Kimono Critique

I think Amy Butler and Heather Ross have the same learning disability. Or, more accurately, teaching disability. Both of these well-known fabric designers have published enticing books of sewing patterns, full of gorgeous pictures that just beg you to dive in and start stitching. Oh, but once you do...sewists' hell awaits! These beguiling patterns are positively poisonous: incorrectly sized, full of errors, and difficult to construct. I've already ripped into Miss Butler's ineptitude elsewhere, so today I will reserve my wrath for Miss Ross.

Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross was a lovely gift from my husband, who shopped slavishly from my Hannukah list this year (yay!). I decided to start with the baby kimono because I've been itching to make one, having seen a great tutorial on the web and considered, warily, Butler's version. Things started well: there was just enough of fabric from my back-to-school dress (which I turned out to be too pregnant to wear for the first day of school!) to make a kimono from the sheer red paisley cotton, and I happened to have some fuschia bias tape on hand. So, the project was a stash-busting freebie.

Constructing the kimono, while quick, was a process riddled with pesky problems. The shoulder seams puckered awkwardly at the neck edges when I applied bias tape to the neck opening. Ditto with the underarm seam. I have never, ever seen a pattern with this problem - how did she manage to invent it? The last straw was the side ties, of which Ross directs us to make four. That's a lot of very stiff ties on a tiny shirt for a tiny person. And, as it turns out, two of them (to your right in the photo below) could easily be replaced by a much smoother and tidier snap.

I really want to support all the young, funky women who are bringing independent sewing into the modern world. I love reading craft blogs and supporting people selling original patterns and materials. But if you can't even give directions for a smooth sleeve, then big-brand patterns have earned their place at the top of the pecking order. Having just completed a much more successful baby item from a traditional pattern, the contrast felt especially stark.