For some, retirement arrives as a permanent vacation. For others not quite ready to let go or not accustomed to leisure, it comes in fits and starts, with periods of leisure interrupted by forays back into the working world.

Designer Patty Yamasaki, 63, announced her retirement and closed the doors to her 36-year-old Kaimuki boutique, Montsuki, last March. It turned out she couldn’t stray from her sewing machine for very long. Now, she’s back at designing, though working on a smaller scale than before.

Instead of coming up with formal collections season after season, she’s been going through her storage boxes full of vintage fabrics to come up with capsule collections of one-of-a-kind pieces. They’re individual works of art, finished with details such as five-yen coins used as buttons. The coins are often given to customers at mom-and-pop shops in Japan as good-luck charms.

Yamasaki never actually stopped working because her first priority was finishing all the custom orders she had promised clients before closing her doors.

“I had so many calls that after a while I couldn’t answer them. It was too much,” she said.

But she had enough downtime to get a taste of leisure she never had while working full time.

“When you have a business and you’re the main person, time is so valuable you can’t have fun,” Yamasaki said. “I always wanted to go to the Hawaii State Art Museum but never had a chance. It’s something so simple, but it was on my to-do list. These kinds of things add to life.”

The break from routine was enough to energize her, and after a chance meeting with the owner of the building at 1223 Koko Head Ave., she decided to open a small second-story studio, Atelier 1223 at Montsuki, just a block away from her former shop.

In the new space, she finally had time to sort through boxes of fabric she’d collected over a 20-year period. Among the first pieces she found were vintage 100 percent cotton nobori, or Japanese festival banners, from the 1940s through ’70s.

The banners, measuring 10 to 15 feet, were hand-stenciled and hand-painted with stylized images of daimyos, or feudal lords, with their swords, horses and castles, all symbolizing strength and valor. Some had mons, or family crests, with family or individual names written in kanji that would have been displayed on occasions such as Boys Day.

“I’d been holding on to them for a long time and didn’t have the heart to cut them up, but now it’s time. I’m not getting any younger and can’t keep them forever.”

The nobori became the basis for her Daimyo Series of jackets and modish A-line dresses. Only 36 pieces are available, priced from about $365 to $390.

“You can’t be shy wearing this, and some people are scared by the images, but they’re very cute on,” said Yamasaki, who still has 75 to 100 boxes of materials to work with and continues to warn clients that her current shop is just a temporary way station en route to full retirement.

“Once I get through these boxes, that’s it. I’ll be happy. “

Atelier 1223 by Montsuki is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays at 1223 Koko Head Ave. Call 734-3457 for availability on Mondays and Tuesdays.