Kimono day

Today I decided to have a kimono-day. Didn't have much to do for a change, and it could be that some friends might visite to browse through some vinyl we're selling, so I thought, why not. Good opportunity to practise some kitsuke, and I wanted to see if the brown woven obi Misuchi gave me would match with my black and brown striped komon.

And it is a perfect match! As for obiage and obijime I choose my green set. It may not be the right set, but I think it looks okay. I do have a black obiage, and I thought about pairing it with a silvery-looking obijime, but green looked better. And finally a flat obijime-knot!

One thing did I found out today was that doing laundry can be done in kimono! But lets face it, that is just putting your laundy in the washer and later putting it in the drier. Nothing difficult about that, even when you're dressed in kimono ^_~

Still, I got some cold feet, so I changed my tabi for some socks and warm slippers (sorry, but I don't know the english word for pantoffels). Charming isn't it ;-)

Kimono & obi collection

Navy blue irotomesode
Originally uploaded by annebyebye

Maybe a year now I'm also on Flickr, and a few weeks ago I had the idea to but my kimono and obi collection in there. Easy to see the kimono and obi I own.

Not all pictures have a decent description but I'm working on that. Always fun to do, especially when suddenly, after a few pictures done, you decide to mention if it's hitoe, awase, etc... ^_^

My first... yukata

Yep, together with the shibori set my first yukata arrived. I hope I will be wearing this a lot at home, since it can be very warm inside our house. We do have central heating, but we don't really use it. Instead we have 2 fireplaces/stoves, which gives a much nicer warmth than central heating. But because of the stoves it tends to get hotter than in an average house, a bit like summer ^_^
So I'm going to try and wear this one more often than I do with kimono.

Nice thing about the yukata is that I'm a pisces... And there are also little ones on the hanhaba obi.

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!