Kimono's for Mercy... cause I can't remember her SCA name.

Our dear Mercy was finally asked to become a member of the Order of the Laurel for Pottery.  She's probably one of the best potters on the west coast, at least in my opinion.

Her persona is, I think a medieval merchant.  So no geisha clothes!!  (Get your mind out of the gutter!!)

So to make a kimono is relatively easy, a bunch of rectangles sewn together.  Right?  Yea, not so much.    Especially depending on what kind of fabric you are using.  Mercy had some lovely gold with little stripes fabric and some even better burgundy with gold laurel wreaths.  And she needed something to wear next to her skin, so I made a white linen kimono too.  Because she's a merchant, she wore a Hakama, a divided skirt that resembles a wide pair of trousers that she bought.

I was bad and did not take a lot of pictures.  She had a Folkware
Fashion's pattern that I used.  It consists of 4 rectangles, two front
and two back, 2 front facing angular pieces, 2 Sleeves and a collar.  The black and white picture to the right is from the pattern itself, showing the front and back with 2 sleeve length options.

I started with the gold fabric first, it was some kind of upholstery material I think.  Very tough to hand sew.  Did I mention just how much hand sewing there is on a kimono?  I suppose you could sew the entire thing by machine, but that's not how I roll.  I try my best not to have any stitching on the outside of my garments.  

All seams were french seams, that is to sew the wrong sides together, then turn the pieces and seal up that inside out seam into a new seam.  This makes for a very clean seam on the inside, something reserved for court wear or fancy dress. 

 I sewed the 2 back pieces together and then sewed the front to back on at the shoulders.  And then I sewed the front facing strip on.  It is a half size strip with an angular top that disappears below the collar.  I hope that made sense.     

Next came the collar.  Though it is just a long strip that goes around the neck,  it needed to be finished by hand.  But first I needed to finish the front seams of the facing strip.  The gold fabric was very tough and I had to use my leather thimble to protect my finger tip.  I don't like metal thimbles.  Once the facing was finished, I sewed the collar on and then hand finished it.   

For the sleeves, they are a simple short-ish sleeve.  The can be either attached to the body for the full length of the sleeve or to leave a little opening, for air flow I suppose.  Short in how much they cover the arm and short in length up and down.  Since the gold fabric was to be the inner kimono, I made a shorter length sleeve as you can see in the left of the black and white picture.  Doing french seams is easy enough but the fabric had a lot of substance to it and for the underarm it was difficult to do.  

The end of the arm is hand sewn and the hem put in.  

There are no visible rough seams on the kimono due 

to the french and hand sewn seams. 

The burgundy kimono is sewn in the same way.  But because it had a pattern to it, I did not put in a back seam.  The sleeves however, have a shoulder seam to make the pattern face the same direction throughout the entire garment. 

The white under kimono is made the same way but I didn't do french seams.  It also has a smaller collar because it is only an undergarment and not expected to be seen. I used my overlock machine for the seams and then added another line of stitching for structure.  

For the obi or belt.  The merchant class wore a narrow belt, about 5 inches wide that ties to one side.  The belt center is in the front of the person, wrapped around and tied in the front.  We chose a gold silk because it tied the garment together really well.  The white under kimono is not visible. 

Mercy in her elevation outfit with a bit of white Japanese style makeup on as what would have been done in medieval times. 

She looked great.