Kimono Runner

This is another project that I saw in Sew Gifts! that I really liked. It was a kimono table runner, because it was made with kimono fabrics. Well, construction looked easy (at least, to me, understandable!) and I decided it would be just the perfect table runner to go with my new dining room table. The dining room table itself took a long, LONG journey to get to our house, but it always gave me a Japanese feel. I've always been obsessed with Japanese aesthetics anyway.

I was planning to order fat quarters from Spoonflower, but they were so, so expensive ... finally I went to Jo-Ann's to see what they had. To my surprise, I was able to get a variety of fat quarters that I felt were Japanese in feeling. And for very little money, probably a quarter to a fifth of what I would have had to spend at Spoonflower. Plus I didn't have to wait for it to print!

Since Tristan was due any day, I decided to get a move on this. I actually sewed this on my new dining room table, since I still didn't have a sewing room. I had grown confident of rotary cutting and piecing by this point, plus there were no seams to match in this project, so I thought it'd be easy. The top was easy, and was so beautiful. But the way it's constructed, the sides and back was one long stretch of fabric, and somewhere along seaming it, it started to become quite puckery.

I think the fabric is great and I'm happy with it for now, but I know I will have to fix it sometime. I don't want to waste the beautiful top, so I think at some point I will cut the back out and remake it, either into a quilt, or something with interfacing beneath so it's a bit stiffer. I basically want to get rid of all the puckers, or just make it into a tabletop quilt.

I asked my husband if it's Japanese, and he said he wasn't familiar enough with Japanese aesthetics to say. But then one time my sister-in-law visited, and she immediately said the fabrics remind her of Maiocchi, so I know that it's definitely Japanese in feel!