After a long quarrel with myself, I finally decided it was time to cut my olive hakata obi and turn it into an easy obi.
There are 2 reasons that led to this decision:
1. too short for any proper musubi kitsuke and
2. the tesaki part seems to have been first cut to pieces and then resewn together (see below).
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| tesaki part cut and resewn |
So, the first thing I did was to measure how much would I need for the otaiko part (initial taresaki part). It worked out to be about 110 cm, which was about the same as the reinforced, 2 layer part:
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| that's where I did my first cut |
Then I folded the rest of the obi in half, on the wrong side, and sewn each end, like this:
then turned it around on the good side:
So far, the halfwidth part of my easy obi is done. I am still debating whether to add strings to it or just leave it as is and use those obi metal clips to hold it wrapped around the waist. We'll see which one works better.
Still to finish is the otaiko part. To that I will just hem the cut side, and then add the strings. I'll get back with the finished product. I promise!
