DIY - TRANSFORMING A MEN’S SHIRT TO A KIMONO #refashion

Nma
Feb 29, 2020
2 min read

Updated: Mar 17, 2020

A few years back, I lost my big brother to a kidney disease. He was energetic and always full of life and I was very fond of him. I kept a couple of his things to remember him by and stored them in a bag tucked away in my wardrobe. Because they still smelt of him, I would go from time to time to smell them whenever I thought of him. Gosh, I miss him so much! 😩

Recently, my family and I moved houses and while packing my late brother’s “memorabilia’ I realized his perfume had finally worn off and they no longer smelt of him. Bummer!

Anyways I took out a few of them and decided to refashion them so that I can at least wear them. Let me show you how I turned one of his shirts into a kimono in less than 20 minutes.

Materials

Men’s shirt

Trimmings - I used a strip of aso-oke fabric

Elastic band

Scissors

Sewing machine

Needle

Thread

General Tip;

Use a men’s shirt that is 2-3 sizes up to get that kimono fit.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Step 1

Cut through the mid line of the front piece, dividing it into two equal halves. Take out the flap and curve at the neck.

Step 2

Attach the trimmings at the raw edge of the shirt.

Step 3

On the back of the shirt, Mark and draw two horizontal lines midway between the neck and the hem line.

Step 4

Place a cut out strip of cloth on the inside of shirt and sew on the marked lines as seen in the video below to create a band.

Step 5

Attach the elastic by running it through the band with a safety pin. Sew both ends of the band close. If the shirt isn’t too oversized, you can skip this step or add darts instead.