Traditional Costumes : Japanese Drapes

This week I finished two Samurai drapes in small sizes and in wool. I fiddled so long with the Japanese pattern to make it really nice fitting for a European size S/M. The black and white checkered one is from a pretty thick tweed wool I bought some years ago in Edinburgh (when we lived there); it has turned out much nicer than I thought, because I was first afraid it would be too stiff. But it drapes gorgeously, like a thick winter scarf. The other one is from a lovely purple striped wool fabric, much thinner and suppler than the tweed one. So, this one is a more flexible drape.

My lovely friend Anne is modelling them here, and she looks great in them ! They are for sale in my P8Accessories etsy shop ! Will also start to make some more in sizes L and XL.

Fabrics : Mourning Kraplap

I got a request from a customer on Etsy to make her a kraplap like the one above, but then from fabric and fitting to black clothes. She said: "create your ideal mourning kraplap for me !" after she had read my blogpost about the kraplap. After some searching through my traditional costume books, I got lots of inspiration and made a pattern based on the kraplap from the traditional costume in Staphorst in The Netherlands.
(Mourning Costume, Staphorst - from my postcard collection)

I still had some black and white fabric from Staphorst which is actually used at mourning and decided to sew the kraplap double so that it was wearable on two sides. For the other side I chose a black traditional German fabric with stripes and pink roses, which could be seen as "light mourning".

And this is the result. I like it ! Now I hope the customer likes it too.....