I shall be tutoring a workshop for this very”on trend” kimono-style jacket on Saturday 30th April, 2016, so this week had to make a sample.
The suggested fabrics on the pattern envelope are silky lightweight woven fabrics with drape such as batiks, charmeuse, cotton types, crepe de chine, double georgette, linen types, silky types and for view C also border prints. For a first make of this pattern I would suggest that one avoids fabric with too much drape and silkiness.
I used two different prints of fabulous linen blend fabric from New Threads, Weyhill Fairground to make view B in a size L which is equivalent to 18-20. The drape on the fabric was just right and I hope that my students may choose something similar.
As the garment is very loose-fitting this time I did not pre-wash the fabric. There will be no problem if the jacket should happen to shrink when first laundered.
The jacket has only 3 main pieces, a back, two fronts and two sleeves. Additionally there is a back neck band & facing, sleeve hem bands and two front bands & facings. I cut the main pieces from the Red print, the facings and bands were cut from the contrast Beige fabric.
I recently re-visited the Hong Kong seam finishing method (the wraparound skirt) and as the jacket is unlined decided to repeat this technique for all the seam allowances plus the hem. It took 4 packs of Light Sage Green bias binding and quite a long time to complete this aspect of the construction but I feel that it was worth it. However, as this method does add considerably to the construction time, I will not be repeating it to the students on Saturday. Most of the seams can be finished with over-locking or zig-zag and for those that are a little more confident they can use French seams to enclose the raw edges.
Apart from the Hong Kong seam finishing the most time-consuming part of the construction was the application of the neck bands and facings. The stitching of a convex curve to a concave curve takes a little time and manipulation so that is something that I will be concentrating on in my tutorial.
Although a kimono-style jacket is not within my usual style profile I think that I will enjoy wearing the jacket with denim jeans and a shell top.
Simplicity 1318 Front View B Back View B
Close Up of Hong Kong Hem & Seam finish