A couple of months ago I ended up on Ichiroya – a website selling vintage kimono fabric. It was a long dark rabbit hole of beautiful things and I left with two rolls of silk fabric!

It took a few weeks to arrive and even with the cost of customs on top, I thought the price was really quite reasonable!

When I had picked out the two fabrics, I had no plans real plans for either, though once I got them ideas started to flow. I wanted to use the beautiful rust coloured silk noil for my older sister’s birthday present this year!

She had a lovely holiday in Japan earlier this year and got engaged whilst over there, so I thought using something Japanese would remind her of the good times she had there!

I opted to use the Deer & Doe Nénuphar jacket for this make. I gave me Japanese vibes without being over the top.

It’s a lovely loose open jacket with a notched collar and a gathered lower back panel. It’s designed to be unlined but I opted to add an extra lining panel to the back yoke just to give it a little bit of luxury.

The jacket itself it really easy to sew. I had to add a few adaptions to the pattern in order to get it to work with my fabric! These kimono fabrics come as really narrow but very long rolls – roughly 35cm wise and 12m long. That meant I had to sew some panels together in order to get the right width for the larger pieces. It’s easy enough to do though!

I loved how it turned out. To me it fits that niche between a casual bomber jacket and a smart blazer and perfect with jeans and a tee!