New obidome

I've been getting ready to list some of my new obidome creations to my etsy store.
I've made a few colour ranges, basically I just really enjoy working with a certain colour and end up making 5 or so obidome from that colour before finding a new "yummy" or "pretty" colour.

Available for sale is a classic faux "tortoiseshell" colour combination:

bird on bamboo cane

A clear "glass" design:

Glass kiku

Bright fuchsia:

Fuchsia bunny rabbit

There's also some random coloured obidome that you can see in the obidome section at Kofuji Kimono such as black plum and camellia flowers and more metallic designs.

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?

Garden progress.

I took these photos a couple of days ago as the garden has exploded with growth lately.

The two gourd plants have grown together and become one large patch.

I've got about 4 different sized gourds coming along nicely!

My one jack-be-little plant. I did try to grow a second one to help with pollination but it just didn't happen.

This week was the first time it had male and female flowers open at the same time so hopefully I'll have some super cute pumpkins growing soon..

Female flowers of pumpkin,squash, zucchini and watermelon ( maybe others but I'm yet to learn about them) will have the little fruits forming below the flower as shown here.

My butternut pumpkin patch.

Its taking over the entire veggie garden!

We had a lot of rain in early January so now everything is growing crazy fast.

My two raspberry beds have lots of new canes coming up, this one came up outside his garden bed!

Some of my small shining light watermelons!

I've got about 4 good sized ones growing, fingers crossed they'll be good.

The biggest of my small shining light watermelons.

The skin is supposed to be a dark green so I guess these have a while yet to mature.

This summer has been relatively mild so I've really been able to enjoy the veggie patch so far.

Thanks for reading

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 ;)

First post of 2015!

I realise that January is almost over, its gone too fast for me already!
Once Christmas was finished both my hubby and I became sick, he got sick first then just as he was recovering I got it so there was a good week and a bit where we just lazed about the house moaning about being crook.

Luckily, before Christmas I was working on some projects as a trial run to see whether I should add different handmade products to my Etsy store.
I made a couple of pre-tied obi and tried my hand at stencilling for some han'eri.

I learnt a lot of things as I haven't really done stencilling before, mainly that while I personally prefer more delicate, intricate designs the larger designs were easier to handle.
Also its a lot easier to design something for the obi- as you have lots of area to work with, but with the han'eri obviously you've only got a thin section of fabric shown so the design must look good in a thin, narrow configuration.
 Hence why my silvery swirls don't look as good on the mannequin as it does when the han'eri is flat....
Never mind, it'll make a nice addition to my personal collection as I have very few han'eri, I've mainly got white plains ones or maiko hen'eri lol! It's a nice problem to have I suppose ;)
So while it was fun trying something different I don't think I'll be expanding into that category as time soon...
I am selling the butterfly and kitty cat  obi in my Etsy store for those of you who are interested.
Thanks!

New obidome designs!

Finally!
Something fun to share with you.
Here's my new obidome styles that  worked on over the past few months:

Here I've got a bunny rabbit, pine cones, mushroom, snow capped mountain and a cute little leaf.

Also you may have noticed that I'm still in my metallic phase but also dark brown and white colours just suit so many of the new designs.

There's a few other designs coming soon.

I'm very pleased at how they all turned out, I am in love with the little gold leaf ( will have to make one for myself!) and the pine cones look amazing in the bronze colour and in the "snow covered" version ( does it actually look like snow on a pine cone? I wasn't sure it would turn out right...) 

All the obidome pictured above will be available in my Etsy store Kofuji Kimono very soon!