nontraditional kitsuke

PC080009
Originally uploaded by ume bloom

Last night, while browsing youtube, found a makeup tutorial which immediately made me think "go punk!"... So I did!

I paired my omeshi yabane komon, the pale yellow haneri I got from a fellow IG member, with the golden karakusa fukuro obi... and a 3-layer skirt... and boots... and feathers...

I got all crazy and then... bang! It hit me to try and do the musubi in the front... I *was* going clubbing after all.

So there you have it: punk make-up (I love it, btw!), non-traditional kitsuke AND musubi in the front... Can it get more scandalous than that..? Oh yeah.. Forgot to take a pic of my collar.... really low tonight.
More pics:

The entire outfit:

the front musubi with the feather accent:

Any good? :)

Tsukuri Obi instructions

Hello everyone!

I've had this book for a while now, but still don't know the name, since I do not speak Japanese. However, inside there is a small chapter on Tsukuri Obi, which some people might find interesting. They give instructions and measurements and the shapes of the easy obi look quite nice and easy to do, so enjoy!

Flickr Album Set

the apple musubi..

In my last post I showed you a new musubi I've been trying... Now here's the tutorial!

I did mine in the front and the slided it in the back.

You will need a fukuro obi that has at least 30cm of design on the tesaki part.

a. fold the tesaki diagonally and fan it, like in the pic below; I secured it with a small rubber band:

b. fold the rest in half and wrap it twice around your waist, finishing with the taresaki part over the tesaki part:

c. make a knot just like here:

d. bring the folded tesaki under the taresaki, but over the knot you previously made...

e. ... and then fold the taresaki part in 4 (fold in half and then again in half), putting it over the tesaki and secure the whole thing with a koshihimo:

f. unfold the rest of the taresaki...

g. ... and then prepare it just like you would for a otaiko and place the makura and part of the taresaki right over the koshihimo:

here is where you add the obiage, which I only added later - I forgot :oops:

h. continue doing the otaiko, and secure the musubi with the obijime; I forgot to take a picture of that too.

i. this is where you slide it to your back; if you didn't use padding (like me :) ), you will need to add something inside the taiko part, to make it look bigger/fluffier; I used a purse wrapped in a furoshiki:

j. lift the ends of the folded part of the taresaki, to create a pouched shape to your musubi and you're done:

If anyone feels I left anything out, please let me know. And I apologize for the non kimono presentation, but it's past 11 pm here.

I hope you'll enjoy this one :)