Fall Kimono of Doom!

The weather is finally out of the 90’s here in Tucson, so that means it’s officially fall!! Granted, we’re still hovering in the 80’s, but a desert girl’s gotta take what she can get.

I’ve noticed the kimono trend running rampant in the sewing blogosphere. I love all things Asian, so I’m down with the trend even if it does sometimes look like pajamas. Simplicity came out with a super cute kimono pattern and I had to snatch it up!

You might recognize this fabric from my wedding guest dress of doom. I had just enough fabric left to eke out view D with a scrap left over for the front or back of a cami. I am in loooove with this fabric, so I’m going to use as much of it as possible!

I used plain black satin for the trim and interfaced it with a lightweight fusible interfacing. It makes it a little stiff, but at least it doesn’t flop around.

Not the most flattering pose…

Awkward face

So… why is this the Kimono of Doom? This fabric was a beast to work with and I royally screwed up while attaching the black trim. I sewed the trim on upside-down. When I noticed it was wonky, I thought it was a problem with the pattern and proceeded to hack away at it to make it lay flat and trimmed all of my seam allowances. Oh, how wrong I was! I ended up cutting another trim piece and swapped out the upside-down one. It’s not very pretty on the inside, but I figure not many people will see it.

Neat little enclosed seams on the inside.

This is the first time I sewed French seams. The fabric frays like crazy, so there really was no other alternative. It was a challenge sewing these seams with such a shifty fabric, but I like how the end result turned out.

The guts of the sleeve

I think this piece is a great compliment to who I am. The kimono is Japanese on the outside, and French [seams] on the inside, whereas I’m French on the outside and Japanese on the inside. そうですよ！

If you have an easy fabric to sew with, this is a fast and super easy project. If you choose fabric of doom, then I’ll pray for you and your sanity.

By the way, DD likes to tease me and say that I’m wearing pajamas in public… what do you think? Are kimono tops passable as outerwear, or should they stay indoors as very stylish pajamas?

-RED