No more shopping for now!

Last weeks were horrible at least for my wallet. The result:
- 1 maiko hiki
- 1 pair of maiko okobo
- 2 katsura (one already arrived at the customs -.-)
- 2 vintage kimono
- 1 maru obi
- 1 zouri and bag set
- a set of 13 Death Note manga in japanese
- a set of 5 Utena manga in japanese

... I'll have to stay away from eBay, ichiroya and noppin for a while or I'll be broke soon (T.T)
Aaaand I still have some projects in progress, so I should pay attention to them, rather than new stuff. Studying a bit wouldn't hurt either... XP

Concluding: I was pretty active blogging and such this month, but I probably won't be the next ones. If you see me blogging regularly and it's about new stuff, well then you'll now I forgot what I wrote here...

Sugata Musubi No. 3: Shichigosan 七五三結び方

Obviously this children's musubi is meant to be done with children's obi. (祝帯)
Looks really sweet, doesn't it?

(click to enlarge)

Enjoying Yukata and the Sun

Temperature has been stable above 20°C since last week, so today I decided my yukata needs to be used again even if it's still April.
'Cause it's yukata I used just one towel and didn't padded my chest properly.

Items: Kimono, Obi, Geta

Happy Easter(egg)!

This egg is already one year old, but I didn't get around posting it then. I looked after some children who had an easter egg painting "workshop". Of course I had to make one myself, too. (^.^)
It has a "fukura-chick-musubi"! XD

How it could look like: Geiko Kitsuke

In some weeks I expect my katsura to be delivered (don't ask what I paid for shipment...). To prepare I dressed up my mannequin again, this time with my bordeaux hikizuri.The obijime doesn't seem to be the best choice and I'm open for any suggestions.
I admit being lazy, too. The obi is just loosely hanging down in the back, is still to be cleaned and all in all I should have draped it a little bit nicer ^^
Anyway, I can't wait for my katsura to arrive. Want to try how I look with it XD

Items: Kimono, Obi

Sugata Musubi No. 1: Fukurasuzume ふくら雀の結び方

Most common to go with Furisode, the fukurasuzume-musubi. Again for fukuro-obi.

(click to enlarge)

New Kimono Closet Category: FOR SALE

I just added the "FOR SALE" category to my Kimono Closet. Items listed there can be bought or (if you're collecting kimono yourself) traded.
In any case, if you're interested just make an offer or ask me if you're missing information.

Sugata Musubi No. 2: Nijuutaiko 二重太鼓結び方

I guess this one is found quite more often. Otaiko for fukuro-obi:

(click on image to enlarge)

Obi - Taken apart

As mentioned in my last sewing stuff blog entry, I've got another project going on, which has higher priority for now.
It's an Nagoya-obi I purchased for some dollars and is too short for me to wear. So this obi is my victim for a "sew a pre-tied obi" experiment. The first step is already done: I took it apart and removed the lining fabric. I have a subtle feeling there's more lining fabric than anything else XD

Next, I will get it cleaned, 'cause there are some stains in several place. Wish me luck it won't get ruined.

Sugata Musubi No. 4: En-musubi 縁結び

My biyou-sugata came with an envelope containing several instructions for pre tied obi-musubi. I thought I should share with you and started to make scanlations.
Most are very common, so there are already many instruction found on the internet, but I didn't see this one, yet.
It's labelled to be for fukuro-obi.

(click to enlarge)

Mannequin Minarai

Having fun, dressing up my mannequin I tried out possible combinations for my dance hiki. I want to convert it into a minarai-like hikizuri, but there are some other projects going first.
Practical cause of doing minarai and not maiko kitsuke: I just don't have long enough obi and most fukuro will do in terms of lengths for minarai darari.
It's not a complete kitsuke at all and there's a lot of stuff missing including eri, obijime and so on, but I had fun with it (^.^)

So first of all I went with my sha hakata-obi in light pink.

The pink colour of the obi does match with the kimono's lining, though for an authentic minarai outfit, it's way to plain. I feel there's a lot of bling-bling (aka gold/silver/colourful embroidery) on the obi missing.
I am very pleased on the other hand with the result of the obi-musubi. It's so hard doing it with this mannequin, 'cause it's very light weighted an easily falls over.

Back to the outer appearance of the ensemble. Contrast is another point, missing in my opinion. The light colours do match, but that's not the point in this case.

For a better visualisation, I added a photo with a black fukuro obi, that has some gold and colourful embroidery. For sure, this is not the best match (wrong seasonality, too harsh etc.), but it stands out pretty well against the kimono (and has bling-bling (^-^)).

This is where my new ro fukuro obi is to be introduced. The poor thing got cut by the customs right into it's pattern, it made me heartbroken, when I found out (T-T). But thus this beautiful fukuro is probably going to have a shining future as fake darari. It has some nice shiny embroidered butterflies in gold and silver and since it's made of silk I'm pretty positive I can darken the light green colour of it with silk paint. I'm just not sure, which colour would match better (more blueish or greenish?) and when I'll have time and money to realise this new and work-heavy project.







Anyway, it's always fun to play with hikis and I really enjoy doing so. Wishing everybody a nice week,
SilberRegen!

(P.S. Please don't mind the mess in the background, I was moving when these photos were shot XP)

Items: Kimono, Obi (1), (2), (3)

Obi Cataloguing: Got them all! (for now XP)

Wow, I really did it. I am so happy, all my obi are photographed and uploaded into my Kimono Closet. Even the ones I forgot to take pictures of for a long time.
So no new purchases, but many new entries XP

Wool ensemble

I thought I need to update a little bit. A month ago I wore this to my japanese class, celebrating my first passed JLPT exam (^.^) It was pretty cold outside, so forgive me for not wearing traditional footwear and some yofuku underneath XD

Items: Kimono, Obi