Joining in on the Trend: Kimono

Last year, the kimono trend was strong, and I wanted no part of it. I saw all the tutorials pop up but couldn’t get into the look. So it took a full year for me to realize that I needed a kimono in my wardrobe.

It started when I opened my “Apparel Fabric” storage bin. I was looking for something to inspire me and a large remnant of fabric from five years ago caught my eye. I studied Fashion at Montclair State and for one of my sewing classes we had to make the same dress, but we got to pick the material. We took a field trip to MOOD fabrics where I picked this print up. For the longest time, I had no idea what to do with the leftovers, but the piece was 28″ x 70″ so with such a large chunk, I knew it could be used. I started to drape the fabric over my body in front of the mirror and loved how the print fell.

I looked up a few tutorials online, and decided on the one from babble.com. The fabric had to be cut in multiple places to get the print just right, but it was a very simple process. I didn’t have enough fabric to make the sleeves longer so I added a little bit of lace to the ends (a la kimono from Sew Caroline).

The whole thing took about an hour of on and off sewing, so a really quick project. Not sure if I’ll be making any more of these but it is a great project for that large scrap in your collection.

And, as a little throwback, here is the original dress I made! This was taken at Anguilla with my parents.