Kimono Jacket Deconstruction and fabrics from Zigozagu

My love for Japanese crafts and textiles including kimono jackets (Haori) started as far back as my last life when I lived in my birth country Thailand. My first contact with Japanese was when I met my friend and neighbor Ayumi. Ayumi was a very creative lady. She did all kind of hand work and showed me how to do embroidery and Sashiko stitches.  Ayumi also introduced me to my first kimono jacket (Haori). I think I only wore it once since I got it. I still have it until today after many years because it's very  special to me. I think it's time I get better use out of it. I decided to deconstruct it and use the fabric in my projects that I'm working on. I'm going to slowly unpick it. I was shown how by Christine, who works at Ziguzagu, where to start unpicking and how to best preserve the fabric after taking it apart. I will take photos and post the process here as best I can. 

My first kimono jacket (Haori) that Ayumi brought back for me from Japan. She said it was a vintage kimono that was in perfect condition. It's silk and fully lined with silk lining. It has a hem flower pattern all over it in blue and white. After I unpick  it I should get 4-5 metres of fabric from it.

The lining is in two parts. The top part is made of silk. The bottom part is made of the same fabric as the outer silk folded up and join to the silk lining. The silk lining has got motifs of maple leaves, chrysanthemum, water lilies and oak leaves on water. Christine told me that it is a typical  pattern found on silk lining for Haori jackets. The background on the lining was done in Shibori style the traditional way. If you have a moment take a look at the video link I got for you here.

Closer look at the Shibori style pattern on the jacket. This style of Shibori was done the traditional way by hand.

Do you see the pearly dots on the white background? They are done in traditional Shabori style dyeing.

Here is some vintage fabric I got from Ziguzagu a couple of weeks ago. All of the fabric came from deconstructed  kimonos or haoris. They have been carefully unpicked, pressed and rolled as you can see on my Ziguzagu visited post. My favorite is the yellow and green Shabori!

Some more fabric from Ziguzagu including wool and silk that I plan to dye in indigo when the weather gets warmer. The brown roll of fabric came from a gentleman's haori jacket. It's silk with bird patterns textured   and woven all over it.

I have some work ahead of me deconstructing my haori jacket. I'm looking forward to it. I was actually inspired to deconstruct my kimono jacket by Heather at True Stitches. Although my haori jacket was a special gift I have not worn it in the last 20 years so I decided to make good use of the fabric by using it in my quilting. I hope you will follow me on this trip of deconstructing my haori jacket. 

"Waste Not and Want Not"