Sewing A Kimono: Step by Step Instructions

What is a Kimono? 

What Wikipedia says:

Make Your Own Japanese Clothes:
Patterns and Ideas for Modern Wear

The kimono ("something worn") is the national costume of Japan. Originally the word "kimono" referred to all types of clothing, but it has come to denote a particular type of traditional full-length garment.

Kimonos are T-shaped, straight-lined robes that fall to the ankle, with collars and wide, full-length sleeves. Kimonos are wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right (except when dressing the dead for burial) and secured by a wide belt called an obi, which is usually tied at the back. Kimonos are generally worn with traditional footwear (especially geta, thonged wood-platform footwear; and a type of thong-like footwear) and split-toe socks (tabi).

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Today, kimonos are most often worn by women, and on special occasions. Traditionally, unmarried women wore a style of kimono called furisode, which have floor-length sleeves, on special occasions. A few older women and even fewer men still wear kimonos on a daily basis. Men wear kimonos most often at weddings, tea ceremonies, and other very special or very formal occasions. Kimonos are also worn by both men and women in certain sports, such as kendo. Professional sumo wrestlers are often seen in kimonos because they are required to wear traditional Japanese dress whenever appearing in public.

Kimono hobbyists in Japan can take courses on how to put on and wear kimonos. Classes cover selecting seasonally and event-appropriate patterns and fabrics, matching the kimono undergarments and accessories to the kimono, layering the undergarments according to subtle meanings, selecting and tying obi, and other topics. There are also clubs devoted to kimono culture, such as Kimono de Ginza.

As kimono has another name gofuku (literally "clothes of Wu"), the earliest kimono were heavily influenced by traditional Chinese clothing, which is known as hanfu today, through extensive cultural adoptions between China and Japan, as early as the fifth century ce. It was during the 8th century, however, when Chinese fashions came into style among the Japanese, and the overlapping collar became particularly a women's fashion.

During Japan's Heian period (794-1192 ce), the kimono became increaslingly stylized, though one still wore a half-apron, called a mo, over it.

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During the Muromachi age (1392-1573), the Kosode, a single kimono formerly considered underwear, began to be worn without the hakama pants over it, and thus began to be held closed by an obi "belt" .

During the Edo period (1603-1867), the sleeves began to grow in length, especially among unmarried women, and the Obi became wider, with various styles of tying coming into fashion. Since then, the basic shape of both men's and women's kimono has remained essentially unchanged.

Kimono for men are available in various sizes, but kimono for women are typically of similar size, and are adjusted for various body sizes by tucking and folding. An ideally-tailored kimono has sleeves that end at the wrist when the arms are lowered. A man's kimono should fall approximately to the ankle without tucking. A woman's kimono is longer to allow for the ohashori, the tuck that can be seen under the obi.

Japanese Kimono Designs Coloring Book
(Dover Coloring Book)

Kimono are made from a single bolt of fabric called a tan. Bolts come in standard dimensions of about 14 inches wide and 12.5 yards (enough for one adult kimono), and the entire fabric is used to make the kimono. The finished kimono consists of four main strips of fabric: two panels covering the body and two panels forming the sleeves, with additional smaller strips forming the narrow front panel and collar. In the past, the kimono was often taken apart for washing as separate panels, and re-sewn by hand. Due to the fact that the entire bolt remains in the finished garment without cutting, the kimono can be easily retailored to fit a different person.

The maximum length of the sleeve is dictated by the width of the fabric. The distance from the center of the spine to the end of the sleeve could not exceed twice the width of the fabric. Traditional kimono fabric was typically no more than 36 centimeters (14 inches) wide. Thus the distance from spine to wrist could not exceed a maximum of roughly 68 centimeters (27 inches). Modern kimono fabric is woven as wide as 42 centimeters (17 inches) to accommodate modern Japanese body sizes. Very tall or heavy people, such as sumo wrestlers, must have kimono custom-made by joining multiple bolts of fabric together or custom-woven.

Traditional kimono are sewn by hand, and their fabrics are also frequently hand made and hand decorated. Various techniques such as dye resist are used for applying decoration and patterns to the base cloth. Repeating patterns that cover a large area of a kimono are traditionally done with the y%u016Bzen resist technique and a stencil. Over time there have been many variations in color, fabric and style, as well as accessories such as the obi.

Kimono and obis are traditionally made of silk, silk brocade, silk crepes (such as chirimen) and satin weaves (such as rinzu). Modern kimono are also widely available in less-expensive easy-care fabrics such as rayon, cotton sateen, cotton, polyester and other synthetic fibers. Silk is still considered the ideal fabric, however, and is a must for formal occasions.

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Customarily, woven patterns and dyed repeat patterns are considered informal; Formal kimono have free-style designs dyed over the whole surface or along the hem. During the Heian period, kimono were worn with up to a dozen or more colorful contrasting layers, with each combination of colors being a named pattern. Today, the kimono is normally worn with a single layer on top of a slip style undergarment. The pattern of the kimono can also determine in what season it should be worn. For example, a pattern with butterflies or cherry blossoms would be worn in spring. Watery designs are common during the summer. A popular autumn motif is the russet leaf of the Japanese maple; for winter, designs may include bamboo, pine trees and plum blossoms.

Old kimono are often recycled in various ways: altered to make haori, hiyoku, or kimono for children, used to patch similar kimono, used for making handbags and similar kimono accessories, and used to make covers, bags or cases for various implements, especially for sweet-picks used in tea ceremonies. Kimono with damage below the waistline can also be worn under hakama to hide the damage. Historically, skilled craftsmen laboriously picked the silk thread from old kimono and rewove it into a new textile in the width of a heko obi for men's kimono, using a recycling weaving method called saki-ori.