Fire Komon @ Mr. Gay Europe!

Hello everyone!

This past weekend was a very good one for me! Not only did I manage to visit my hometown after more than 4 years, but it was also the first time I got to dress-up ever since I was 5 or 6, when all this started :))

As some of you know from my facebook page, last weekend Mr. Gay Europe was held in the lovely Poiana Brasov ski resort... where there was a lot of snow.. for the whole weekend!!! Mr. Gay Italy won the competition. Well deserved, although I had a secret crush on Mr. Gay Ireland...

Deciding on my outfit was a complete fuss. I initially wanted to wear my early showa komon, then made plans for my furisode with musubi and all, and then finally decided on my fire-red komon with a very cute fan design, with my black based nagoya obi with kikko patterned clouds, hot orange obijime and pale pink ougi obiage.

This is the final result:

I look almost skinny in the pic below:

and something about his bow tie made me think i'd look good in a pic next to him:

All in all I had a wonderful time there! Aaand, I also wore my yellow, gold and silver saree:

I really missed my hometown.. so spending 3 days there was a complete and utter bliss!

Tsukuri/Tsuke/Easy Obi part II

So I finished the sewing part of it!

Now will come the hard part: finding ways of wearing it into a musubi other than the otaiko. I'll keep you posted with whatever comes to mind!

Tsukuri/Tsuke/Easy Obi

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).

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:

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!

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

bingata, my love

I proudly present to you my love: a bingata komon. After having bought it from Yamatoku in october 2008, it stayed in my drawers for a long time, as I was too scared to even try to pair it with any of my obi; they are so colorful, that many a time, I feel I have too many chioces and yet none being the perfect, THE match.

That is until one fine day when I decided it was time to break the ice, and finaly paired it with my black, kikko nagoya obi and my red shibori obiage. It was a good outfit, in my opinion, but I felt there was something missing from it; again it was put in the drawers, for a better chance.

Next time I got to wear it, I pulled all of my obi and, in a crazy afternoon, after a lot of trials, I found a better match: my bluemarine obi with large golden karakusa and a purple and white bokashi obiage. Again, a very nice surprise and, at the time, I thought I found the ideal match.

 That is until I realised that the blue in the obi was drawing all my attention to the blue in the kimono, making the other colors pale, and since I love my bingata to bits, I decided I still have to look for a better match.

One obi I did not consider previously was my olive hakata. I bought it as a part of a 10 obi lot from Yahoo Japan Auctions, and when it arrived, I saw that is was sewn in places, and it was too short to make even a tsunodashi or a bunko musubi the traditional way.

So that will be my next challenge: pair this beauty with a new obi, hopefully, THE match!