Upcycling a Kimono to make a Ruffled Hem Skirt

I had this yukata (Japanese summer kimono) for a while, but I never wore it because the sleeves were a lil’ short, and I didn’t quite wearing yellow from top to bottom.

I just bought a sewing machine, so I thought I’ll try to turn it into a 2-tier skirt – without undoing too much of it (as I’m a sewing noob).

The plan

To keep things simple, I decided to cut the bottom half of the yukata, add some walking leg room by using the sleeves as the ruffled hem, and add waist elastic.

Steps

The general steps were:

1. Cut the bottom part of the yukata (while it’s folded so there’s shorter distance to cut) at about 60cm from the hem. This will be the main portion (upper tier) of the skirt.
2. Undo the stitches that hold the flappy sleeves to the yukata. Also cut away the bottom stitches including the corner curve, so they unfold upwards to become 2 long rectangular panels.
3. Turn the cut sleeves sideways, and sew them together to make a loop. This will become the lower tier of the skirt.
4. Gather the lower tier of the skirt, and attach it to the upper tier of the skirt.
5. Fold the top of the skirt in to sew an elastic casing, and insert elastic.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!

The yellow looks nicer when paired with a top – and it takes only 2 seconds to put on 🙂

I have a lot of unused kimonos and yukatas that I ended up inheriting over time. I think more upcycling projects like this are coming soon…!