The challenge questions are:
1. How did you discover and get into kimono?
2. Your dearest kimono item(s).
3. Your most used kimono item(s) (not counting jubans, datejimes etc.).
4. Your least used kimono item(s).
5. Your favourite coordination(s) so far.
6. What do you like and don’t like about kimono.
7. Kimono confessions. Did you know that…
8. Your dream kitsuke items (or at least items you really really want but can’t get for whatever reason).
9. Your biggest kimono fears.
10. Your biggest kimono inspiration.
11. Your kimono collection.
12. The evolution of your kitsuke.
13. Your special kimono memory.
Back onto this again now and I will also write more of my Ishinomaki report as I have 3 days left to cover 
What DON’T I like?
Folding kimono. I hate it! I avoid it and hang up my kimono with a vague excuse to myself that I am airing them out before I out them away…..but in the end they do need to be folded. Grrrrr…….
In contrast, my boy cat Horatio (see the relevance of the cat image now?) loves folding kimono and bounces all over my efforts (for space I have to fold downstairs) which of course makes me mad and slows down the process!
What DO I like?
Everything else, it’s an obsession n’est-ce pas?
Specifically I like how thin it makes me feel. Over the last 4 years I have put on 2 stone (28lbs put on and currently 9lbs lost again and growing) but kimono doesn’t call you fat. It tells you how nice and elegant you look.
Take this photo from my holiday. Whenever I go away I suffer from IBS terribly and my belly looks as though I have swallowed a basketball, but in kimono you can’t tell:
If you go up a dress size, your jeans stop fitting you. You didn’t realise you had put on that much weight, but your kimono will wrap around your woes and you can still go to the ball.
I can make kimono suit any occasion, any theme, any emotional state and any fluctuation in my weight.
Taking this from Naomi who has just started on this challenge too:
Origin of the challenge:
Blogs participating in the challenge:
Well I have a theme challenge ahead. On the 4th of February I am attending my regional jitsu ball which has a winter/snow theme. So I need to track back and stop ‘looking towards spring’ and look back to the winter.
My first item is my snow obi shown here with my geiko kimono :
So as it is a ball I need to think furisode! Taken from Immortal Geisha my winter themes are:
Winter
Plum, bamboo, pine combo
Plum
Camelia
Snow covered bamboo
Snow covered pine
Snowflakes
Bare trees
Bare branches
Hmmmm..crap, none of my furisode will match any of those themes.
I think I will just have to wear my purple floral furisode with blue accessories and my snow obi. Hopefully attendees will be too busy with the wow factor of my furisode to notice the lack of theme.
I have been sewing today. One of the easiest things to kimono craft yourself. Even if you are really crap at sewing, you can still do this and it is a must have for kimono co-ordination.
Han eri are just a rectangle of fabric, 14cm by about 100cm. I have just stitched two contrasting bits of fabric 50cmx14cm together then (well currently pinned but it will be sewn by hand while I watch Sherlock tonight on the BBC) sewn on, tucking under the fabric for a smooth hem.
It doesn’t matter how bad your sewing is as the sewn part will be covered by kimono
This is made out of two Cath Kidston fat quarters. It’s expensive fabric so I only use it for collars.
The blue dotty matches my zori, so now I need to find the middle bits to go out kimono-ing next weekend!
Edited to add…matching up with my dark pink obiage/obijime set:
Rose cotton fukuro obi…
and er….hmmmm…a kimono of some sorts….
and I am already suffering! Oh my god! I see friends buying wonderful things and I want want want! How on earth am I going to manage for 12 months?
I know when I finally start sewing this weekend and making pretty collars it will give my ‘clicking fingers’ something to do other than shop online but still…. temptation everywhere!
Since watching Sakuran again I really, really want a bright vintage uchikake softer than my big red thing:
and yuzen dyed. However I can neither afford to spend the money or have seen one that I want. I want a purple or dark green base colour.
And….I would so have nowhere to wear it. So no, I will not buy one. I don’t cosplay and it will live in a box.
I will prance around the house in my bulky red uchikake that I do love.
On the Saturday I arrived too late to go out with the volunteers so I familiarised myself with the Its not just mud ‘bubble wrap chic’ house that I would be staying in for 5 days.
I had my first experience of an onsen (a temporary onsen which equated to a large paddling pool in a shed). It was free, spine tinglingly hot and well you had to get neekid in front of people! (same sex of course)
As it was the weekend there were lots of volunteers and remembering names was difficult, or in most cases just not done! A fantastic spread was put on my the INJM chefs as always. As a general rule a donation of 500y per night is appreciated in the INJM house to pay for food and heating. Also helping with the chores. I find it strange being not of domesticated blood, what to actually volunteer to do round the INJM house. However, washing up after dinner is a good staple, and you will be asked if further help is needed.
Sunday we traveled out to Ayukawa. The March 11 tsunami that slammed into Japan’s northeast coast took most of Ayukawa with it, destroying 80 percent of houses and leaving 400 of its 1,400 residents unaccounted for. Above where we where working on debris clearance there was a combini (like a co-op) with help in English and kanji still on the carpark. You just can’t imagine.
We worked with around 200 volunteers that day
Looking out towards the sea
This used to be homes.
and of course we all need to eat
The other team that went out from the house cleaned around a huge effigy of a can of whale meat that was displaced during the tsunami. It is being left in place as a reminder for the people of Ishinomaki.
I will write more soon!
Sewing is something a kimono lover just has to deal with. From repairing kimono to fashioning unique accessories for you own style.
So today I made myself a ‘fake collar’ with red/white polkadot fabric and cherries in a dual sided fashion.
I have also cut out another rockabilly/kitch themed collar for sewing up soon.
I am not sure what to do with the remainder of the fabric, but I am wondering how a cotton obiage would fair in the same two way design. I would probably make it double sided using all 4 of the fabrics – however, then I could make a patchwork fukuro obi instead and find myself some cheap black cotton fabric for the underside.
British Tsunami Volunteers in Japan – Jamie from Its not just Mud
You will read more about these guys in the next section of my report on my time in Ishinomaki. But take a look now
When I decided to volunteer in Japan the most often asked question was WHY?!!
‘You’re so far away?’
I know..
‘Japan is the third largest economy, they can afford it’
Really?
‘Then why?!!?’
Why do we do anything? I could not put my reasons into words, however many times I was asked. I can even now only describe it as a ‘pull of humanity’
I felt the need to help, so I did.
I saved for 6 months to be able to join the volunteer effort, I thank those who donated to my cause but 90% of the funds came from my own pocket. I knew this would be the case so I planned a rough date in November to fly over.
My friend Sheila was key in my effort, without her I would have been stuck as there are no guides to HOW you volunteer. She is very active in the relief effort, housing volunteers and volunteering herself with various Christian and smaller volunteer groups.
I came to find that the small groups in Ishinomaki are making a big difference to lives.They don’t get the praise, donations and media hype they deserve. They are the hidden diamonds.
I travelled down with a Christian group called Kurume Bible Fellowship (KBF), a Christian group who have gone to Ishinomaki almost every weekend since the disaster. On this trip they were distributing heaters for the coming winter, and working with Samaritans Purse on construction projects.
We left from Hibarigaoka at 10pm the Friday night and arrived in Ishinomaki for about 7am.
As you approach Ishinomaki you see the gradual increase in devastation, like driving into a apocalypse fantasy game on the PS3.
The whole bus was quiet, a few gasps as we passed piles of rusty cars and steel building supports bent over sideways by the force of the water. We stopped at a shrine to pay respects for a short time and to take in the landscape from outside the bus.
This was my reason.
We then had breakfast and delivered some heaters
(image owned by KBF Tohoku Relief Team)
The winters in Japan are harsh and Japanese houses do not have central heating. Heaters are essential for living in the region, and with little money and struggling industry local people are faced with choices. Food or buy a heater?
After this I was dropped off at my destination…the It’s Not Just Mud madhouse.
Part 2 coming soon!
*If you want to volunteer from the UK and need advice just comment below and I will give it gladly.
The challenge questions are:
1. How did you discover and get into kimono?
2. Your dearest kimono item(s).
3. Your most used kimono item(s) (not counting jubans, datejimes etc.).
4. Your least used kimono item(s).
5. Your favourite coordination(s) so far.
6. What do you like and don’t like about kimono.
7. Kimono confessions. Did you know that…
8. Your dream kitsuke items (or at least items you really really want but can’t get for whatever reason).
9. Your biggest kimono fears.
10. Your biggest kimono inspiration.
11. Your kimono collection.
12. The evolution of your kitsuke.
13. Your special kimono memory.
I have old faithfuls in everything, kimono is no exection. However my favourite ‘posh’ co-ordination in my purple furisode. I have used this many times for myself and shows:
and for ‘shopping and kimono de jack’ my failthful black and red co-ordinations..again overused at shows and photoshoots by me!
Getting close. Only 15 days left of 2011. Time to be strict with my kimono resolutions!
1. No more kimono – nada, nothing, nichts, niets…..ZERO actual kimono to be purchased in 2012.
2. No more OBI either….
3. 1 x long kimono coat to be aquired
4. 3 x very fancy and expensive obiage/obijime sets to be had. When I say expensive we are looking at a £100 budget each. One red/white, one red/black and one a damn fancy colour. I will checkout yahoo auctions before I go for brand new of course.
5. Synthetic Mans kimono set.
and that’s it – for the whole of 2012. I am directing money at things I have been hankering for over past 18 months, as well as a summer trip volunteering in Japan which will put me back £1200 probably.
My husband and I are saving for a really nice tourist trip to Japan for 10 days (Tokyo and Kyoto) so I need to be very VERY good with my money.
Also my need to further myself with the Japanese language will also trump kimono purchases.
Resolution No.6 – A dreaded resolution that involves clearing out and selling off kimono I know I will not wear. My style is starting to define itself a lot more and previous purchases are not in tune…..so I will part ways with them!
*The photo is from the recent Kimono De Jack at the Birmingham Christmas Markets.
