I’ve made this kimono jacket before. And practically lived in the original ever since; it can work both as a cardigan and a coat, has lots of pocket space, and is extremely warm.

This version was made for my sister. She wanted a teal colour, and I couldn’t get a boiled wool in that shade so it is made from a wool melton from Calico Laine. The surface is slightly smoother than boiled wool and you have to be a little more cautious when pressing it, but it works just as well for this style. And it was a dream to hem. I normally find hand hemming very tedious, but this fabric is so easy to hem neatly it was all over before I had time to get bored – and that hem is about 60 inches long.

I bound all the inside edges in a bottle green satin bias binding. It looks lovely with the teal, but you’ll have to take my word for it because I forgot to take any pictures of the finished insides, although I did take some construction pictures that I’ll post soon. It could be worse though – this is actually the third version of this jacket I’ve made and I forgot to photograph the second one at all. That one was for my mother and was a lovely sable brown boiled wool with brown satin bias. I’ll have to borrow it to photograph at some point!

I experimented with rounding off the inner corners of the sleeves in this version to try to get a nicer finish. I’m not sure it makes any difference on the outside but it makes binding the seam edges easier because you can just bind around the curve rather than having an awkward corner to deal with.

Here’s a side view. The back collar is very high, which I like because it keeps the neck warm. But you could easily reduce it by folding the collar over. Apparently that is is how proper Japanese kimono collars are supposed to be worn.

Back view. There’s meant to be quite a bit of ease in the jacket which ends up falling naturally into pleats at the back when you belt it.

You can keep things in the sleeves of this sort of jacket but I also put patch pockets on the front. I lined them with some navy blue poly taffeta lining. They were meant to be placed on the left front so the jacket wraps left over right like my original version does…but I got it wrong! Left over right is the ‘wrong’ way for western womens’ clothes but correct for a kimono. I find I don’t notice mine is the ‘wrong way’ much when wearing mine, and the pockets mean I automatically wrap it the Japanese way without having to think about it.

If anyone’s curious about how to make this then there isn’t really a pattern as such – it’s a series of rectangular panels which you work out the sizes for and chalk direct onto your fabric. There’s some more detail on my previous post. However I’ve refined the process a little since I made the first one, and I intend to get around to writing it up properly one day. Not least because I suspect this won’t be last one of these I make!