How to Make Graduation Hakama

Finally i graduate from my medical school in this november TwT after three years of struggle, finally it's time to enter the real world! I'll start working in hospital this december, and i personally can't wait for it >_<

About the graduation ceremony, i've decided (after a long time) that i'm going to wear hakama instead of kebaya. I know, it sounds ridiculous since this is not japan, but i want to try something new and since buying new kebaya costs too much this time :') so i decided in the end i'm going to make my own graduation hakama! I know most people might think that i'm not proud of my nationality, but no, that's not it, i just want to try something anti-mainstream in the end of school and also there's no rules that said we must wear kebaya, so why not? xD

Another reason why i want to wear graduation hakama is because the hakama itself has a long history and meaning. The history dated back to late meiji era, and hakama were originally worn by teachers of women’s schools, but gradually worn by students. Another source also told that hakama was a 'revolutionary' clothes, due to the fact that after the meiji restoration, fashion changed so much, included how women dress specially in the newly established girls school, and their uniform was hakama pants that worn over kimono, which makes them easier to do activity when they work or study. However, in this modern era, hakama is only worn in special occasion, for example like graduation. There's also meaning behind the number of the pleats, i forgot where i read it, but i will make sure to search it and put it here once i found the article again :D

but, hakama pleats in general represent the traditional virtues of the samurai and divided into five on the front and two on the back of the hakama.

Front pleats : 

1. Yuki (courage, valor)
2. Jin (humanity, benevolence)
3. Gi (justice, righteousness)
4. Rei (courtesy, civility) 
5. Makoto (sincerity, honesty)

Back Pleats : 

1. Chugi (loyalty)
2. Meiyo (honor, dignity)

And now, let's get started to the basic pattern! Anyway, this pattern is for someone who has a relatively big under bust like me, so if you are small and skinny, you might want to change the size :D also, this pattern might not be historically correct, since i combined the available pattern online and from seeing photos .

My under bust size is +- 82cm, and my hakama length is 98 cm (A + 8 cm) so this is the pattern i made :

hakama pattern

There's total 5 pleats in the front, and 2 in the back, and the pleats goes something like this :

graduation hakama pleats

For the side opening, there's a method to make it neat, you can read it in yousai blog, basically you flip it first to the front, sew it between the creases, and flip it back to back and sew it again in the back, and then it will create something like this.

hakama side opening

After that, put together the front and the back part and sew it~ and for the obi part (i don't know what's the part name actually hahaha) i made it both 300 cm long so i can create a ribbon at the front~

Anyway, a lot of people thought that graduation hakama is a pants, but actually it is more like a skirt since there's no divider inside it *_* 

photo credits to Kyoetsu's Shop

 And voila, after every part is sewn, your own graduation hakama is ready to wear! 

But wait, before that if you want to make your graduation hakama more neat looking and hard, you
might want to starching it first before you wear it!

and here's my final look of my hakama!

Graduation Hakama~!

Finally Graduated !