Kimono to Button-Down Dress

With another wibble, because apparently I can only be chronically late or have an enormous stock of pre-written entries, here is the mystery project I promised to unveil:

My sister had a kimono (technically a yukata, which has smaller sleeves and generally cotton, though this one might be synthetic) she was given by an exchange student. She recently decided to part with it while getting the rest of her things from our mom’s place, and asked me to find it a new home. Well, after she’d dropped it off, I wrapped it around me, Jeff said the colors/print looked nice, and off I went…chopping off the sleeves, a bunch of the length, and pinning new side seams and darts (right-side out instead of wrong-side out unfortunately). As my mother pointed out, that new use probably wasn’t what she’d intended. Thankfully, my fait accompli was not hugely offensive to her – whew!

Cut down yukata, dark pink waistband, light pink porto-liner, and yellow obi-turned-trim.

I dug through my stash to find a coordinating color (which turned out to be light pink) to line it with; I cut it the same way I did the skirt of the holiday dress – laying out a completed garment and using it as a “pattern”. I plan to use the wrap from securing the obi as a belt and the obi itself as a decorative trim at the hem. I’ll probably have to suck up my button-hole fear and actually put some in (and find buttons, of course), since it’s intended to be a button-down dress. Or I could punt and use hooks and eyes…