DIY Kimono | An Easy 'How to' Tutorial ✂

The first thing you're going to do is fold your piece of fabric in half so you've got a fold at one end and two layers of fabric. Next you're going to mark where the center is so I just marked that with a pin and you're going to measure and see whether it's wide enough for the length of sleeves you want. So Alan's was a bit long so she trimmed off a little off the side. The next step is then to cut one layer all the way up the top through the center so you might want to measure it and just mark it with some pins or just eyeball it and you want to go in a straight line right up to that fold at the top. So now we're just going to mark how wide we want the sleeves to be and then measure along from the center and how wide you want the kimono to be and we're going to put pins there and then trace it up so that it makes a square sort of shape from the side. So I'm just measuring to make sure it's in a straight line and you'll see when we cut it out it kind of makes a t-shaped kimono part. So you just do the other side exactly the same using the same measurements so that it's even on both sides and that's the kind of shape you're aiming to get. So we're just going to be doing a french seam for the side seam so you're going to pin all the way up the sides and to do a french seam it means you don't have to use an overlocker so you're just going to do a really small seam to start off with only five millimeters wide sew all the way up the seam. Next you're going to trim off the excess and you're going to fold the seam back in on itself so it covers up that raw edge and it won't fray everywhere. So it's quite good if you've got a light fabric like we used. So here's Ellen again so you're going to fold it back after you've done that first seam and you're going to fold it back on itself and then pin those two pieces together and sew along that like you would a usual seam. You could just use an overlocker as well or just zigzag along the edge however you like to finish edges but we thought this way would make it look quite tidy on the inside and you wouldn't see those extra threads. And so this is just a shot of going around a corner so you leave the needle down and lift the presser foot up and then spin the fabric around to the side making sure it's flat in position and put the foot down again and start sewing in the new direction. And to finish off the edges around the sleeves and down the bottom and around the middle I'm just going to fold it over twice and sew along there. The final step is pressing it all with the iron it really does make a big difference makes everything look nice so if you press all the seams open and around all the armholes and everything like that will make it look really nice and finished off.