Making Kimono
At first, I'll talk briefly about Japanese sewing, wasai. It is different from western sewing in many ways. One big difference between them is that we can remake small clothes into bigger with wasai because with wasai, we don't need to cut off the margins while we can't do that with western sewing. Also, in making clothes with wasai, every part of the clothes is square, so we can easily and compactly fold Japanese traditional clothes along the seams. Then I explain about making yukata, a kind of Japanese clothes. It is the foundation of wasai.
1: preparation
Correct the distortion of cloth to make patterns of cloth beautiful, and then make cloth flat by ironing. After that shrink the cloth by soaking it in water so that it won't change size after the kimono is made.
2: measuring
Measure one's height correctly (mitake).
Measure the length of the arm, from the base of the neck to the wrist over the shoulder (yuki).
Measure half round of one's bust, from one side to the other side of the body over bust points (munahaba).
Measure round the hips (koshimawari).
Measure round the neck (kubimawari).
Measure the length from the base of the neck to the heels (kitake).
3: cutting and sewing
When we make kimono, we divide the cloth into eight parts; two sleeves, front part of the body, back part of the body, two collars, and okumi (panels below the collars).
See the pictures "kimono Fabric" and "Woman's kimono" at "kimono no katachi to shurui" in "nihonnjin to kimono"
http://jin.jcic.or.jp/kidsweb/virtual/kimono/types1-j.html
Manners
One should know about manners of kimono when wearing it, but even Japanese don't usually wear kimono and know much about its manners. So we are confused on Coming of Age Day, seijinnshiki (many girls wear kimono at the ceremony). Now I tell you about some basic manners. It is not the rules what you should obey, but you look beautiful if you act on the manners. I'm glad if it helps you.
When you wear kimono, it is proper way to walk with small stride, with good posture. Also, you should walk without lifting up your feet a lot. If you wear a shawl, you should take off your shawl when you greet to someone on the street. When you raise your hand, pick up sodeguchi (sleeve) of kimono that you wear because it is not elegant that your arm peeps out from the sleeve. As a whole, untidy way to act is thought to be not beautiful, so we should act carefully and slowly when wearing kimono. A woman who acts like this when she wears kimono may look very sexy!
Last updated 6-Dec-2001