Make Your Own Japanese Clothes: Patterns and Ideas for Modern Wear [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

First, Marshall assumes you also own The Book of Kimono by Norio Yamanaka. While Marshall will tell you how to draft patterns for the kimono, he tells you to go to the other book to find out how to =wear= the garments. Yamanaka's is a wonderful book, but I consider this sales-racketeering by the editors, allowing author sloth to force another book in the line. If you don't already know how to wear kimono, get Yamanaka first so you can even decide if you want to wear it, let alone sew it.

The section on Japanese sewing tools was interesting, but time might have been spent addressing how to do these jobs with tools you could find in ordinary Western sewing stores, and how to select Western fabrics (like don't use slinky for an uchikage), since so much time is spent on making Westernized/modernized variants on the trad kimono. 4ex, you can make a 3rd hand out of a strong little coffee bag clip, a length of cord, and a necklace hook rather than paying $8 + S&H on-line.

The largest flaw is the structuring of ideas. Marshall first tells you how to do each Japanese sewing technique (how to turn a hem corner, how to sew on a sleeve, how to put in a lining, how to pad a garment) in a separate section before ever getting to describing the garments or giving their layouts. All this means is anyone not already completely familiar with the garments skips this and maybe comes back later to it. The book would be improved by giving the garments with sewing techniques particular to it included at the garment. 4ex., explaining how to sewn on a collar guard particularly for a vest belongs with making the vests, not broken out 57 pages earlier with other collar guard techniques. Explaining how to put in a lining should be with the first garment that can be lined. As it is, you go to the garment, draft it, cut it, then skip back and forth between the garment and the different technique sections as you sew on a collar or sew on a sleeve. Keep plenty of bookmarks handy.

It is good that Marshall gives the standard kimono, and especially the uchikage (female formal overkimono) with padded hem, as well as various jackets (haori, hanten, hippari), modern and trad vests, and the monpei trousers. It is a distinct lack that he did not give directions for hakama, the Japanese trousers everyone wants for male dress, but only the sloppy field pants. The drafting instructions are very good, but as an Old Guard of the fibre arts the selection of garments gave me severe deja vu. In fact, except for the uchikage, this could be described as "do all your own drafting work to wind up with the Folkwear Japanese patterns." Which do you have more of, time or money? Do you really want to learn the particularly Japanese method of wearing a thimble or finishing a seam?

The section on making your own tabi (split-toed cloth socks) is excellent and detailed. Drafting this pattern is not at all simple, as it is fitted footwear. If you can't find tabi cheap on line, I recommend getting the Folkwear pattern for them to save a day or more of your life with fussing these to fit, unless you have very unusual feet.

In short, while the book will remain in my library and will be useful for drafting scale patterns for dolls, when I sew for full-size people I will use the available patterns using authentic techniques. What were you planning to use this for?

For anyone in historical re-enactment societies like the Society for Creative Anachronism, by all means purchase this book, but don't expect to be making pre-1600s accurate clothing with it. You'll not be that far off, but little things, like sleeve attachments, will make all the difference between a modern kimono and "period" kataginu. The book is an excellent place to start, but you'll need to search elsewhere for the details to make it accurate for classical Japan.

The instructions may seem a little daunting at first, certainly to the inexperienced sewer. If you're used to making clothes from modern tissue or paper patterns, this book may challenge you initially. The biggest bonus of this book is that the patterns for each of the items are designed to be made specifically from measurements you take. No more fussing with fitting and sizing after the garment is sewn together. With a little patient reading, the trick of creating outfits from measurements as they do in this book may actually become your preferred way of making clothes. You'll wonder why more companies don't make instructions this way, especially if you're a novice.

In addition to very good fabric layouts (described for modern fabric widths as well as traditional ~14-inch-wide), the book in unsurpassed in describing the finishing techniques for modern kimono. Sleeves, sleeve attachment to kimono, seams, embroidery, embellishment, and even how to construct a kimono and other clothing bits using all hand-sewing techniques are covered in this book. There's even a good focus on how you can "modernize" some of the clothing items for western wear (not that I would use them, because the originals are just stunning).

Despite the ease I had using this book once I sat down and read it carefully, there were a few problems I had with it. First, there's no good summary for any of item construction. I was hoping for something that said "to construct this garment, you'll need to do X, Y, and Z general things." This kind of summary would have helped tremendously with the construction of a kimono because each part of the kimono had a separate chapter and you didn't construct the kimono in the same order as the chapters were layed out in the book.

My second issue is the brevity and direction of some of the instructions. In many cases, the instructions simply said "go to this part of the book, do the steps listed there but with a certain change if you're making X version, but if you're making Y version go to this other part and then come back here and finish the steps here." Therein proceeded a romp through that book that had me flipping from front to back and anywhere in between to finish the single portion of the garment I was working on. Confused? So was I. It's possible to follow the instructions, but you do have to read the steps very carefully. Multiple bookmarks will help you.

My third problem with the book was the size and the binding. Perhaps the publishers were trying to make the book smaller to save money. I felt, however, that if the book had been printed in, say 8-1/2x11 or A4 size, the step-by-step instructions would have gone from slightly acrobatic to crystal clear by allowing more room for description. Sometimes the text describing certain steps is many pages before or after the actual line drawing of the portion of the pattern on which you should be working. I think this is a direct result of the page size. The binding was wholly in appropriate for how this book was to be used. Most people will find themselves setting things on the pages to keep the book open while they're working on it. A better solution would have been spiral or hidden-spiral binding. Don't be suprised of the perfect binding on this book breaks after the workout you give it flipping back and forth while making your garments.

Despite my problems with this book, it was a solid read and well worth the price. I wouldn't call it stellar, which is why I gave it only 3 of 5 stars, but I liked it enough that I'd buy it again if I ever lost or destroyed my current well-dog-eared copy.