If there’s one thing I know for sure it’s that I love me an asian-inspired clothing design. This is the Named Clothing Sointu Kimono Tee pattern, made with Art Gallery “Summit Twilight” quilting cotton. I have to admit that I was clearly heavily inspired by Bettina from Stahlarbeit’s Tea House Dress, a dress that’s a very similar style and for which Bettina chose this very fabric. When I saw her dress I got busy on the interwebs buying this fabric!
The design is very simple, with wide kimono sleeves with bands, a curved v-neck, and a waist tie. I ended up cutting down the sleeves to be less wide; because this fabric has some body, especially on the sleeve bands where it’s doubled, the wide sleeves ended up sticking out like linebacker shoulder pads. Making the sleeves narrower helped them to sit a little closer to my arms instead of sticking out.
If I made this pattern again, I’d try a better fabric than quilting cotton, and I would probably add some side vents near the hem. It would be a good pattern to blend fabrics, such as using silk for the front and a coordinating knit for the back.
I made myself some leather earrings which coordinate quite well, I think, using leftover scraps of teal and dove grey leather from my tote bag. I love leather earrings because they can be as large as you want them (hello retro-80s!) without being heavy, and they’re super easy to make. I just cut two different sized squares of leather (experimenting with paper cut-outs to decide on the right size and proportions), punched a small hole in the corner of each with an awl, and added a jump ring and a sterling silver earring hook. Et voilà!
Did you see Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow’s recent post asking what stresses you out about blogging? One of the possible stresses she mentioned is taking pictures. I’ve been sitting on these pics for over a month because the fact that some of them are yellow-toned and some of them are pink-toned is driving me crazy! I’ve just installed Lightroom on my computer and alas, there is no “Please Fix These Yellow and Pink Pictures to Look Normal” button. Summer project: learn how to use Lightroom.
I’m clearly tickled pink about my new Sointu Kimono Tee. 😉
Thanks so much for stopping by for a look.
–Lori
Frivolous At Last 
But these picturesa re so pretty! Glad you posted them anyway!
For yellow/pink fixes, go to the Develop tab, then I would play with the yellow/blue and pink-green sliders in the righthand toolbar… or further down the toolbar, there are sliders for each colour, so you could reduce the pink on some shots, and reduce the yellow on others. Does that makes sense?
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Thanks, Gillian. It does make sense. I was looking for the sliders for each colour but couldn’t find them on my first foray. Thanks for the tip!
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Great fabric!!!
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Great make! I’ve made this top in a scuba and it’s very comfy 😊
For the yellow pictures, add a touch more blue, for the red, add a touch more green or…. For a super stress free easy fix, to get all your pictures white balance the same, buy yourself a cheap “white card” or even a plain piece of white printer paper and, at the start of any new shooting location, take a shot of you holding up the white item.
When you get into Lightroom, you can use the little “pipet” that sits next to the white balance sliders and use it to click on that white item. This will set the true white balance, and you can copy this setting over to all other images in the set.
Good training sites for Lightroom training are phlearn.com and creativelive.com 😊
I hope this helps X
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Anna, you are my photography fairy godmother! Thank you so much for the tips!
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Great top! Just wondering– did you make many adjustments to the pattern, or just do a straight size? If I remember correctly you’re on the shorter side, like me. I have this pattern, but the thought of correcting for the drafting for the 5’8″ ladies has made me delay making it…
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I’m 5’4″ and I almost always have to shorten between the shoulder seam and the bust. The good news about this top is there are no darts or other design features that make it difficult to adjust the fit after the fact. I sewed one size of the pattern but ended up taking in the side seams an inch or two and making the armholes much smaller — they were quite big and offering peeks of my bra from the side. I don’t remember if I changed the length of the hem or not, but again, you can just cut it to the length you want at the end. If you think you want it to be on the long side, consider side vents…when I put my hands in my pockets I have to hike the hem up a bit to access the pockets, which isn’t a big deal but side vents would have been perfect. Good luck with your make!
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Love your top! I think this is the nicest kimono top I’ve seen yet and there are many popping up in the ether these days 🙂 Your DIY earrings are lovely too!
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Aw, thank you so much, Kathleen! 😀
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