Shibori at last

Finally, after 3 weeks of waiting my shibori kimono set has arrived!

Ever since I saw Sumire from the IG-forums wearing her purple shibori houmongi I wanted a shibori kimono. And now I finally have her!

This is a set I bought from Ichiroya (they have very nicely priced kimono sets!), and it contains the kimono, juban, fukuru obi, obiage and obijime. First thing I noticed wearing it, is that it feels very thick. If you'll wear it in winter you won't get cold haha!

To be honest, it's the first time since I own an obi-clip, that I didn't use it! I did my kitsuke by looking at the 'manual' that comes with the kitsuke-dvd of Ichiroya. So no obi-clip and no knot on my back, but simply a koshihimo that temporarily holds the starter-end of the obi in place. And I made the musubi on my back, so it didn't shift while turning.

I really really like this set, it's so chic and sophisticated. Very nice to wear when you're going to the theatre for example.

Doggies

As promised to Rota and Misuchi, here are some pictures of our dogs in their favorite vehicle, my father-in-law's tractor. When they have the chance they jump in and guard our property...

Actually, they just doze away in the sun and sometimes they open their eyes to see if everything is allright. But what they really love is when my father-in-law has to work on our lands and they can join him. Driving is the best!

And I added one picture to show you that they can pose also... Even when they're really filthy!

Collar

Lately I've haven't been doing kitsuke that much, but I have been making pictures for my photography-course.

This one I had to post. It's (still) Red on one of my dummies.

Red tsukesage combo 2 & 3

This weekend I tried my red tsukesage with the black & white obi Misuchi gave me. It could work, but I think the kikko hanhaba works better. And what works even better than the kikko hanhaba, is the reverse side of that same hanhaba! That has a light brown color. not the same as the flowers, but a bit darker. After I had Red (that's an easy nickname!) on, I dressed my dummy in it with the reverse side of the hanhaba, and that is a perfect combination.

One thing I also noticed is that the tsukesage is a bit too small width-wise. I don't know if you can see, but the back seam is too far to the left. I did this because otherwise the frontpanel ends at the middle, and I find it prettier when it's more to the right.

All I need now is a trick to keep the frontpanel more to the right when you have no ohashori. I have to keep pulling it to the right. But I really do love the kimono!

Finally a kimono closet

Long live IKEA!!

Finally I've got a kimono closet. Not a real tansu unfortunately, we don't have the space and I don't have the money yet, but probably in the future there will be one...

Because I have a few days off, and so does my boyfriend, and the weather wasn't good enough to tour in our cabriolet, we decided to take a trip to IKEA. Yesterday I went throught the catalog a final time to see if there actually were drawer-closet that had the size of a tatoshi, and there actually were a few.

It has 4 drawers.
The bottom one now holds my kimono...






The middle one holds my juban, zori, hanhaba obi, purse and a few more kitsuke items...






And these 2 little drawers both hold obi. The left drawer also has my obiage, obijime, haneri and a towel for padding...






and the right drawer has, beside obi, the rest you need at kitsuke (obi makura, obi clips, koshihimo etc.).






And here it is with my kimono/kitsuke books on top of it.

I'm sure I will re-arrange it very soon, but now I just wanted to store all my kimono-goods in it.

Accessoires

Things you can never have enough when you're 'into' kimono, are obijime (obi-cords) and obiage (obi-sashes). And again Misuchi 'supplied' me with a few more ^_^
Although I've been able to use my green and darkpink obijime/obiage sets, with almost all my kimono surprisingly, she gave me 6 obijime and 3 obiage.

She also gave me 3 obi; 1 black & white of which I think may be a good combo with the red tsukesage, 1 bright blue obi with red flowers (Misuch got the same obi but that black instead of blue, of which she said we both just have to wear it at the same time) and a beautiful brown woven obi also with flowers. This last one has a very rustic look, very pretty and it will look perfect on my black & brown kimono.

With these last 2 kimono I've come to a humble collection of 9 kimono. And I have to say that I really need a kimonocloset. Unfortunately it will not be a real tansu (maybe in the future when I have more money and very important, more space), but there will come a nice closet with drawers especially for my kimono!

Red with golden-ish flowers

This red tsukesage, also awase or lined, with golden-ish flowers I also got from Misuchi. The color is such a beautiful red, almost bloedrood as we say in Dutch, which translates as as red as blood. Personally that's one of my favorite colors.

And... it's the first kimono that combines with my kikko hanhaba obi! I've had that obi for I think almost a year now? No, since just before Christmas last year. But I haven't been able to wear it with a kimono because it didn't match any. I almost thought about trading it... luckily I didn't!

I tied the clamshell musubi, but unfortunately the back of my kimono is a bit wrinkled. But still, I like this kimono also very much.

Do you think this hanhaba obi is a good combination?