Category Archives: The Garments

I took a couple hours yesterday to turn the blue “novelty chiffon” I picked up last week into an easy kimono.

I had two yards so I cut it up into 6 rectangles. The back, 2 fronts, 2 sleeves, and a neckband that isn’t pictured here, and that I ended up not adding.

The shoulders and sleeves are flat felled seams.

And the side + underarm seam are french seams.

For the fronts and the bottom hem I did a 3/4 inch rolled hem and top stitched both edges.

And I did 2 1/4 inch deep cuffs, again with stitching at the top and bottom edges.

I’ll love this piece as something to throw on, but it was kind of a pain in the ass to sew. I forgot how exactly how fast kimonos are, I think this project took 2 1/2 hours from start to finish, and how much I love wearing them.

So now I have a dress, a sweater, and a kimono, but I plan on spending the next couple days editing this month’s book chapter, and busting out some more clothes. I can’t quite believe it’s already the 27th.

Thought you might want to see some of the details from the grey & white dress…

The fabric is a light beautiful grey & white cotton seersucker. Seersucker is a puckered, thin, summery fabric, which is why the fabric of the dress is all ripply.

I included an invisible side zip, and I’m over the moon happy that the stripe matched up across the zipper.

Not all the stripes match up perfectly.

But most of them do, so I’m calling it a win.

I did a simple half inch rolled hem. And there’s still some scarring left over from all the times I had to rip the dress apart, but I think I’ll be able to get that out.

The dress is made up of straight panels with triangular godets (inserts) to give the dress fullness and flare.

And I finished my seams with the overlock stitch on my Bernina.
(Except for where I forgot.)

Fucking finally.

It’s done and I love it.

I kind of wish I hadn’t had to take it apart a hundred times in the process, but I think even that was ultimately worth it.

I’m going back and forth about dropping a lining in.

On one hand, while the seams are all finished inside, but there are a lot of them, so a lining might make the dress more comfortable to wear.

But on the other hand, I’m completely and totally sick of working on this dress, and it is wearable without a lining.

We’ll see.

For the moment at least, I’m calling it done, and declaring it a victory. yay!

It’s the first finished object! Well 95% finished. I haven’t washed it yet.

And it’s not really ‘jade’ either. The yarn company calls the colorway ‘peacock.’ But I don’t think it’s quite bright enough to be called ‘peacock.’

It’s a super simple hand knit, yoked, cropped, pullover. I wrote more about the technical details (yarn, needles, etc.) over on the knitting blog.

I’m hoping it’ll gain a little bit of length when I wash it, but overall it came out like I wanted.

And it’s officially (well at least once it’s washed) the first finished garment for this project. Squee!!

I have the feeling I’ll wear this dress-sweater combo at least a couple times.