This costume was really important to me. When I was in 8th grade, I bought the first 3 volumes of Rurouni Kenshin with gift cards from Media Play. I ADORED the anime and I wanted to get started into reading more manga and this was one of the first manga I purchased. I always loved the cover of the 3rd volume of the manga and thought I wanted to be just like Kaoru. It made me so happy to finally make this happen.

Construction deets:

The pattern for the kimono was based off of a furisode I purchased along with the Simplicity pattern for kimono. The dimensions for the commercial pattern are incorrect especially on the sleeves so I adjusted accordingly. I did add a seam on the shoulder to reduce the amount of fabric I had to purchase. The under kimono is made of casa crepe and the outer kimono is made of 2 layers of polyester crepe de chine and lined. The designs are hand painted using stencils and Jacquard fabric paint. This took about 3 weeks of working pretty consistently on this. When I originally wore it, I purchased an antique obi, but for ease of wear and changing I ended up making a fake obi. To mimic the effect of brocade, the base of the obi is made of taffeta and the floral pattern was done using machine embroidery and paint. It is lined in peltex to keep it's shape.