Simple basic Japanese garb

by Magariki Katsuichi no Koredono, CM, CS, OSC

For our purposes, there are two basic garments: kosode and hakama. While these patterns may not be exactly correct and authentic to pre-Edo Japan, they're pretty close, and fine for beginners. Patterns assume fabric widths of ~45" (though anything in the 40" - 48" range will work fine) - if your fabric is not 45", you may need to interpolate some width-wise cut measurements (for example, if your fabric is 42" wide, and the pattern has you cutting out three 15" pieces across, making them each 14" wide is perfectly fine). Also, these patterns are based off my body (~6', 240 lbs), so people significantly different than me in size may have to do some adjustments (though in general I've had them work for size ranges of 5' 100 lbs to 6' 6" 320 lbs).

Fabrics

The first thing about making clothes is having the fabric to make it out of. In my opinion, whenever possible, clothes should be made out of all-natual fibers, preferably silk, linen, or cotton; personally, I use silk at every opportunity, especially since I'm now aware of an excellent source of silk at good prices , and their silk dyes are very easy to use, and almost idiot-proof.

Colors are another matter entirely, and could take up several pages. Let's just say that 1) most any color we have today, they had in period (the ones we typically think of as 'non-period' were just more expensive and/or difficult to obtain), and 2) the higher ranking you were, the more bright and/or lush colors you used (they being the more expensive, and part of the whole 'conspicuous consumption' mentality).
For basic Japanese garb, though, white for kosode is excellent, as is black for hakama (or red for women); the general rule of thumb is that the kosode is no darker than the hakama, so you can have a medium blue kosode, so long as the hakama are darker than that, or a light grey hakama, so long as the kosode is lighter than that.

Kosode

The first is the kosode (which can be easily extrapolated into kimono by extending it from knee length to floor length). The basic fabric layout is as follows:

Cut out fabric along all solid lines except for the neck - that's placed there so you can see where the neck cut-out template will go; the dotted lines in the sleeves are to show where folds will occur later. Make sure to finish all edges (serge, zig-zag, whatever).

The neck hole is a very specific and odd cut, with the only non-straight lines in the whole pattern; I strongly recommend making a template (out of paper or thin cardboard), since you may need it more than once, and it'll make the cutting significantly easier.

This is very important! The dotted line is the measuring line, based on the calculations you'll make from your neck size; the solid line is the part you'll actually be cutting into your fabric, set in from the measuring line by the amount of seam allowance you're using!

• The first thing to do will be to attach the two back pieces lengthwise, getting one piece that is ~28" wide by 'A' tall; at this point place your neck template along the edge, as shown, and cut out the neck hole; I'd suggest finishing this edge also before continuing.
• Attach the two front pieces to the two back pieces, basically as shown, sewing in from the shoulder point to where the neck hole begins. Then attach each of the overlap pieces to their corresponding front pieces.
• Now, make the sleeves - sew each of them into a tube, which will be 22.5" long by 30" around; depending on your arm measurement (shoulder to wrist), this may be too long, but can be easily corrected by either shortening the sleeves (at the non-selvage end) or by giving it a larger seam allowance when attaching it to the body of the garment.
• Attach the sleeves to the body, such that the fold line (halfway around the tube from the seam line) is attached to shoulder seam; depending on circumstance or preference, you can either completely attach the sleeve to the body, attach only the top half to the body leaving the bottom half open (for better ventilation on both arm and body), or attach only the top half of the sleeve to the body and sew the bottom half of the sleeve to itself, thus closing it."
• Sew closed each side of the body from the bottom attachment point of the sleeve to the bottom hem.
• Put the garment on, making sure the shoulder seams are square across your shoulders. Take the front pieces (left and right) and fold triangles from them, from where they meet the neck hole to the far edge of the former 'overlap' pieces - use the mid-point of the chest as the lower point of the triangle - then cut these pieces out.
• Now it's time to make the neckband: take the three pieces you have, and make one very long piece from them (~3 x 'B' long by 5" wide), then turn it into a tube (~3 x 'B' long by ~2" wide), turn it inside out (so the seams are all on the inside), and close off the ends.
  I would strongly suggest pinning the neckband together, especially when preparing to turn it into a tube (this will drastically reduce the chances of twisting along the seam line); not that many pins area really needed (I use just one at each end, one at each crosswise seam line, and three or so in each 'section').
  I would also suggest that once you've turned it rightside-out, that you iron down along the long seam line - this will make attaching it to the body much easier.
• Now, find the midpoint of your neckband, line it up with the middle seam on the back of the body, and starting from that point, sew the neckband to the body, down to the hem, on both sides; if, once attached, the neckband is too long, trim it off to the hem line.
• Now just finish off your hems as needed (a simple blind hem at the bottom should do).

Hakama

There are two distinct methodologies for making hakama - this first is my preference, though later I may include my 'quick and dirty' method as well.

• After cutting out all pieces, and finishing their edges, sew all of the pairs of panels together (i.e. "left front 1" and "left front 2", &c), giving you four equal-sized leg panels, ~28" x 'B'. Then, sew the two front pieces together for 12" down from the top only; do the same with the back.
• At the 'outer' edge of each new piece ('front' and 'back') fold in a triangle, ~5" along the top, and 9" along the side; sew down this triangle on what will become the inside.
• Take the gusset piece, and placing it so that one of its corners meets with where the 12" sewing point stops in the front, sew it to the front along two of its edges; do the same with the back, with the remaining two edges.
• From the 'bottom' of the gusset, sew closed the inseam on both pant legs. From the bottom of the triangles, sew closed the outseam.
• Now it's time to pleat: I prefer putting four equally-sized pleats (known in sewing cricles as 'knife pleats') on each side of the front, though any number from three to six will do, and beacuse of how pleats work, this will not change the sizing of the waist whatsoever - if you've done this right, each half of the front should be ~8" wide. To quote from an accomplished source on pleating:
  
  Knife pleats produce a smooth line down from the gathering point. In other words, a knife-pleated skirt doesn't "spring out" from the waistline, but rather falls straight down. The "classic" knife pleat, shown to the right, has a 3 to 1 ratio: that is, three inches of fabric will make one inch of finished pleat. It doesn't matter how wide or narrow the pleats are; if they look like the picture to the right, the 3: 1 ratio will remain the same.
  The back gets one very large pleat on each side, overlapping at the center seam by 1"; because of this, the back after pleating will be slightly narrower than the front. Sew down the pleats along the top edge.
• Now, to make the waistbands. Take each of the sets of waistband pieces and turn them into singular long strip, one 5" x ~88" for the back, and the other 5" x ~110" for the front. Make them both into tubes, turn them outside in and close the ends, and the sew them onto their respective sides along the waist line, at the pleating.

I hope this gives you a good start into making pre-Edo Japanese clothing; there will probably be more installments later, for things like haori, jinbaori, mopei, &c, but this is it for now.

If you wish to contact me , feel free, with any comments or questions you may have.