Harrods apron

Harrods Chambray Butchers Apron (see more butcher aprons)

Henri Gets an update

I've had "Henri" for a long time, and I've been wanting to fix him up a little. He was originally meant to sit on a department store counter to display shirts or other man things.  I traded someone a kimono for him maybe 15 years ago.  He had a short little stand, so my son made him a new stand out of an old fan stand and some hardware.  He's a sturdy molded papier mache form covered with a now-ratty grey jersey.  Never very pinnable.

First layer added is fusible fleece to soften up the surface a little, and give me something to pin into.

It's just regular fusible fleece about 1/4 inch thick.  Difficult to fuse to all those curvy surfaces with a steam iron especially in the middle of a heat wave.  I took the form off the stand and lay it on my table, still awkward but less strain on me.  You can only do an area the size of the iron every 10 seconds or so, so it takes a while.
 

 While I had him on the table, I filled in that awkward hole in the front. A piece of cereal box and duct tape on the inside to start with, another layer of fleece on the outside and then muslin on the inside held with spray adhesive.

And here he is, all nicely covered with a comfy layer of fleece. Next is the muslin cover ...

I started by trying to pin-fit on-grain muslin; this wasn't meant to be a removeable cover so no zipper or anything and I couldn't make it work for me.  Oh Duh! Turn it on the bias!  Bias muslin is moldable enough to smooth over the curves and look tidy.

This is where spray adhesive comes in.  I was going to hand sew the cover together over the form. Did I mention the heat wave?  I did do some hand-sewing around the neck, but the rest of it is basically glued to the fleece and the seams are spray-glued.  Here's the front, not quite finished.

This was new, clean, washed and ironed muslin, but I still got some areas that look like water staining, whether from the adhesive or the hard water. But it's mostly OK!

Side view

Back view

Henri isn't mean to be a fit dummy.  He's to "wear" things I want to photograph, maybe for displaying scarves or something, and also to drape with fabric, pin swatches to, etc. like a design wall. I'm very pleased with the finished product for now, and plan to tidy up his cover with some hand stitching.

Next time I will write about where this idea came from and how I made a fit dummy for myself.

Shibori baby quilt

I actually finished something: a quilt for a baby shower.  The squares are 14", roughly the width of kimono fabric.  The light blue swirling patterned fabric is indigo-dyed cotton from west Africa, as is the dark blue fabric with "smoke rings".  The 2 pieces with what looks like small dots are Japanese yukata fabric, and the one piece with a floral pattern may be Chinese.  All are hand-dyed indigo shibori.

The African indigo-dyed textiles are "Adire", Japanese is "aizome".

The back of the quilt is vintage cotton kimono fabric, and the binding is cotton lining from another kimono. The batting is some red cotton flannel from the stash, just enough for this project.  After washing and dryer-ing the flannel, it didn't seem to shrink, but it did full, so even better!

Detail of front

Front

Back of Quilt

Detail of back

The quilt was well-received!  On to the next project ...

Re-thinking this whole thing

This blog was supposed to be about Japanese dolls, kimonos for dolls, etc. But I never followed up on that, and now I'm more interested in making things with my huge stash of textiles, so maybe that's where this is headed. And I've been taking some wonderful dyeing and surface design classes the last couple of years, so I've learned some new techniques and reinforced some old ones. We'll see where this goes.

Advertising links

Yes, I'm adding links to Amazon products (at the bottom), only to make it easier for folks to find books, etc. on topic. They usually do have the best prices, so if you see something you like, click on it!

Make your own doll and kimono

Here is a web page that shows you how to make your own cloth doll and appropriate garments. It's a 19" doll, but the patterns could be scaled down and adjusted. The instructions are pretty thorough and there are lots of pictures! Nuno Dollmaker

First post of new blog!

Introduction: In 1995 I started buying bales of vintage kimono and re-selling them. They are pretty tiny, but some people bought them to wear, and some just for the fabric. I started getting requests, mostly from men, who wanted larger garments for martial arts, re-enacting, other pursuits that required proper, formal Japanese garments. Also my son had taken up an obscure martial art, Iaido, and required hakama. This all eventually led to doing a Folkwear pattern (#151) which was very gratifying! Now, I 'm working on creating period garments for 1:6 scale dolls (including mandolls), and I'd like to share what I've learned with others. I also have a small collection of traditional Japanese dolls for inspiration, and I will be putting up their pictures as soon as I can.