Years ago, I had the immense luck of finding a genuine seagreen japanese haori in a vintage shop for a ridiculously low price. I did not hesitate to snag it, and it has kept me comfortable through many chilly autumn and early winter evenings.
As far as I can determine it is made of genuine silk and it was constructed in the traditional way aka loosely sewn together with big running stitches so that it can be easily deconstructed, to be washed in pieces instead of as a whole.
Those stitches had been steadily letting go throughout the years and despite the fact I never wore it outside or next to my skin it was starting to smell a bit funky... time to wash it... the traditional way...
First step... unpicking all those seams
From top to bottom, the two sleeves with their lining ( note the bits of facing on the lining near the "cuffs"), the collar,plus the cotton interlining ( the only non silk piece I think), the two small side strips with their lining and then the central body plus its lining.
One of the things that I quickly noticed while unpicking is that how little cutting must have been involved while making this haori.
Haori and kimono are traditionally made out of tanmono, bolts of fabric that are usually 12 m long and between 35 to 40cm wide ( enough for one kimono or two haori). The bolt my haori was made of must have been 35 cm wide.
The fabric is sewn together at the back for width and there has been some cutting done for the neck, collar and side pieces but other wise the only place where the edges are not the selvedges are at the bottoms where the fabric has been cut to make the individual panels for the body and the sleeves
That said, the previous owner of this haori wasn't very tall nor very wide. The back is only 71 cm long and 54 cm wide. On me ( and I am not very tall either) it means it only barely comes to mid- butt while most haori come to mid-thigh and while loose enough this hoari doesn't have the drama of my other haori ( probably a man's) which has a 63cm broad back.
So how did the seamstress manage to reduce a double width of 35 cm to a 54 cm back without cutting off the selvedge and reduce a length of 2m to 71cm front and back ( so only 142cm total)? Well, by having a center seam of 3cm,side seams of 5 cm and doing some clever pleating at the bottoms.
So why all the effort of keeping the selvedges?
One of the reason obviously is that the edges wouldn't fray. The other I think is that this garment was meant to be passed along, and if the new owner was taller and wider than the previous one, the seams could be let out at the sides and at the bottom and you'd only need a new lining.
Another funny thing I noticed when unpicking is that while the outer fabric is the same everywhere, the lining is not. While the whole lining is white at first sight, there were subtle white on white brocade patterns at a closer look, and there were three different motifs.
An abstract swirl pattern at the sleeves, a floral pattern at the top part of the body, and a bishamon kikko pattern at the bottom of the body. Maybe the previous owner was not the first either, and the owner before that was even smaller!
So after unpicking this baby it was time to wash it. Because what edges that had been cut were never finished in any way beyond a bit of pinking I did not dare to put it in the laundry machine even on the gentlest delicate cycle I had for fear of fraying. So hand-wash it was. I used 1 sheet of Cosmeau's wool and silk laundry detergent in a 10 l bucket of luke warm water and set to gentle stir the whole...
whooo boy am I happy I decided to wash this baby because even if I could not really see it, it turned out my haori was one dirty,dirty boy... the smell that came off after even a couple of stirs was pretty disgusting and the water quickly turned a grotty grey. The rinse cycle after also turned fairly grey so I decided that a second wash was necessary
The second wash was only a tiny bit grey and the rinse actually ran clear after that so I squeezed as much water out as I could without wringing and laid out the pieces to dry on towels or on my laundry rack
So now it's a matter of letting it all dry, and hopefully soon, I will have another post detailing the process of (hand)sewing this baby back together
