Kimono Progress - Week 1

My goal is to have Samantha's kimono and obi done by Halloween so that she can wear it then. So far, I have finished the stretcher frame, overlocked, pre-washed, and ironed all the fabric (9 yd - rayon twill, 2 yd - rayon twill, 1 yd rayon twill, 9 yd - rayon voile), and cut out the pieces for the kimono shell based upon the base measurements from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~weyrbrat/Japan/yukata/ and the measurements from Samantha. (The last one was a bit difficult because I was using a 4" x 14" quilting ruler to draw my lines for cutting).

My next step is overlocking all the edges for the kimono shell and cutting and overlocking the edges for the kimono lining, and then I get to mark the patterns so that they line up. As I am hand dying the fabric, I am rather skeptical of whether the washable fabric marking pencil will actually come out. This is because of the fixative used to set the dye mixture on rayon. There are two methods of using the fixative.


In the first method, the dyer would mix urea (thickener), water, and soda ash (fixative) to make chemical water and then add the powered dye to the mixture to create the paint solution. The only problem with this method is that, after a few hours, the soda ash starts reducing the vibrancy of the dye, so, if you need the colors to match, this will not work unless you exactly measure the dye or do all your work in a few hours. I do have a very exact kitchen scale (from when I was weighing all my food) so this method could work well, but I am still torn between this method and the second method.

In the second method, the fabric is pre-saturated with the soda ash and water mixture, which enables the dyer to just make a large mixture of urea, water, and dye and then use that each time. The problem with this would be making sure that the soda ash and water mixture distributes evenly across the fabric to prevent the dye from taking unevenly, and that if you leave the soda ash on for a long period of time, it can harm the fabric.

I am thinking that I will likely use the first method, because I don't want to harm the fabric, and there is less chance of the fabric marking pencil setting into the fabric with that method. Also, since I have the kitchen scale, I can fiddle with the dye mixture until it is the color I want it at and replicate my results if I want the same color later on. In addition, as I am going to do some test paintings on scraps of the rayon, I can record and correct the consistency of the chemical water by adjusting the amount of urea to thicken or thin the mixture, and then replicate that later on as well.

Even though I am using the first method, though, I am still planning on only marking the fabric in the seam allowance.  I will need to make both the marks for the design and marks to indicate which piece of fabric I am dyeing (body, collar, sleeve, panel, collar reinforcement), orientation (up/down), and location (left/right, front/back).

As for where I am going to be dyeing, I was thinking of the garage, as I would have to do some serious furniture moving otherwise.  It might be worth the furniture moving just to avoid the garage in September in Florida.  Also, if I were dyeing in the garage, I would need knee pads.

The lining will be interesting because I want to do a gradient dye and just have the outside edges be dyed.  I was thinking of dyeing the whole lining, but I am worried that, as part of the kimono shell design is left white, if I dye the whole lining, the lining color will show through.  I could always make the lining less vibrant as well.

As for the obi, I know what color I am going to dye it, I just have to figure out what embroidery I will put on it, if I want to embroider some on my sewing machine (if so, I will definitely be testing this on scraps first), how much I want to embroider by hand, and how I am going to hide the seams (I am making Samantha a Darari-length obi, which will be about 3-4 yards when completed, and Samantha agreed to let me piece it as I bought the last of the fabric that they had and the last 3 yards were broken up into a 1 yard piece and a 2 yard piece.)  My thought is that, if the machine embroidery works, to do a pattern throughout that just happens to line up exactly with the seams.  It will take some experimenting though to make it all work out.

Another obstacle with the obi is that I will have to put the dye mixture in the washing machine and then set a timer so that the machine doesn't drain out to lengthen the time that the mixture is exposed to the dye.  Also, do I want to sew the obi together and then dye it or dye it and then sew it?  If is sew it then dye it, there is less of a chance that my seam will show, however, the fabric could become wrapped around the agitator in the washing machine and could tear.  If I dye it and then sew it, there is a chance, however slight, that the seam could show.  My thought for this is to use a kise (a seam that is not visible because it has a slight overlapping piece of fabric - there is a good diagram in the web page I cited) and then embroider over it, which should take care of any chance of there being a visible seam.  I will likely dye it and then sew it - a visible seam is easier to overcome than ripped fabric.

I am planning on making the skirt portion of a naga-juban, and I have several fabric choices to choose from for that.  I will probably wait until the kimono is done to select the fabric, but I have one that I think would look really good with the kimono, but it is a bit of a heavy fabric so we will have to wait and see.  If I didn't make the naga-juban so it wrapped around so much, and only made it wrap around about 1.25 or 1.5 times, it probably wouldn't be too heavy.  It still might be to hot though, so I might make one out of a lighter fabric too and see which Samantha prefers.

I am unsure now if I will be making the top part of a naga-juban or a han-eri.  The naga-juban would be nice because it would give a proper lining to the kimono, and keep sweat from getting on it, but the han-eri would be nice because it could be washed separately.  I may make both, as would be more proper, but it really depends on how much time I have left after assembling the kimono and obi.  The amount of time I have will probably affect a whole lot, actually, as I want to make  a fabric tatoushi to store the kimono.  (It looks like it is a good thing that I saved that last tutorial, as I can't seem to find it anywhere now.)  Fortunately, the tatoushi doesn't look like it would take much time. 

So far, here is my approximate schedule to be on time for Halloween kitsuke:

Week 1 - Pre-wash, iron, and cut out fabric (still need to cut out the lining and obi)
Week 2 (9/21) - Cut out lining and obi, overlock all raw edges, paint/dye/embroider scrap fabrics, move furniture to accommodate stretcher frame, and finalize dye and chemical water concentrations
Week 3 (9/27-28) - Day 1 - Paint/dye kimono/obi/lining and wash out and iron obi - Day 2 - wash out and iron kimono/lining, sew obi, begin embroidering obi
Week 4 (10/5) - Assemble kimono/lining (machine sewing parts)
Week 5 (10/11-12) - Day 1 - Embroider obi and hand sew kimono collar - Day 2 - Finish embroidering obi
Week 6 (10/19) - Han-eri/naga-juban/tatoushi
Week 7 (10/25-26) - Finalizing/error checking

I will try to make weekly updates.

Kristin ^_^