Halloween Kitsuke

Josh and I were off to two Halloween parties tonight, so we decided to go in kimono ^_^. Josh just got his first real kimono and juban the other day, so he decided to wear it. It's a nice dark green tsumugi.



I decided to go out of season and wear the tsubame komon. I needed to wear something washable, and the other choices were too plain or summer kimono, so I just said to heck with seasonality tonight and went for it. I wore a new fukuro obi that I received in a trade. Once again, breaking the rules (fukuro with komon), but I just didn't care tonight XP.



Our first stop of the night is a carriage show where my parents are competing with their pony. After the last class, there will be a costume party. Then we're going to Josh's friend's house for their costume party. I hope I'll make it!

Tsumakawa and other buys

Since all my bills have been paid for the month, I wanted to get some things from Rakuten with some of the money I have left. I bought a few small kitsuke things from Kimono-Kyoukomati (like plain white haneri and rain covers for zori), but my two bigger buys from them were tsumakawa and a hip pad.



I've wanted tsumakawa since I saw ones like these in The New Kimono, so at 2,100¥, these were right up my alley ^_^.

I also bought 2 obiage from Kimonozone on Etsy. The first one is white background with blue shibori momiji and various geometric designs. The second is brown and grey with gold paint and wax-dyed filigree.

Another kimono bolt!

I won another kimono bolt tonight!

I'm unsure as the whether I'm going to make a kimono or a haori out of this one though. It's wool, but I'm unsure whether I'm going to line it or not. I guess it depends on how good I do on the first kimono. Here's to hoping!

My First Kimono Tan!

After countless fruitless searches for the perfect fitting kimono, I just decided to try to sew one. I have legitimate patterns to make one, but finding a good tan at a great price was a bit challenging. I finally settled on this purple bolt from Ichiroya:

The colors remind me of Easter eggs! XD I also don't have any purple kimono anymore, so it will be unlike anything I already own. And it's synthetic, so cleaning will easy. I now just need to hope that there's enough fabric to make a kimono my size (68 inches [173 cm] tall and 58 inch [147 cm] wingspan) as well as enough width. I know I will at least be able to get the height, so here's to the wingspan! If you have any tips on how to make the shoulders wider, please let me know!

Yellow Tsumugi with Purple Bird Obi

My *expensive* purple bird obi arrived the other day, so I begged my boyfriend to bring his nice camera over to take some kitsuke pictures. I'm kind of in the middle of redoing my kimono collection at the moment, so the kimono that I chose was this yellow tsumugi, though I'm sure there are better coordinations out there. The obi itself is super soft, so it was frustrating to try to make a very straight line across the top of my otaiko. Any suggestions to help with this?



I also got these cork soled zori in the mail recently, and the purple color was right in line with the obi. =)

Autumn Grasses Houmongi

I finally put together an ensemble with the autumn grass houmongi bought way back. When I originally bought it, I thought it was a much light "café au lait" color but when it arrived, it turned out to be chocolate brown. After much searching for a compatible obi, I found one a few months ago. Then came the trouble with selecting the obiage and obijime. I like the colors I've chosen (dark red obiage and brown obijime); they don't stand out very much, but they don't overpower the outfit either. For the most part, that is a look I like. But I also think green and coppery orange would suit it well. I finished the ensemble off with a yellow momiji kanzashi and pale green zori. My sweet boyfriend took the photos: