The book outlines how to make different styles of Japanese garments for both men and women. It also provides instructions on lining and padding garments, and types of stitches used. The author often gives both the traditional method of making a garment and modern alternatives to make life easier.

The author provides short instructions and diagrams to instruct you how to make your chosen garment. At first glance I found the instructions could sometimes seem unclear (and I am a fairly experienced with sewing!). This is not a book for someone who wants an "easy sew" 1 hour project. However I usually found that once I read over the instructions a few times they made sense. You will have to flip back and fourth between pages in the book (once section for lining, once for making outer garment...). I just had to have a little patience, since I am not as familiar with sewing Kimono. Anyone can make these garments with a little patience. These garments are made from very simple pattern, and basic sewing skills, but yield beautiful results! The main thing to remember is that it may take some time to go through the book and really make certain you understand all the steps in the proper order.

The book is a wonderful reference because you can make all these garments without buying patterns from the store but just using grid paper and taking your own measurements. At its most basic, a Kimono is essentially made by sewing different size rectangles together. So the basic pattern is very simple to draw. I did find it helpful to practice making a miniature version of the kimono out of inexpensive cotton fabric and lining to practice some of the techniques the book describes, before actually making a kimono out of expensive fabric.

www.ichiroya.com is a wonderful source for relatively inexpensive kimono fabric and other Japanese fabrics by the bolt (1 bolt=1 garment). They also have partially finished, and finished garments as well that can be helpful to look at.

You should note that this book does not provide much instruction on how to wear kimono. Formal Kimono dress can be very complicated, for example in Japan they offer classes in how to wear kimono, and many people are assisted by licensed kimono dressers for formal events! You can buy a book on how to wear Kimono or use one of the many websites which can provide you with instructions on how to wear basic cotton kimono called yukata and even simple formal Kimono and Obi.
One helpful example for Women's Formal Kimono http://japan-cc.com/kimofaq3.htm and Obi http://japan-cc.com/kimofaq4.htm

I recommend this book very highly to anyone really interested in learning more about or making Japanese garments. Especially since comparatively this is one of the better resource books on sewing japanese garments available at the moment! :-)

My wife tells me this is a great book to get ideas and use as a reference. It is really worth having.

Beginning sewers intimidated by fancy tissue patterns are warned away from this. It requires you draft your own square-cut patterns from measurements and the instructions sometimes take rereading for me to figure out (a 20-year career as a pro costumer and a dresser for Kabuki Hawaii trained by experts from the National Theatre of Japan, so I am am very familiar with both seamstry and Japanese costumes of many sorts). The tissue patterns have much clearer instructions and diagrams. You need self-confidence and some moderate skill with the usual sewing to jump over to this.

First, Marshall assumes you also own The Book of Kimono by Norio Yamanaka. While Marshall will tell you how to draft patterns for the kimono, he tells you to go to the other book to find out how to =wear= the garments. Yamanaka's is a wonderful book, but I consider this sales-racketeering by the editors, allowing author sloth to force another book in the line. If you don't already know how to wear kimono, get Yamanaka first so you can even decide if you want to wear it, let alone sew it.

The section on Japanese sewing tools was interesting, but time might have been spent addressing how to do these jobs with tools you could find in ordinary Western sewing stores, and how to select Western fabrics (like don't use slinky for an uchikage), since so much time is spent on making Westernized/modernized variants on the trad kimono. 4ex, you can make a 3rd hand out of a strong little coffee bag clip, a length of cord, and a necklace hook rather than paying $8 + S&H on-line.

The largest flaw is the structuring of ideas. Marshall first tells you how to do each Japanese sewing technique (how to turn a hem corner, how to sew on a sleeve, how to put in a lining, how to pad a garment) in a separate section before ever getting to describing the garments or giving their layouts. All this means is anyone not already completely familiar with the garments skips this and maybe comes back later to it. The book would be improved by giving the garments with sewing techniques particular to it included at the garment. 4ex., explaining how to sewn on a collar guard particularly for a vest belongs with making the vests, not broken out 57 pages earlier with other collar guard techniques. Explaining how to put in a lining should be with the first garment that can be lined. As it is, you go to the garment, draft it, cut it, then skip back and forth between the garment and the different technique sections as you sew on a collar or sew on a sleeve. Keep plenty of bookmarks handy.

It is good that Marshall gives the standard kimono, and especially the uchikage (female formal overkimono) with padded hem, as well as various jackets (haori, hanten, hippari), modern and trad vests, and the monpei trousers. It is a distinct lack that he did not give directions for hakama, the Japanese trousers everyone wants for male dress, but only the sloppy field pants. The drafting instructions are very good, but as an Old Guard of the fibre arts the selection of garments gave me severe deja vu. In fact, except for the uchikage, this could be described as "do all your own drafting work to wind up with the Folkwear Japanese patterns." Which do you have more of, time or money? Do you really want to learn the particularly Japanese method of wearing a thimble or finishing a seam?

The section on making your own tabi (split-toed cloth socks) is excellent and detailed. Drafting this pattern is not at all simple, as it is fitted footwear. If you can't find tabi cheap on line, I recommend getting the Folkwear pattern for them to save a day or more of your life with fussing these to fit, unless you have very unusual feet.

In short, while the book will remain in my library and will be useful for drafting scale patterns for dolls, when I sew for full-size people I will use the available patterns using authentic techniques. What were you planning to use this for?

I take it from some of the critical reviews of other shoppers that... some of us might be confused about the definition of Kimono... anyway, with that said, this book is great for costumers or experienced sewers that would like to use this information to design/improve other outfits, or make their own Japanese formal-wear. Anyway, I will agree that the illustrations in this work had me laughing outloud in the middle of the bookstore. Also, why is this in the cookbook section?