Japanese Day

R asked me to make her a special outfit for Japanese Day at school: a yukata (summer kimono). How tough could it be, I thought, as I ordered a cute-looking pattern from Amazon Japan. Sure, I had no idea what a yukata looked like close-up, nor how they were traditionally constructed, but given my years of sewing from Japanese patterns I didn't think it would be much of a challenge.

The pattern arrived and I realised that a yukata is made from mega-long pattern pieces that form both front and back sections - there are no shoulder seams. This requires a good few metres of fabric, which immediately ruled out just about all the fabrics I liked due to budget constraints (because how much is it really reasonable to spend on a school fancy dress outfit?). Eventually I found some Japanese-themed voile on sale at Spotlight that worked quite nicely.

The Japanese teacher at my work lent me a yukata so I could see how it was made. This helped me make sense of the bizarro pattern pieces, although being an adult's yukata it was different from the one in my pattern, which had the tucks at the shoulders and waist which - I have since figured out - are there to allow the garment to be let out as the child grows.

So I sewed the yukata, which, once I'd got my head around it, was quite simple (this series of posts on sewing a child's yukata was helpful). I even changed things up a little and used French seams so it would look neater from the inside. Then came the obi. I found some dimensions from a shop selling them on Rakuten, and, using some soft voile from my stash, sewed a giant sash (basically a massive long rectangle). Things were so rushed in the lead-up to the 'big day' that I didn't have time to try the outfit on R in advance, but in the morning I used this tutorial to help me tie the obi.

I spent an embarrassing amount of time admiring kanzashi hair ornaments on the internet and ambitiously had a go at making my own, but after two ribbon flowers I'd had enough. Cutting and gluing tiny bits of ribbon is really not my forte, but luckily the two I managed to make before giving up looked quite nice when attached to a two-dollar shop headband, and R was thrilled with her new accessory.

At school I watched R walk around, smiling sweetly as people admired her outfit. She continued to be a sweet little Japanese girl even after she came home that day, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her bow to me and pretend to be polite! Given the generous tucks in R's yukata (meaning that it is likely to fit her forever) I'm not expecting to have to make another, but since I've got a grip on the general construction principles I think I'll have a go at a jinbei, which has a very similar top section. I just have to find the right fabric and finish a few WIPs first...