The word “shima” indicates “stripes.”  Shima patterns have been a part of Japanese textile tradition, especially among the common people, for centuries.  This box features stripes in any color and any size pattern.  Bold stripes, subtle stripes–no matter what, your projects will be extra special and extra stripey.  Each box will include mostly adult pieces, but children’s are possible.

This bundle is roughly half the size of our Stuff-A-Cube Special!  Instead of a roughly 19-20 pound box, you’re getting a roughly 10 pound box.  Perfect for those who want traditional Japanese garments but find the shipping charges on the larger boxes to be outside their budget.

Additional details on the fabric:

It’s a longstanding tradition for Japanese artisans to remake or upcycle kimono that cannot be worn anymore.  We invite you to keep that tradition alive by using vintage Japanese kimono fabric in your projects!

Each bundle contains fabric from vintage Japanese kimono, yukata, obi, and kimono jackets (called haori or michiyuki) ready to be upcycled.  These bundles are perfect for:

• crafts, especially making multiple similar items out of the same fabric
• quilting and patchwork quilting across multiple projects, or to share among quilting clubs
• dressmaking or clothes-making
• costuming
• fashion students and professionals seeking innovative fabrics for their designs and clothing they can modify
• ball joint doll clothes–especially for professionals making multiples of the same pieces
• 18″ doll clothes (or other size doll clothes)–especially for professionals making multiples of the same pieces
• live-action roleplay, live-action wargames, or other real-time gaming/performance art in which conditions may be hard on clothing
• anything that requires whole kimono or kimono coats or large pieces of vintage Japanese fabric

Adult kimono fabric bolt widths are roughly 13 – 15 inches wide.  Each kimono contains roughly 10-12 meters of fabric.  Haori and Michiyuki bolt widths are similar and each jacket contains roughly 5-6 meters of fabric.  Obi come in a few shapes and sizes and vary in length from 250 cm to 400 cm and anywhere from 6 inches wide to 14 inches wide.  Kimono are typically 1-2 pounds.  Jackets are typically around a pound.  Obi are typically 1-2 pounds.

Most garments will be from the mid-Showa period (1926-1989) and Heisei period (1989-2019)

Each garment has some kind of damage: moth holes, stains, tears, sun bleaching, etc. Most damage is limited to a part of the piece or the lining.  Some garments will have sleeves or other sections of the garment missing.  The garments in these bundles are what we deem too damaged for our racks, however, we have been told that our standards are pretty high and that in some cases, garments for upcycling have very little visible damage (hence why they are popular for costuming, LARPing, and wargames).  In any event, we try to avoid sending garments that are sufficiently damaged to preclude using a lot of the fabric; we reserve those for our small piece bundles and cut around damage as much as possible.

With the exception of yukata cotton, fabric contents will vary, and include: silk, cotton, rayon, wool, polyester, other synthetics, and more.  Some kimono pieces may be hand-painted, stenciled, screen-painted, hand couched with metallic thread, and/or embroidered by hand, machine, or both.   Due to the fact that they are vintage, each piece is essentially one of a kind to America.

Due to their vintage nature, all items are sold in an “as is” and “with all faults” condition.  For more information, please see our Shipping & Terms page.