Korean Hanbok

My daughter has always wanted a hanbok. We had looked at buying her one when we traveled to Korea at the end of 2009 but couldn't find one in the price range we had hoped.

Lunar New Year was fast approaching and I had been doing a bit more sewing this year and decided that maybe I could make her one. I was unsure if I would be successful at this attempt so I decided to use some leftover poly-silk fabric I had on hand. It is a shiny silk-like fabric but doesn't have the floral textured details that a traditional Hanbok fabric has, and it is washable.

The fabric was a bit of a challenge because it does tend to fray fast. If I had a surger that would make things easier but I do not. I did a lot of double stitching, rolling, and zig zag stiching to fix the cut edges to keep them from fraying on the finished garment.

I didn't have a pattern for a hanbok, but thought the pieces looked simple enough, although this was probably the most complicated project I have attempted

The under hanbok is fairly simple.  A long skirt with a high wasted top with a couple straps. The back I used a couple hook and eye clasps to make it open to get on easily. The pleated part would probably be the most tricky. I had made a pleated skirt before on this dress, so this style lended itself well to the hanbok as well. I like to pin all four points of the skirt to the four points on the top part and then keep pinning half way and half that distance until you can fold over the pleat and pin it in place.



I tend to not be a perfectionist when I create things but just start and fix things as I go. This works well as long as you start big. You can always make things smaller but you cannot easily make them bigger.

The top was more of a challenge for me. I finished the bottom first because I had already done something similar but the top was all new for me.


First I draped the fabric in the shape of the top just to get the idea of what it may look like. I had a couple choices for color so this was helpful to see. Green is my daughter's favorite color so that is what we chose.

One thing I have learned to do is to make a pattern from other pieces of clothing. Lucky for me my daughter has a top that has a cross over wrap front to it.


So I took it and folded back the sleeve and other parts so I had the shape right. Then cut around that shape adding at least an inch for seam allowance. Remember easier to fix things that are too big rather than too small. I did this for each side of the front, and for the back piece.





Then I sewed these three pieces together on the side and top. Don't forget to leave holes for the arms.
One thing I should have done at this point and had to go back and fix was in a traditional hanbok the front piece of the jacket goes straight down and doesn't angle all the way down like the photo below. I fixed mine later but should have corrected the straight down part at this point my making a seam down to square it off before doing the red collar.


For the red on the neckline I cut a long red strip that was wider than I needed and then folded and pinned the cut edges and sandwiching the cut green neckline inside the red strip.

Using the same technique I cut a green strip to lengthen the bottom edge a bit and to cover all the cut edges. But since my bottom edge was salvage and not fraying I waited and did this step later.

The curve of the arms I traced my son's hanbok but adding length and width to the curve. I cut it on a fold so I only stitched the bottom curve. Then I stitched the sleeves to the dress.



I wanted my daughter to be able to put her hanbok top on herself and used some Velcro to hook the top together on the inside to hold the inside closed.



the bow I tied and hand stitched together so she would not have to tie it herself. On the back of it I put a hook and sewed the eye part to the garment in the correct spot to close the front.





Since the fabric was plain and I did not have an embroidery machine I bought some butterfly iron on applique patches at a craft store. I did not however use an iron because this fabric does not do well with an iron, so I just sewed them onto the skirt and a few to the top. These really helped give it that finished look and what little girl doesn't like butterflies?




I am hoping that this will fit her next year as well. I can not say I will be making her another one in the future for sure. We are planning to travel to Korea summer of 2012 and we will have more time for hanbok shopping this time around I am sure.











We had a wonderful Lunar New Year celebration at our home. The kids can't wait until next year.



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