Japanese kimono silk and yukata cotton for quilts, arts & crafts

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Ranked #7,989 in DIY, #215,915 overall

14 inch widths are only the beginning...

If you've never sewn or crafted with traditional Japanese textiles, you're in for a treat. Your local fabric chain store can't even come close to the variety and quality available to anyone adventurous enough to look east for their inspiration. Kimono are designed to be worn for specific seasons and occasions so the textiles themselves vary from heavy weight to light; silk, cotton, linen, rayon, synthetics and even exotic and hard to find fabrics made from banana fiber.

Each bolt is only long enough to make one garment and range from 900 cm to about 1200 cm long. That's roughly 9 to 12 yards of fabric that may have been hand woven, dyed, painted, or other techniques that make it one of a kind.  

 

What can you do with kimono fabrics? 

watch out--they are highly addictive

For starters, you can make one of a kind pillows, quilts, clothes, dolls, or really anything you'd make with Western fabrics. The magic of using Japanese vintage fabrics is that no one else is going to have the same fabric as you. So many vintage kimono have been hand painted and/or hand woven that each piece is its own little treasure. Even kimono fabrics that have been mass-produced are still likely to be somewhat rare.

It can be difficult to tear into a vintage kimono or obi, but once you consider how likely it is the garment in question will spend decades in storage and out of sight, it makes it easier to rip it apart. Sometimes removing the stitches (almost always done by hand) one at a time gives you further insight into the garment and its previous owner. Tiny, fine, even stitches on a kimono made from very fine silk says one thing, while a well-worn kimono made from simple silk that has been patched and sewn together many times says something else.

More to come!

Fabulous fabrics from my ebay store 

Vintage and new kimono silks and cottons for your crafting pleasure

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by kimonomomo

I study Anthropology, Fine Arts, and Life in General. I am a small business woman and mother of two. I have 4 ferrets and dozens of kimono. I am sligh... (more)

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