October 3, 2019

Sew Your Own Japanese Inspired Peony DIY Kimono

This beautiful DIY kimono is both comfortable and fashionable! I just love the embroidered detail that I added to the back. Make one for yourself today!

This post contains affiliate links. By making a purchase I will receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. Thank you for your support!

Embroidered DIY Kimono

In Japan, the peony flower is known as the King of Flowers. Peonies represent good fortune, bravery and honor. Oriental garments often have beautiful embroidery on them, especially on the back of the robes. Here’s how you can make your own embroidered DIY peony kimono!

Kimonos are one of my favorite things to sew. They are unfitted and have very few seams which make them easy to construct. The trickiest part of sewing an embroidered kimono is the finishing of the underarm seam. But have no fear, I have tips on how to handle that with ease! For this sewing project, I decided to add some color to the robe with both machine embroidery and a patterned piece fabric on the back of the robe.

The machine embroidery on this DIY kimono is rather time-consuming. It has a lot of color changes as well as lots of stitches. I switched out one of the light pink colors in the floral design that I found on Etsy for the darker red color in my final embroidery. This step added more color and depth.

The process of adding fabric on top of the main fabric before embroidering is known as tattoo embroidery. Having just learned this technique I was eager to try it. I love the results! Embroidering directly on satin can leave puckers in the fabric even when you use tear-away embroidery backing. By adding a layer of cotton fabric between the two, the puckers don’t show and the embroidery takes on a 3-dimensional look. The result is a fun and unique embroidery design. I will most certainly be using this technique again!

First, I experimented with the embroidery on scrap fabric. Next, I used the trial embroidered pieces to decide where to add the embroidery to the robe.

The embroidery was done on the DIY kimono robe after the robe pattern was cut out of the satin fabric. The back robe piece was large enough to fit it in the big 350mm x 180mm embroidery hoop. I added both tulle and cotton gingham fabric on top of the jacquard satin to create the embroidery. Here’s a video tutorial of the embroidery process:

Supplies:

3 yards pink satin jacquard
2 yards plain pink satin fabric
peony machine embroidery file (Mine came from Etsy.)
DIY kimono robe pattern

Tips for Machine Embroidery “Tattoos”

Use a patterned fabric in the same color scheme to create both depth and interest.
First, test the embroidery on scraps before putting it on your garment.
Be sure to use a good quality embroidery stabilizer. I use Tear-Away Lite. Be sure to secure the stabilizer tightly in the hoop along with the fabric for the best results.
Cut away excess fabric in layers, leaving the raw edges of the fabric showing behind the embroidery design for interest.
Add fun embellishments such as buttons, glitter or shiny beads to really make your design POP!

I’ve been wearing this DIY kimono around the house constantly since I made it! It is incredibly comfortable and I feel so elegant when I have it on. I can’t wait to try more machine embroidery tattoos on my future projects!