Hello, dear creative friends on Hive, I hope you are all having a good day. Finally, it's a rainy day over here after several weeks of enduring the heat wave. Summertime can be enjoyable, but over here, the heat can be unbearable sometimes.

If you ask me which I prefer, it will be the cold winter; thankfully, we still have rainy days to compensate us a good day to sit in front of my sewing machine. I don't know if it's just me, but it feels relaxing listening to the raindrops hit my roof while I sew. It is somehow therapeutic for me, so I made sure to make the most of today's weather and make this traditional kimono jacket. It belongs to my aunt, who will be clocking 50 soon. I thought of the best gift to make her, and this jacket is one I feel she will appreciate. So without further ado, let's get right into it.

I made use of about 2 yards of ankara fabric combined with aso-oke fabric. This usually comes in rows, but I got the pack that has about 8 rows in it. The aso-oke fabric is a traditional fabric common to the Yoruba people, used to make traditional attire, but these days, we've infused it into our modern fashion, and it looks very elegant when combined to make various styles.

Materials used

Cutting And Sewing Process

• I started by placing the whole two yards in a fold of about 15 inches in width, cutting out the excess

• Then I fold it again into four, then cut out the back neckline of about 3 inches in width and 1.5 inches depth

• I also drafted and cut out two inches straight down the middle front, because I will be replacing it with the aso-oke fabric

• Here is what the cut-out pattern looks like when opened

• Continuing, I extended the sides by sewing the aso-oke to both sides

• For the middle of the front, I folded the aso-oke fabric, and sewed it around the center front

• To complete the jacket length, I sewed the aso-oke around the base of the front and back side of the jacket

• Finally, I sewed pockets to both sides of the front jacket, and that completes the making process of this jacket.

I hope it looks gorgeous on my aunt when she gets it.

All images used in this post are mine.

H

Thank you for reading.