Finally, some kitsuke photos!

Hello everyone, long time no post aye...
I swear, every year I say I'm going to blog more, and maybe I do for a couple of months and then I forget about it...

So technically here in Australia its winter, however this is kitsuke was planned for a late autumn showing but I didn't make it in time...
So let's just pretend its still autumn for another week or so and we'll be all good ;)


And let's pretend I can master the art of trying to take photos and organising my face better.....

Hands down  I love this kimono. If there was a fire in the house I would grab this over a few hikizuri ( for sentimental value not monetary, obviously with the prices hikizuri are going for these days, geeeez...)
So because I love it so much do I like to wear it each autumn, although I did buy a similar kimono here in my Ravenclaw kitsuke and it's nice, but I don't love it as much as this one.
I don't love the kitsuke though.
Let's face it, I'm not one of those people who can do clean, neat kitsuke. Mine is definitely the frazzled house wife version!
The obi is white and green hakata ( I never saw the appeal of hakata for about 5 years and now I'd like more in my collection)
Obiage and obijime are yellow and golden, to reflect the leaves on the kimono and the obidome is a clear "glass" leaf one I made hinting at the iciness of winter around the corner.
(Shameless plug, but my Etsy store Kofuji Kimono will be updated shortly with some new styles of obidome including this "glass" style)

The han'eri is a black base with painted silver swirls on it when I played with stencils late last year, it was already on my juban and I thought it would maybe work well going into the "dead" of winter.
Its a very meaningful kitsuke if you hadn't noticed ;)


I tried using my biyosugata for the musubi, obviously practice is the key with this kimono hobby, the more often and frequent you do it the better you are and it shows today.
I couldn't get the drum part right and it was all lumpy for some reason? I don't remember having this trouble before.
But then I seriously thought I should turn all my nagoya obi into pre-tied obi.
I mean why not? I never do anything else with them and it would've been a life saver today, but the thought of cutting up an obi......
I might stew on it for a bit longer, then probably pick out an obi for a practice and see how I go.
I've made pre-tied obi before so that's not an issue, its just working up the nerve to cut a perfectly good obi, even if it is to make it more wearable...
Have you ever made your own pre-tied obi? If you have, did you ever regret cutting or has it been the best thing you've done?

I imagine some pre-tied obi will be very useful in my near future, as I'm working less I may find the time to practice my kitsuke before my hobbies go on hold for a bit....
You might kind of be able to tell in the above photos but my belly's getting a bit bigger these days, and its only getting bigger!
I'm 21 weeks pregnant and it took 20 weeks to think "I'd like to wear kimono".
The photo isn't the best, didn't get the angle just right but there's a belly there.

So now I'm off to ponder which poor obi will be the first to get the chop and work out which of my kimono will be big enough to fit in a couple of weeks...

Bamboo and ume hikizuri kitsuke

So first off let me say I'm not exactly thrilled with this kitsuke.
I mean it looks ok, but it doesn't feel right.
(maybe its just because it took me two days to tie the darari obi so it looks like some decent attempt.... need to start lifting weights or something!)

The hikizuri is my most recent one (purchased last year)
It has a base of light purple with woven waves and striking bamboo and ivy leaves design.
Its not in very good condition, there are many large stains and overall discolouration.

The obi is a black based darari with gold ume flowers on branches.
It does have some worn marks where its been constantly folded for use but what can you expect from something that's probably had a lot of use in its day?

The han'eri is a very junior maiko collar, lots of red with little white embroidery, I needed to sew it only a collar base to use for the kitsuke so that's why I've been working on this kitsuke for about a week now.

The obijime is a wide vintage one, I don't think its the best choice.
Or the combination of obi/obijime/obidome colours doesn't gel right for me.

The obidome is one I made specifically for this, its a twin ivy leaf design in transparent gold and bronze, although it really only looks gold.
I had made an orange and red one as well but I felt the gold gave it a touch more class.

I have a bad habit of not pulling the collar low enough and not tying the obi high enough. Combine the two and the back doesn't look very good.
Overall its ok, but not as lovely as I pictured in my head...
Thoughts?

First kitsuke of 2015

Shame on me! I wore kimono twice last year. TWICE!!
I remember not doing kimono for the past few months but I thought I'd gotten a few ensembles done earlier in the year.... More than two at least.
So I've only need to wear kimono two more times and I've beaten last years record! The shame....

I also think I didn't buy any kimono for my personal collection last year!
That's... impressive but kinda sad...
I was looking at my summer kimono today deciding what to wear between the three yukata and 4 ro/hitoe kimono I own. To some that may seem like a good number but I think I need some new blood, I'm also low on ro obi ( I sold a lot of my summer collection over the years) but like 7 hanhaba obi! I've worn hanhaba obi like, three times in 7 years!
I think now that I've finally settled down a bit with what I like and what fits me ( and stop being things because its "pretty" or "cheap") everything is more rounded as a whole collection. Still have some bad areas, no doubt, but all over better.

Anyway! This is what I got up to:

I have no idea what the door frame photos all about, but it was interesting enough to make the cut.
So this kimono is one of the newer additions to the family, bought last summer, is a decent fit on me and hitoe.
The obi is about... 3 years old and I think this is the first time I 've worn it.
Obijime and obiage are summer ones, I bought A HUGE pile of obijime/obiage 3-ish years ago so I think I'll be set for the rest of my time...
The obidome is one of my own creations ( but of course) he's a gold koi, his head's a bit deformed so I kept him.
It was a bit dark in the hall so the kimono and obi look a shade or two darker than they should, the obi is the most glorious, rich purple- more like the close-up photos.

So yeah, my first kitsuke in about 9 months! Woo! *hides face in shame*
Good excuse to buy a new kimono to wear though ;)

New purchases

Kimono wise I've hardly bought anything for myself this year, I suppose that's partially because once you've been collecting kimono for a few years generally you start to create a well balanced collection, one or two of everything.

I've bought a few dance programs, a few pre-ww2 Kamogawa and a couple 1970s Miyako and Kyo odori. I really need to make time to scan a few of those in.

So a couple of dance programs and also something special!
A few weeks ago on YJA there was a couple of maiko hikizuri up for auction ( also a few han'eri and one darari!)
I was incredibly lucky in those auctions.
I managed to snag a han'eri and a hikizuri!

The three han'eri that sold went cheaply, I think that's because most people were throwing the big money at the hikizuri and darari.
The han'eri has seen better days, it has heavily dirty with red marks... Perhaps it could be spot cleaned?
Has anyone had any experience cleaning embroidery?

The maiko hikizuri isn't in good condition either, it does have some slight discolouration on the body and some prominent stains on the front, nevertheless the actual design is beautiful, subtle and elegant.

Enough talk, photos!

Sorry for the lame photos, I would like to sew the collar up and dress up my mannequin later :)

Yeah I was really having a bad photo day huh? Blurry as...
Anyway, I tried to capture all the subtle shading on the leaves, I must seriously have a thing for autumn leaves on my kimono...
The combination of ivy and bamboo is a bit different, or at least I haven't seen it many times.
Bamboo is a pretty common theme on kimono as is ivy I spose but I guess I just don't see it as much.
Plus the purple background really makes the greens and reds pop :)

The han'eri is a senior maiko collar, my first, the others I have are more for younger maiko. But like I mentioned before it'll need a clean somehow, we'll see how that goes.
Because if I'm honest with myself it'll take me 4 months just to sew it onto a chikara-nuno/emon-nuki.
Poor time management skills? I gots them.

To top it off I'm going to make an ivy obidome!
It'll look all matchy-matchy like my waterlily ensemble
(In a good way I hope)

Which darari obi do you think I should use?
Black with gold ume
Orange with gold kiku and kiri
or the white and gold two piece obi

I personally think all would go ok, but the black would really make a strong impression (junior) or the white and gold for a more subtle look (senior).

Bright Stripes!

On Sunday I thought I'd try on my new kimono and obi.
I don't have many kimono that fit like they actually should and it was really nice to be able to wrap it around my big hips with a good overlap and sleeves that nearly reach my wrists rather than half way up my forearms ( who knows that feeling?!)

I tried to pick an obiage/obijime colour that would be strong enough against the colourful-ness of the kimono and obi, I think it looks ok but perhaps there would be a better combo out there.
I like this kitsuke :) Partially because it was a recent purchase and I wore it instead of putting it in my cupboard for 2 years, also because its different to what I usually wear and a bit brighter.
The obidome is a "pewter" kiku. Lately I've been experimenting with metallic colours and I think they look pretty good.

New Kimono and mannequin kitsuke

( because I was too lazy to dress myself...)

I decided that I really needed some striped kimono, and a hakata obi for good measure.

And so I got....

I decided that if I was going to buy anymore kimono then they should really be a size that should fit me, rather than a pretty kimono that's too small.
Yes I realize that I could let out the seams on a small kimono but I started that on one of my kimono.... well over a year ago. So not the best option.

I'm not sure what possessed me to buy the bright purple and green stripe kimono, maybe that day I thought I needed a bright kimono.

The black, white and green kimono is actually a hitoe kimono so that's seasonally appropriate for now and I really like how it looks with the cream and green hakata obi.
I kinda lucked out with that combo, I didn't buy the obi to match the kimono, and I think the hakata will work ok with the purple stripe kimono too.
Actually I never think how a new piece will work with my existing collection, if I like it that's about as far as I think about it. Therein lies a major problem with my collection!

Hopefully I can get around to doing a proper kitsuke for each kimono soon.

First kitsuke of the New Year a.k.a Ro Bamboo

I may have mentioned before that I have a love affair with ro kimono.
It may have to do with Australia being a warm place and ro is so light and breezy that they make a good match.
Also being so light ro kimono and obi are cheaper to buy from overseas!

When I was planning this kitsuke I wasn't actually going to use this kimono, I was going to use my calla lily kimono but this bamboo kimono caught my eye.

I bought this from Shinei when they were still eBay-ing. The A,B,C,D are some small holes that I was going to cover with embroidery. That was over two years ago and I still haven't done it...

Both the kimono and obi are a similar shade of green, I was trying out whether it would make me look taller, one continuous colour you know?
I don't have a full length shot though so I can't say how well it worked.
Please excuse my crooked photos and me looking a bit grumpy and the messy kitsuke. I had altered the kimono to make it bigger but now there's too much excess fabric so it was difficult trying to hide it.

I really should fix this kimono up, my original idea was a sparrow and some insects for the embroidery.
Here was my original design. Yep, two years ago.... It really does take me a long time to finish projects, partly because I always have about 10 different ones on the go...
It might be another two years before its done!

My 2013 in review.

I've been a slack blogger this year huh?
With this post it'll be a grand total of 14 for the entire year!
I suppose that has to do with the fact that I haven't worn kimono as much this year as I would've liked, but you know, real life gets in the way sometimes.

So here's my years worth of kitsuke!
Not the most exciting bunch but at least three of those ensembles were of kimono I've never worn before so that's a good stat ;)
( Also three of those kitsuke are wisteria kimono, do you think I have a problem much?!)

Left to right:

Yellow yukata with mauve hanhaba obi.
Wisteria yukata with the same mauve obi ( I was in love with that obi for a while)
Worn to the Kimono de Jack Australia event at the Japanese Festival in Melbourne.
Winter scenery kimono with accessories for the Kimono de Jack Australia Winter Challenge.
Another wintery themed kitsuke, although I was aiming for a "spring" feel...
Grey and white patterned komon with cream hakata obi.
Ro wisteria komon with a cream hakata obi. ( my next obi love affair was this obi)
Wisteria furisode with a wisteria obi and me in a bad wig!

My last kistuke for 2013 is a sea themed ensemble: ( not at the sea tho...)

This seashell kimono was one of my early purchases and I love it dearly!
The kimono is a hitoe chirimen and its so soft and comfortable, just on the small side for me however. It is also badly stained so I'll never wear it out in public but I enjoy it nevertheless.
The obi is a recent purchase ( recent two years ago -_- ) the whole thing is just open weaved threads in shades of blue and white. I've worn it before and find it a very easy obi to use.
I went with golden accessories for this look with  a golden yellow obiage, gold obijime and a gold seashell obidome I made :)
I'm very happy how it all pulled together, usually when I plan a kitsuke I decide on a kimono and an obi ( or a small selection) and pick all the accessories as I'm dressing.
Even my collar was behaving for me today!
Usually my collar gets eaten by the time I get around to photos and I have to spend 10 mins adjusting everything but not this time, just a quick smooth over and all good.

I also opened my Etsy shop KofujiKimono late 2012 but didn't really start to do much with it till the new year. 
I'm happy with how I went in my first year of selling, provided I did close the shop for three months while we moved.
I do have a lot of new ideas for the shop next year! Lots more obidome and I hope to start making a few other kimono accessories.
I will also continue to stock vintage kimono, obi and accessories.

My fiancé and I also bought a house this year ( that's the move I mentioned) so lately my spare time has gone into jobs around the house.
My  mother is coming for a visit in the new year and insists on painting some rooms for us. A very generous offer but we are still so un-organized that the spare rooms are still full of boxes.... There's the tv/living room to paint if she really wants I guess...

That would have to be my year all summed up, not an eventful year but a year for getting things done I spose.

My goals for 2014 include:
* Blogging more. You guys saw that one coming huh?
*Wearing kimono more often so I have something to blog about
*Save for an overseas holiday or renovations for the house ( including the original 70's kitchen... No joke...)
*Work more on my Etsy.
*Sew more of my own clothes. This will probably be limited to dresses and skirts but I'll be happy with that.
* Lastly the normal eat better/lose weight/walk the dog more thing.


How has your 2013 been and what are you planning for 2014?