Silk kimono

Having seen many of your wonderful kimonos on the blogsphere (my favourites include the ones from Karen, Julia, Twinkle and many more!), I decided that it was time to make my own. A quick word of warning - this post is heavy on the pictures!

I had some beautiful Indian silk in my stash from my Dubai trip last may - this is one of those pieces of fabric where I instantly felt a tug at my heartstrings. I'm sure you know the feeling ;) 

Isn't it beautiful? I knew the silk would be great for a loose fitting garment, and it was wonderful to see the project come together before my eyes. 

The pattern I used came free with the Love Sewing magazine, issue 5. In fact, I bought the magazine because of this pattern (which is something I don't do much - see below), and it didn't disappoint.  

 How does my version compare? 

It could be worn "open", or "closed"/wrapped up. Maybe I'll see if I can make a little belt out of the leftover fabric. 

The pattern was pretty simple. It came in sizes S, M and L and I graded it down to a XS by eyeballing it. Compared to my usual pedantic and scientific measuring efforts, I felt like a complete rebel! The pattern called for 1.5m of fabric, at least 1.5m wide, but I managed to squeeze this into my 1.1m wide silk (1.5m long) without any issues. I love it when a plan comes together ;)

Now full body photos. I think it's lovely teamed up with skinny jeans, or shorts in the summer. Perhaps it could even be a nice little beach cover-up! 

The instructions were nice and clear, although I found having all the photo instructions above the words to be slightly harder to follow compared to having them side to side.

The pattern calls for most of the seams to be done by French seams, and I opted for French seams for the whole thing. The fabric frays like there's no tomorrow, so having all the seams enclosed really does help me sleep at night!  

I made a couple of minor tweaks. Instead of machine hemming the sleeves and the bottom hem, I did a hand running stitch to make it nice and smooth. I would've done my usual hand blind catchstitch, but the delicate fabric would've struggled with the tiny pinches on the right side. 

Sleeve hem

Bottom hem

Also the magazine calls for hand sewing for the band, but I opted for the good old "stitching in the ditch". I think it's pretty invisible on the outside, and much quicker with the help of my wonderful walking foot! All in all I finished this project in 2 evenings. Can't complain. 

So there you have it, my very own silk kimono! I must admit that I didn't know where I stood with kimonos. Don't get me wrong, I adore them on other people, but have always doubted whether they would suit me. I'm so glad to have tried it out! 

 So I want to hear from you! Two (or three in fact) questions for you today:

1) Where do you stand on the kimonos front? Is it something you can see yourself in?

2) Do you buy sewing magazines and sew from the "free" patterns? I generally don't, mainly on the basis that they rarely come in my size, and I am often too lazy to grade the patterns down (not when there are so many other patterns that I can just buy which comes in my size). But this experience has made me feel like I've been missing out! 

That's all from me this week. I hope you all have a great week ahead :) We are actually heading to the Caribbean tomorrow for a week, and I'm going to pack this kimono in my suitcase now ;) 

Staying cool

Hello my dear readers, I hope you've been enjoying the summer so far. The hubby and I have just arrived back from our little break in Sicily, and we had a lovely time. 

The weather was hot and dry there, so I feel that my body has stored up enough vitamin D now for a while :) 

In addition to eating Granita, which is Sicilian's answer to shaved ice/slushies/sorbet, I brought my new silk dress to help me stay cool. 

Yep, this is my second version of the Burda Jamie Shift Dress. Remember my first version in viscose? I had grown to love the silhouette, and thanks to all your helpful comments I decided not to bother with a belt. Now I love it so much that I made another one! 

I started making this the weekend before we went to Sicily, as I realised that I needed something to keep me cool. This was just the number, as the Jamie pattern is nice and loose, great for letting air circulate around the body, and the silk fabric is natural, breathable, and extremely lightweight. 

The silk was a purchase from my recent trip to Dubai, from the fabric souk. It was a mere £4 per metre, and was sold as "Indian silk". I think it's a silk charmuse. I loved the "tribal" pattern and the lovely colourful border (despite what my lovely husband tells me - over the years I've learned to selectively listen to him :p), and as soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted to make with it. 

And the beauty of using the colourful border/selvage this way is that I didn't need to hem the dress. Result. 

Another reason I used the Jamie Dress pattern is that I realised from my last version that I didn't need the zip to get in and out. I didn't want to have to match the pattern on this slippery fabric, and I worry about seam slippage as it is, let alone with a zip. So the dress is only made up of 2 pattern pieces! Super easy. I think it only took me an afternoon from laying out, cutting to finishing the seams (with my new overlocker!)

I didn't make any additional alterations since the last attempt, as it fitted well. One issue I ran into was the bias binding - as it was such a soft and drapy fabric, making self fabric bias tape with this was near impossible. In the end I used a leftover cotton lawn that I had which was very lightweight, and it did the trick. Note to self - do not try and make bias tape with silk charmuse again. 

So that's all I've got to say about this. It was a simple project, and one that I could see coming together before my eyes as soon as I spotted the fabric at the souk. I just love how the border "pop". That said, I think the fabric choice/placement may be an acquired taste. Practically, though, the beautiful silk and the loose fit did wonders at keeping me cool in the heat, so I think it was a successful project :)

What about you? Are you making last minute holiday wear, too? Or busy sewing in anticipation of the "heat wave"?