My First Nendoroid Doll Kimono

There’s beauty in creating something with your own hands, especially when it’s for a favorite character. One of my earliest crafting moods was making a kimono for Lumine from Genshin Impact. This wasn’t just any doll clothing project–it was a labor of love and learning, one that will spur and inspire the seamstress I am right now.

The Perfect Match: Nendoroid 1718 Traveler Lumine Genshin Impact and Nendoroid Doll Almond Milk Body

Lumine, with her adventurous spirit and beauty has always been a favorite character. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was my alter, my self-insert, my adopted OC, and I would travel the lands of Inazuma in Genshin Impact. I wished then she dressed up in kimono, walking the streets of Tenryou and Hanamizaka, as she finished the Archon Quest of Raiden Shogun. So I said, why not make your own doll dress? I started with Nendoroid 1718 Traveler Lumine of Genshin Impact and a Nendoroid Doll Almond Milk Body, pairing it with the Geta from Nendoroid Doll Shoes 1. Then, I turned to a borrowed copy of Obitsu11 doll clothes sewing book titled “オビツ11の型紙の教科書 11cmサイズの女の子服” (Obitsu11 Pattern Textbook: 11cm Size Girl’s Clothes). This book is a treasure trove of cute doll clothing patterns, perfect for tiny female dols. The instructions were in Japanese, but the pictures made it easy to follow along, even for a beginner like me. (I did have difficulty figuring out the furisode and the lining, but this was expected, since I’m a beginner at sewing. The fabric here came from a charm pack of cotton fabric adorned with Japanese elements. I picked a dark blue fabric with gold brozing, and chose a contrasting light blue linen for the lining. The bronzing accents (not very visible on photos) make it look elegant and makes you think of embroidery.

Sewing the kimono too a lot of effort and patience, I carefully cut the patterns and transferred them to fabric. I didn’t have the sewing notions I have now back then — so I even used ink ballpen to mark the fabric, haha. Anyway, this was a practice piece. As I was making the kimono, I pictured Lumine on her Inazuma adventure, the kimono flowing gracefully with her move. There was some sense of accomplishment since I was doing this by hand. I had to ditch a draft and make a second one because I cut the fabric wrong side one time and another because I could not figure out how to do the kimono sleeves and furisode, haha. The seam in the armpits here are also ugly, but not visible when posing for the camera. I shared this to a few friends, who told me it was beautiful and that I should consider selling them. I wouldn’t take on the suggestion until after a few months, and even so I wouldn’t get started on my Etsy store until after a year! But this was definitely a crafting project for the books — an experience filled with mistakes creativity, frustration patience, and anger love. There’s something incredibly rewarding about making doll clothes by hand. (I’m lying, I bought a sewing machine a few months later).