I was given this Japanese silk blend fabric by one of my lovely work colleagues. It was a massive 16 metres long, but only 72cms (28″) wide. It was given to me to use to make bags for charity, but, given how many bags it would make, I thought I might take some for a glamorous robe, which I’ve called a peignoir as bathrobe or dressing gown doesn’t seem to do it justice.
Doris is modelling for me as the fabric is remarkably diaphanous and I couldn’t find anything appropriate to wear under it. I think the fabric has been stored for a while as there was quite a lot of foxing. I consulted various textile museum sites to see how to address this, but in the end simply washed the fabric. I did get rid of some of it, but not all. There were also wear lines where the fabric had been folded so I cut around these.
The pattern is quite elegant. I really like the way that the ties are grafted into the back pattern pieces.
In order to fit the wide pattern pieces on to very narrow fabric, I joined the fabric together, so every pattern piece consists of two lengths of fabric and there is a centre back seam which is not in the original pattern.
I am pleased with the final product, and suspect that it will get a lot of use. The colours are exquisite, really delicate and quite pretty.
I have begun cutting the remaining 3 metres into linings for Japanese bags, and I think there’s a nice symmetry in making Japanese bags from Japanese fabric!
In a nutshell: Pattern is Vogue 8888, made from Japanese silk blend donated to my stash. Model is Doris the dummy.
