Celebrate Asia 2014, part 1

Long time no blog, everybody! Last night was the third annual Seattle Kimono Jack at Celebrate Asia concert at Benaroya Hall! This event often includes several performances in the concert hall's Grand Lobby prior to the concert, and this year I was asked to participate. For the first time this year they held a Heritage Dress Parade, sort of like a fashion show. At this annual concert, the guests are dazzled by colorful traditional costumes worn by many concert-goers, and this year those beautiful clothing were displayed on stage!

Last year I wore furisode together with my friend Shannon - apparently I never blogged any pictures from last year's Kimono Jack, so let me share those now!

Kimono Jack 2013 @ Celebrate Asia

I wore my furisode that I bought at Kyoto Art & Antiques sale, and borrowed a gold fukuro obi from another friend. Shannon wore her awesome shibori yukata with my green fukuro obi.


We tied each other's obi!




It is very difficult to get a group shot, but the photographer did an excellent job!

It was so much fun! Okay, back to this year - When I was asked to participate in this year's Celebrate Asia festivities, I was asked if I'd be wearing furisode. I decided I wouldn't mind wearing the same furisode again this year. However, I didn't have an obi to match with it, since I borrowed an obi last year. Luckily I had just picked up a whole bunch of gold brocade fabric from the second-hand store, I could make my own obi!

Fine wave patterns with pink undertones, I knew it would pair well with many kimono. And there is a ton of it, for only a few bucks! I knew I'd be able to make at least a fukuro obi and a tsukuri obi out of the fabric, and since I would be dressing myself completely this year, I started making the tsukuri obi.

Here is the completed tsukuri obi! I wanted to make a musubi that was very high up, since I would never be able to achieve such a musubi if I tied it on myself. The tall musubi also makes it easier to drive, believe it or not! This musubi is called kachou, 花蝶, "flowers and butterflies". I used a stiff interfacing to help keep the shape, and lined it in cream bridal satin.

For last Valentine's Day, my husband surprised me with an embroidery machine, so I thought it would be nice to try making an embroidered han'eri!

I wanted to use the colors in the furisode. I haven't had time to shop for embroidery patterns to download, so I just used a stock design on my machine of roses and repeated the design to make it longer. The result is very girly~

(This is before I stitched it on my nibushiki juban)


The han'eri turned out very nice!

Here is the completed ensemble:

I wish I had a better camera for the actual event - I can't get such great quality pictures with my point-n-click or cell phone, but I'll share what pictures didn't blur too much in my next post!