Dystopian Kimono

This week I've been working on a new piece for my Dystopia Rising Gear. My character, Kurai, has been pretty stable for a while and I figured she had enough extra cash to invest in proper Genjian clothing again. That was she could stop looking like a barbarian. :)

That being said I had to now make the Kimono. Kimono's are...either very easy to make, or a pain. Personally, after learning some square cutting methods from a friend, I've been using those techniques a lot to make things. I did it with my friend Haori, and now this kimono. The whole piece is one huge square.

Originally, in Japan bolts are specifically sized for kimonos. It takes a whole bolt for one kimono. It's really fascinating and kind of scary to think about. In this ones case I took my measurements and made some cuts. I cut the neck hole first, then opened the front up. After that I figured out the sides and cut into the main piece for the sleeves. This is all one piece of fabric if you take out my cuts. This is much easier than cutting a ton of pieces out and wasting fabric. Saving fabric would be something someone would try to do in a dystopian era too.

 After the main body was hemmed I focused on designing it. Kimono's actually have meaning when you wear them. Certain seasons require certain colors and images. However, Kurai's colors are also green ad gold so I wanted to stick with that. I decided to go with a sort of winter motif.

I started out wanting to do a bleacing effect. It failed badly and for a bit I was bummed I'd ruined this, but I'm not one to give up easily. So after staring a bit I pulled out my paints and added the branch. What I got was that ghostly green effect. I liked it so I left it.

 The little yellow leaves are my characters family symbol. In Japan families, at least in the past, I don't know about now? had symbols called kamon, or mons in the game. Each clan has one and there's a whole lore based around them, so we've slowly been growing them over time. Mines the old Nakamura mon. The leaf in an octogram. Here I just used the leaf to look like dying leaves falling.

 In this image I decided I wanted a simple design on the front so I extended the branches from the back over the right shoulder. I like it, but it might need more flowers.

Here is the front side. So far I'm happy with it, but I need to carry the image over to the front bottom right a tiny bit. Might do a pile of leaves or something.

I also need to fix the neckline, and possibly sew this shut. It's not fun running around a game and popping out of your clothing. others might like it, I do not.

ALso, if I can there will be a full picture of me in gear someday.

As always, fi you have questions, comments, critiques, etc please leave me a comment.