That ol' Janx spirit.

I was reading a website awhile back and saw that people were looking for a tutorial on how to make the Kara Janx kimono dress from Project Runway. I like the dress myself, but it's pretty expensive and apparently, very hard to get ahold of! So I thought I'd try my hand at making a T-shirt version.

(This is a tutorial entry...well, duh :)

You'll need 3 T-shirts: two in the same color and a third shirt in a contrasting color. I recommend large or extra large (I used a 2XL on the skirt half, actually).

1. Take the shirt that will be the bottom of the dress and cut off the collar, hems, and sleeves. Measure your waist and draw a line at the top of the shirt (below the collar) that's half of that length. Draw a line down the sides tapering from the waist to the bottom of the skirt, and cut off the excess edges.

2. Take the shirt that will make the top of the dress and cut off the sleeves and collar. Cut up the sides of the dress so that you can pin how you want the sides to fit your body. Pin in the sides so as to fit your body better.

3. Measure how long you want the top to be on your body and draw a line at that point that's the same length as your waist measurement. Taper the sides where you pinned to come in on the edges so as to match the waist measurement. Cut off the excess at the bottom and sides.
4. Sew up the sides of the top and skirt, then pin the top and skirt together at the waist and sew them together. (Right sides together for all of that.)
5. Lay the dress flat and cut up the middle of it. Make a V-neck at the top of the dress and cut that out as well.
6. Take the contrast color shirt and lay it flat. Cut out as many 2-inch wide strips as you can manage to get out of the shirt. (You may even need to cut strips from the sleeves, depending on how long you want the sash to be.)
7. Measure the back length of the seam line of the waist of the dress. (Let's say hypothetically it comes out to 34 inches.) Take the remaining fabric from the bottom of the second shirt and cut out 4 2-inch wide strips. Two strips should in total add up to be a couple of inches shorter than the waist on the back of the dress (say, 32 inches), and the other two should match that length as well. Sew a pair of strips together at the short edges (these will be for the sash, attached to the back), then do the same for the other pair.
8. Pick out enough green strips to cover the entire open line on the dress twice over- these will be for the edging. Use the remaining strips for the sash.
9. Take enough strips to cover the edge of the dress once over and start sewing them together on the short edges. Take the remaining strips for the edging and sew them together (separately from the first strip) as well. Then sew both long strips together, lengthwise. Flip them right side out and iron them so that the seam lies flat.
10. Pin the edging to the entire open edge of the dress, sandwiching the main color fabric in between the layers of the edging. Use a zig-zag stitch to sew the edging to the dress.
The dress should now look like this:

11. Divide the remaining contrast strips into 2 piles, one for each side of the black portion of the sash. You're going to divide the 2 piles into 4 piles and sew four long strips of the contrast color together at the short sides. Attach a strip to each side of a black strip. Once you've got two long green and black strips, sew the two strips together lengthwise. Flip them rightside out and iron the seam flat. Finish sewing the other long edge together with a zigzag stitch.
12: Pin the sash onto the back of the dress at the seam line, lining up the black and green parts. Sew the sash to the dress on the top and bottom with a zig-zag stitch, black parts only.

13. Pick a side on the back sash and measure 5 inches from the edge. Cut a small hole through all layers of fabric so you can pull the sash through it.

14. Put the dress on and wrap the sash around yourself multiple times, pulling one side through the hole. Cut off the ends of the sash wherever you like to make it shorter, and sew the ends shut.

And there you have it: your own Kara Janx kimono dress, for a lot less than $200- plus you can get ahold of it a lot easier when you DIY!

I will warn you: on me, the dress comes out as barely covering the boobs and is cut very high. (Then again, I have big knockers and therefore most T-shirt stuff hangs funny on me for that reason anyway. I do not know for sure if anyone else making the dress will have this problem.) You may want to wear other clothes underneath it or attach hooks and eyes or something. But even if you do have a high-cut gapping problem, someone told me that it does make a nice ninja robe!
Ahem. :)

Comments

[Jessica Hood]

this is fabulous! great work.

[kara Janx]

I love the dress you made, it's such a fantastic attempt!
I'm very flattered, thank you!