Venus Kimono

Kimono's have been trending for a while and I've probably missed the boat but I still love them and had the perfect silk blend fabric to make one with so why not?

Last weekend was my birthday weekend so we headed down to Venus Bay to celebrate. Of course I had to pack a few sewing bibs and bobs just incase I had time! As it turned out I had about an hour free and I quickly drafted up a pattern using an old kimono I bought a few years ago as a rough guide. I added some pleats in the shoulder area for a bit of interest. 

The fabric is "Three sided tears" from Tessuti and is a cotton/silk blend voile. It's a beautiful fabric and fairly easy to work with although I made sure I trace threaded all of my seam lines and tailor tacked the pleats for accuracy. The fabric also frayed a little and I didn't want to add bulky serging to the seams as it just wouldn't do it justice so I chose french seams which worked perfectly.

Here is a great article from Threads on how to finish seams on silk fabrics.

It worked out pretty well although I think a higher percentage of silk would have been better as the higher percentage of cotton probably doesn't let it hang as well as I'd like.

Sayonara!