Product Description

Classical elegance. Loose-fitting comfort. Versatility. Functional design. These are just some of the reasons why traditional Japanese clothes have captured the imagination of modern fashion designers and stylish dressers around the world.
Making Japanese clothes is surprisingly simple. Patterns consist of virtually all straight lines, and the non-body-conforming shapes require no darts, buttonholes, or zippers.
Here, in this creative sourcebook, is all the information you need to sew authentic Japanese clothes or to design your own Japan-inspired fashions:
Step-by-step instructions for making 14 select traditional garments, from the luxurious wedding rove and the classic kimono to the informal hanten jacket and practical field pants
Detailed patterns that can be adjusted to fit any size
An introduction to the basic building blockssleeve shapes, collars, hems, linings, and paddingso creative sewers can design their own fashions
Over 40 sketches with many more suggestions for modern variations on the classic garments
A choice of authentic Japanese techniques or simplified methods that achieve the same look
How to use any width fabric, whether narrow Japanese fabric or standard Western widths
Sources of Japanese fabric and sewing accessories
Care and storage guidelines
Fabric suggestions, ideas for creative wear, historical information, and much more!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149215 in Books
• Published on: 1988-11-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

About the Author

JOHN MARSHALL, who studied traditional dyeing and garment construction in Japan for five years, is a textile artist and fashion designer.

Customer Reviews

Make your own Japanese Clothes
This is a seriously cool book! The illustrations are fairly clear and the drawings of human bodies are chuckle worthy. It has a lot of information on authentic design and techniques, I can't imagine anyone using all the handstitching the author describes but it is still interesting. This is probably not for a novice at sewing, but with some experience all the instuctions are clear enough. I wish that he had covered the long hakama and the suikan, as well as more on tieing the fancy obi knots but we can't have everything. Overall a book I would recommend to others.

hard to find information in a usable format
The author clearly is a scholar and brings his special knowledge to this interesting and rare book. I especially liked the illustrations that drew on ukiyo e woodblock traditions. I passed it on to a friend who has the skills to utilize the information.

Very helpful!
I bought this book, as well as "The Book of Kimono," to learn about kimonos and how to make one for a Halloween costume. He gives you all the information you need to make one and it's accessories, but there is a lot of measuring, as well as cutting and sewing. Since following his book would take a lot of time, I plan on using the information to modify a commercial pattern (Simplicity pattern 5839) to make it more authentic. For example, embroidering a "family crest" on the back as a good luck symbol. (Mine will be an origami crane since I folded a thousand of them as a wedding gift once.) I will also be following his instructions for the obi and how to tie it since the pattern's isn't quite authentic enough. Overall, I learned a lot and am very pleased with the book.