Last week I attended Sew Jo Baker's Kimono Style Dressing Gown workshop. Jo runs her classes from her lovely home in Chelmsford, Essex which is just up the road from me, so it was perfect!

I was really looking forward to making the dressing gown as it is something I could make for myself that I wouldn't normally have thought to make.

Before going to the class Jo had told me I would need to bring 2 metres of a lightweight fabric, ideally a cotton lawn. I chose to use some of our Cotton+Steel lawn called Drops Candies Fruit, I thought this would suit the kimono well as it doesn't have too much of a directional print and the colours are quite dark meaning it wouldn't be see-through.

he class was made up of just me and one other lady which was great as this meant Jo was able to give us both plenty of help and attention. She only ever has a maximum of 4 people per class which gives her the freedom to make the learning process a more personal experience.

We were provided with our pattern pieces so we could start cutting out straight away. Jo had come up with a simple pattern for the kimono that needed minimal cutting out and was simple to sew yet still had quite a few steps to it which I don't think I would have been able to figure out on my own! I thought it was a clever pattern that benefited from having someone there to show you what to do each step of the way.

It took us about 3 hours to finish our dressing gowns and it was really satisfying to make something from start to finish that I could take home and use. Jo provided us with the pattern pieces to take home so we could make another one ourselves if we wanted to. Now that I have learned what to do I can definitely see myself making more of these, they would make excellent gifts.

I really enjoyed attending Jo's class and I would definitely recommend them! Great for beginners as well as sewers wanting to learn something new that they haven't tried before.

If you would like to find out what classes Jo has coming up you can visit her website and see what suits you.