After spending quite a lot of time on Irene, I wanted to switch gears – and I also wanted to be sure I could clear out the excess kimono bits. So I went back and tried to finish the button-down dress transformation. That’s…not exactly how it turned out.
I started by stitching all the pinned seams on the outer kimono fabric (having shifted the pins to the inside, with rights sides together, instead of on the outside, with wrong sides together). Next, the liner pieces attached nicely – side seams and shoulder seams straight stitched together. Then came time to meld liner and outer layer at the armholes. Each one was oriented correctly…but having done both at once, I couldn’t flip the liner back to the inside! So I cut down the liner’s center back, flipped each half through its armhole, and contorted the resulting combination to put a new hidden center back seam in the liner.
And then I discovered it was too tight to button properly. I started playing with it as a vest, though, wearing a contrasting undershirt and fastening the belt meant to go under the obi as a sash. I pinned the obi at the hem and struggled to photograph the result. The photo is weird, but the obi placement worked, so I’ve since stitched it in place. I also added a hook and eye near the bottom to try to keep the border continuous. It’s very comfy!