Frontpage!

Something very different and not kimono... Last week I made a pretty picture of a lily that we have in our garden. The photo turned out to be very good.

On a mac-oriented Dutch forum you can send in pictures for their homepage, that changes every 2 weeks. And this week that picture is my lily!

Olivegreen kimono

2 Saturdays ago I went to visit Misuchi, and had a great time. We talked about kimono and other things, and we also visited the Japanese antique-shops where she works. It was very hot and sunny that day, but it didn't interfere with us having fun! Because I did some things for Misuchi's art-site she gave me this beautiful olivegreen kimono, a tsukesage if I am right (still struggling with kimono and kitsuke glossary), with little carts on it.

She knew that I had an orange nagoya obi with a (royal) cart on it, and hoped that it would match this kimono. And guess what? It's a perfect match!! It's even a bit too long. The first time I had it on, my ohashori was actually too long! These pictures I made the second time. To make a shorter ohashori I tied the koshihimo not just above the hips but more on my waist.

I am so happy with it, it's just a gorgeous kimono.


Thank you Misuchi!

Homemade suso

Last weekend I made my first kitsuke-item myself! My mom has 2 sewingmachines, an old one she has since forever, and a new one she recently bought because it had features her one one doesn't. So now I'm eyeing on her old sewingmachine ^_~

But because I have no sewing skills I decided to do a test run at my mom's and make a suso. My juban is a bit short so I thought about making a suso that I can wear underneath my juban!

And there she is, my very own handmade suso! Have to say that it was a piece of cake, just a big square piece of poly. The fabric was 1.40m, therefor I didn't need 2 pieces of 70 cm. And the sewing was aslo very easy, mostly making seams...

In the second and third picture you can see the trick I use to create a perfect collar. I use a kohrinbelt to close my juban, and then a velcro datejime to fasten and thighten everything, that I pull through the loop just below the jubancollar. It's just perfect!




With kimono on it looks like pictures 4 to 6. As you can see (I saw it when I was editing the pictures) I need to wear the suso a bit higher. You can see a glimpse of it just underneath the hem of the kimono. But that's for next time!

Close-up

As promised, but a bit later... Here is a close-up of my 'new' orange nagoya obi that I'm wearing in my previous post. I don't know if it's a royal cart, but I like even so.

Purple bamboo komom

This is the other kimono that was delivered yesterday, or actually the day before yesterday. It's a synthetic bamboo hitoe ur unlined komon, and this one also feels very comfy.

It matched it with a beautiful silver, purple and pink fukuro obi. I don't know how the pattern is called, but colorwise it's a perfect match. Unfortunately the obi too formal for the komon, but I simply couldn't resist buying it. It's too pretty a combination.


And for this komon I also found a second obi, and this one is a bit more appropriate, since it's a nagoya obi. If it was a hitoe nagoya obi, it would be completely perfect. This one has a peachy color with a cart on the musubi. I'll post a close up of these two obi later, so you can see them better.

For now if I'm buying kimono, I rather look if the color combination is good, than look if it has to have a hitoe obi. But if I choose my obi on color, than I have to practice more on my kitsuke and make that perfect instead of having the perfect obi ^_^

Black & Brown

Finally my 2 new kimono and 4 obi arrived yesterday!
Time to do some kitsuke again. On the IG-forums I read that someone uses a kohrinbelt also on their nayajuban, to keep the collar back. I tried ties and I must say that it works really good! So now I use 2 kohrinbelts in my kitsuke, and less koshihimo.

This komon is a unlined or hitoe synthetic komon, and it feels really nice. And I have a proper ohashori! Thanks to Misuchi's tip on how to give your kimono the right lenght, this is also good in my kitsuke. I can really feel the difference.

The first obi gives the kimono a really chic look. The obi itself very light/thin, not so stiff as some obi can be.

The hanhaba obi gives the kimono a more casual appearance. And hanhaba can be tied in so many fun ways, so I tried this one. Do'n know what the name is of this musubi, but it's very simple and looks nice!

Wool kimono with haori

Two weekends ago I had a kitsuke-practice, just for fun and to test my camera with remote control and the tripod. I put on my wool kimono and then my hoari, which was a present from Misuchi.

What I really have to do next time, is try to make the kimono a bit longer. And most important: smile more ^_^