Side Project: Hakama pants

If you, like me, watched The Last Samurai and thought "Man, those pants look supremely cool, and totally comfortable" -- or am I the only one who thinks things like that while watching movies? -- then you might be interested in the construction of Hakama, the traditional garb pants of Samurai.

After a little digging, I found and used this helpful information

(http://www.yamakaminari.com/HowTo/RoxannesGarb/RoxanneHakama4Pennsic.pdf) to turn an old set of seersucker curtains into a test-run pair of hakama. They were surprisingly easy! More appropriate material choices might be a medium bottom-weight cotton or linen -- something that will take a crease and hold it. I would love to make a pair of these in a dark blue cotton printed with tiny cranes.

In this picture, I am pleased to introduce The Boy (my son, who is always requesting me to make him amazing clothing items, and I'm thinking maybe I'll just teach him to sew!) and The Girl (his girlfriend).