A Smaller Dobuku

My oldest nephew is turning 8 tomorrow.  It seems like only yesterday that I held him for the first time.  These days he's growing into a fine young man.  So when he told his grandmother (my mother) a few months back that he wanted me to make him some "Japanese clothing" for his birthday, I was more than happy to comply. (I think he had seen my father's old gi last year and been intrigued by it.)

I chose the dobuku, a short informal jacket, for this project. A while back I made one for myself so I could work out any bugs/ issues.  There were very few. I actually found this a fairly easy piece of clothing to make and will likely make more in the future.

I've changed the shape a tiny bit from mine.  He is a pretty skinny kid but growing tall quickly, so I've made it taller and narrower than my original aspect ratio, but hopefully still with enough wiggle room to last him a few years.

I also made the sleeve a little larger.

I left the sleeve openings larger for him than for me, and made the opening big enough to use the 'sleeve pockets' I've read about.

He loves the color orange so I bound the seams with some leftover orange fabric that I had used for a previous gift for him.

The hem was fell-stitched into place.

I added a tag. I hope it was all spelled correctly.

They had his birthday party early to make sure out-of-town family could be there, so I'm thrilled to say that he really liked it.  I'm also thrilled that it fit so perfectly.  Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of him wearing it as the constant jumble of excitement and cousins and presents didn't present a good opportunity.  And I didn't want to interrupt for a 'staged' photo.  Suffice it to say, he's happy, so I'm happy.

Happy Friday.

ETA: pic from my husband's ipod with our nephew wearing his gift.