Handmade Kimono

For my last week of maternity leave, I really wanted to finish a sewing project. I bought the fabric for this kimono a long time ago, but I have only gotten around to making it now because the baby has started going to daycare. So here's the finished product (the color is most accurate in the close-up photos). It's a cotton-linen blend with white flower embroidery. I did a casual pairing with a hanhaba obi just for picture purposes. The obi is tied in 二色鼓結び (futairo tsuzumi musubi).

Yukata for Belated Gofuku no Hi 2017

I missed Gofuku no Hi since I was out of town and sick (still sick though), so here's my super late contribution! This townscape yukata arrived today so I paired it with a reversible red and black kingyo hanhaba obi. This musubi required an obijime, so I used a green and white checkerboard sanbuhimo with a silver dragonfly obidome.

Pink Hakama Kitsuke

Quick post for today: pink hakama kitsuke! I used my blue baby duck haneri with this deep purple butterfly komon and a light yellow hanhaba obi.

Kodomo no Hi (こどもの日) 2017

I put together this ensemble in honor of kodomo no hi (こどもの日) tomorrow. The kimono is pink cotton seersucker, and I made the matching hanhaba obi and haneri out of cotton nursery fabric with a pattern of baby ducks. It's a rather lightweight ensemble, but our weather has been around 80 degrees F (about 27 degrees C) for the past few weeks. This was also my first time doing musubi with a sanjuuhimo, but I'm happy with the result!

Hydrangea Yukata and Too Small Heko Obi

Today's kitsuke was a lesson in problem solving! I ordered a heko obi for this yukata, and the dimensions were listed incorrectly. Instead of the adult size that was listed, I received a child's size... It was a good buy so I figured it was not worth returning. At first I thought I might just use it as a puchi-heko obi or even for fabric, but then I decided to see if I could find a way to tie it. One of my favorite books (ファブリック帯の本) has many ways to tie heko obi, including using long scarves, so I modeled it after those musubi. I also used a hanhaba obi tying tool (kind of like biyosugata but for hanhaba) to help provide support. I hope you like it!

First Postpartum Kitsuke - Spring Edition

After just having a baby, I can't really do kitsuke on myself, so out comes the trusty sewing mannequin! I got this cotton kimono and obi fairly recently and was dying to see them together. I tried to use colors in the obi for this ensemble to help keep the spring look, since an orange kimono could easily lean toward autumn.