Doing appliqué flowers to embellish a kimono style jacket

My last project is a kimono style jacket, I drafted the pattern using my bodice block and made a pilot piece using a duvet cover. The end result was nice enough I felt I could where it.

Since the kimono was very plain, I thought I would jazz it up with some appliqué, I used scraps of fabric and tried several ways to make the flowers.

 

 

 

This is what I learned:

• Since my fabric was kind of light and the kimono doesn’t have a lining I first did the details on the flowers and then applied them, on thicker fabric or lined I would have applied the flower and made the details with them in place. It would have been easier if I had made the details before cutting the flowers, especially for the small ones.

• The easiest way of doing the center was to cut a piece of fabric and just apply it in the center.

• I tried doing the center with a zigzag stich but I didn’t like the end result, for that to work I have to train more, this channel  has lots of videos showing how to embroider with different techniques and machines, she makes it seem very easy but I haven’t mastered the art of it.

• I also used embroidery thread to do a spiral in the center and then stitched over it to keep it in place, I liked the end result of this and by the end it was relatively easy to do but the first ones took time, it’s a good exercise for dexterity.