first time in yukata!

It seems ages since I last put on a kimono (was for my birthday, in March), and last night it felt slightly uncomfortable (put on some weight, and did not take that into consideration when I tightened everything together). I planned to go out, but ended up just taking the pics and then undressing.

As you can see in the pics below, I tried to wear the yukata as a regular komon (juban, nagoya obi& stuff) and so I paired it with my light blue lace nagoya obi, a light pink obijime that I crocheted a while ago and even added a obidome (a rose).

I really wanted to see how it would feel to have the lace nagoya obi on, and it was a nice surprise for me.

After the 2 pics, my battery died, so there are no back pics of this outfit. I promise I will wear it again though!

One thing I realized is that using a koshihimo instead of a korin-belt, kept away the horrifying side flaps! So that was a good thing!

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!

Fortuny Dress

I bought a habutae red silk bolt about 2 years ago and, except the occasional cut-outs for kimono sleeves, it's been staying under my bed eversince. Today, after browsing the net, I remembered one of my many forgotten projects - a Fortuny style dress.

So I cut out apprximately 6m of that red silk, and then I just twirled it and twisted it until it became a red, creased mass thing and now boils on my stove. And, because I want it to simmer at low heat, completely sunk under water, I put over a bowl.... which will probably change color, since the fabric bleeds. It's normal, given the high heat. Or at least I hope so.

15 minutes later, I turn off the heat, and now I'm waiting for the whole thing to cool down, until it's safe to handle it. Depending on the amount of creasing, I may repeat the process once it's all dried.

I will keep you all posted with everything I am doing. :) Happy Holidays everyone!

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 :)

30th Birthday!

tdy5
Originally uploaded by ume bloom

After a long break, I finally got to wear kimono tonight. I went out to celebrate my 30th birthday (coincides with Hina Matsuri) with some of my friends (those who know my kimono habits).

Initially, I wanted to wear my furisode for the last time, but then decided for the more subdued early showa purple komon. This time I chose a fukuro obi that had shades of green in it and, though you can't really notice it, the white and purple obiage.

For the musubi, I decided I's give a try to Yamatoku's "How to wear townwear kimono" musubi which I named apple musubi. Still a lot of work to get the shape right, but I hope I am getting in the right direction.

More pictures on my flickr account.

tsubaki time

tsubaki1
Originally uploaded by ume bloom

Hello everyone, Happy New Year! Loooong time no nothing :) but I bring pics :) so be kind!

It's the first kitsuke this year, and I've been dying to wear my camellia tsukesage ever since i bought it from yamatoku, in 2007. Of all obi in the house, my large karakusa obi seemed the best option - after an afternoon of...well.. a lot of tests

i used again my mom's scarf as obiage because I have no green in the house, and a dusty pink obijime, matching the bokashi on my lining

Also, used a yellow kanzashi piece as netsuke, just because it kinda went along with the whole outfit.

More pics on my flickr account.

shiozawa hitoe and wool obi

I've had this kimono for a while and only recently learned that the way the silk is weaved comes from Shiozawa, hence it's called Shiozawa style kimono. It's hitoe and comes from a lot of three that I bought last year from Yahoo Japan. Cream background and weaving is with black and wine red.

The heat outside made me think to downgrade it a bit, by pairing it with a pink-ish wool obi, a maroon indian shawl-turned obiage/heko obi - still thinking about it - and a white home- crochetted, flat obijime, tied in a kai-no-kuchi style.

I am still contemplating whether to wear my tsuke eri or simply wear it as a yukata - maybe a BIG NO-NO but I find the idea at least interesting.

Plus, I have this furoshiki and a pair of geta (got them as trades with a fellow Immortal Geisha Forum members) planned to accessorize the entire ensemble.

I am really excited to wear this tonight. I'll post pics of the final outfit probably somtime tomorrow.

This is the "sometime tomorrow" part; I ended up wearing it as hitoe kimono with the tsuke eri and no juban. It was quite cool.