really look good when I wrap a belt around it.  It looks so bad, in fact, that NO!  You cannot see a picture!

I am however quite pleased with my fabric choices, so I'll post a picture of it so far so you can admire that:

Bella is always eager to assist me! 

I decided I need darts (not exactly a Nobel prize winning decision, I realize), and googled sewing darts and one of the first pages I found was Saraicat's! She did a guest post at Sew Mama Sew about darts, so I'm going to use her information & see if I can add some shape to this box.  I was pleased because I follow her tweets fairly closely (and get hunger pangs at the food-related tweets).

I am also glad that I have the Roommate's yukata to look at; the Japanese pattern book I'm using doesn't have instructions (and I probably couldn't translate them if it did), so I have referred to it many times so far.  The biggest deal is how the sleeves connect to the sides under the arms.  Nothing like what we do in the west for most armholes.  I'll show some photos once I get that figured out...

Making my own yukata (cotton kimono) or Lost in Translation?!

Remember this link? Of an old Japanese pattern book?  Of course you do!  So, I'm thinking of doing some translating...Japanese into English (if I can find my Japanese-English dictionary!) and miniature doll-sized pattern into human sized. 

And why am I thinking about doing this?  Because I think I mentioned that my hapi coat, which I got in Japan in 1994 is worn thru.  And because we've just moved...and I don't want to scare the neighbors.  In our previous house, the bathroom was upstairs & the windows weren't so display-like!  Here, I could cause some heart attacks running between the bathroom & bedroom.  Now the big decision--use some cool Japanese-print fabric or some of my West African?  Or both?  I need to modify the pattern a bit...I want a yukata (cotton kimono), but shorter.  Hapi coats are shorter (almost too short--above the knee), but voluminous--I would like a kimono/yukata because it will be more flattering...but below the knee--not to my ankles as most kimono are.  I may change the sleeve length a bit too.  

Of course this is all well & good sitting here at my computer with Bella nearby for some ear-scratching.  We'll see how soon I get my yukata; we haven't finished unpacking yet!  

Japan - Textile Heaven on Earth

Front cover

Japan!  I'll start slow...there is so much great stuff in Japan, so many amazing techniques & so much style.  We have a ton of stuff (not enough, ever!).  When we lived there, we were poor & were saving for travel, so didn't spend much on souvenirs.  But in 2005 we went back for a week to see friends & our good friend, Noriko, took us to some antique shops.  We spent way too much, but even then, I didn't get a kasuri (ikat indigo) kimono.  What was I thinking?!  Anyway, in an antique store in outside of Tokyo, we happened upon this kimono pattern book. It's on heavy board, it would stand up by itself for the tailor, who would be working on the floor, as you can see on the photo below.

There are many styles of kimono in here, some very old-fashioned.  The book is about 14" tall - I've often wondered if I just cut the patterns out at this size if they'd work for a barbie doll?  

It was a real steal - about $5, and goes along well with our collection of weaving & textile tools collection (drop spindles, shuttles, fabric stamps, you get the idea).  

Fabric requirements

Pattern layout

On the picture above, you'll see 2 cotton kimono (my hapi, the roommate's yukata) which we've had since 1994.  Mine is about worn thru, so I'll probably use the fabric in something else soon, so I don't forget it.  The kanji (characters) on it are for the 4 seasons.  More Japanese  textiles later.  But now I'm going upstairs to work on my new dress!  More on that tomorrow...