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List Price: $28.00
Best Price: $12.90 (new), $9.70 (used)
Availability: New (30), Used (25)
Author: John Marshall
Edition: 1st ed
ISBN: 087011865X
Number of Pages: 136
Publication Date: 1988-11-15
Publisher: Kodansha International

Customer Review

Don't let the cover fool you!
by Customer AMU454WH675C6 at May 13th, 2007
Yeah, the cover is funky, and there are a few "huh?" photos in the middle, but this really is a serious book about making kimono. As mentioned by someone else, there is almost no direct information about wearing a kimono in this book, just making them. The only direct wearing information you get is how to tie a helper chord to pull the sleeves back when you are working, how to tuck the kimono hem up when you are traveling or working, and how to tie the men's basic obi.

An average or beginning sewer is going to be intimidated and overwhelmed by the detail of information in the book. As already mentioned, there are no patterns in the book per se, but that's because the Japanese have a set pattern that they work with. The book describes the pattern and has drawings to help you mark out your own. It talks about how to cut cloth from the traditional Japanese bolt, or how to work with the bolts of cloth that you might find in Europe or America which are a different width. If you are actually making a kimono, I suggest you read through the entire instructions, mark the parts you need, and before you so much as touch a needle and thread or scissors, read those parts *again* to make sure you have all the information in mind. It's easy to accidentally miss some rather important bit of information.

This book has information on making all of the parts of the kimono (though, I agree with a previous reviewer that some of the organization is ... interesting), including how to make obi and tabi (the socks). It does not show how to make hakama *HOWEVER* it does show how to make mompe - which are very similar to hakama, just shorter and gathered at knees or ankles instead of full length and full cuff.

There are several suggestions tucked in random locations about how to make more modern versions - how to add pockets to the mompe for instance - but you do sort of have to hunt for them and all of them are for making a new outfit, not updating an older one.

I mostly used this book for information on how to *repair* my kimono, and this book had all the information I needed. It showed me how to do the hand sewing (in an easier way than *I* was trying to do it), and how to do the special knots and double-backs needed for the kimono to lay properly and stay in place. The book made it so clear for me that once I matched up the styles in the book with my kimono, I redid all of the stitching on my kimono in less time than I had expected just the sectional repairs to take.

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