D.I.Y: From Scarf to Kimono

I made this gorge kimono for my hols recently using 2 thin scarves that I got in Penneys. I got so many compliments on it that I decided to show you guys how you can make your own DIY kimono :-) 

Ps. Sorry the pic is so blurry, I'm still having issues with my camera! I'm getting it fixed tomorrow though :-) 

 

I'm just going to mention here that I am so not an expert when it comes to this, I never measured anything properly and used fabric glue until it ran out and I had to start sewing things :-P 

But if you guys are cool with that and would like to know how I made this kimono then just keep reading ;-) 

This is the material I used, it's a very thin floral pattern with cute poms on the ends. 

You Will Need;

- Material/fabric/ 2 scarves

- Scissors 

- Fabric glue/ Needle and thread

- Measuring tape or ruler 

1⃣ I first cut the poms off the edges but kept them so that I could stick them on again later ;-) 

2⃣ I then measured the material against myself by placing it on my back and holding my arms out for sleeve length reference. I cut off the access material that was longer than my elbow area as I wanted elbow length sleeves for my kimono. 

My material here is folded in half to fit into the picture but it is still quite large :-) 

3⃣ I then used a ruler to measure out the general area I wanted my sleeves to be and cut like so;

I did this to both sleeves until I ended up with a general kimono shape that I was happy with. 

4⃣ Repeat these steps for the second scarf so that you have 2 identical pieces of material. Pin the 2 pieces of material on top of each other to make sure they are both the same sizes. 

5⃣ I cut the top layer of material from the bottom all the way to the top in a straight line. To make a curved neck line at the top, I cut diagonally into the fabric as you can see from the image below; 

6⃣ I began glueing the edges back using my fabric glue. Since the edges were cut and messy looking with threads coming out everywhere, I folded each edge a small bit and glued it down. 

I repeated this on all the edges of both the front and back pieces of material so that everything looked smooth and tidy :-)

7⃣ I decided to glue the poms back onto the bottom of the kimono and the bottoms of the sleeves. I really love the way this turned out :-) 

8⃣ Let the glue dry over night, or however long it suggests on your particular fabric glue. If you sewed the whole thing instead of glueing it then well done, you don't have to wait to wear it!!! My fabric glue ran out at this stage so I had to sew the rest of the kimono together myself :-P 

I sewed the kimono together, remembering not to sew the sleeves or the body parts shut :-P This is the last step and it is so simple to do if you know how to sew :-) Or if, unlike me, you have fabric glue left at this stage then by all means keep using it :-) 

9⃣ I hand wash my kimono with warm water and soap as it is very thin material and I don't want it to tear in the washing machine!! It only takes a couple of hours to dry as it is so thin :-) 

I hope you guys enjoyed this little DIY, I wore this kimono all the time on my holiday as it is such a nice cool cover up  for hot days :-) You can always try make one from a thicker material and have an Autunm/Winter kimono too ;-) 

Love & Hugs, Lora xo