Kyoto Art and Antiques

Also during the last week of April and first week of May was the Kyoto Art and Antiques warehouse sale! Anyone in the Seattle area should add this biannual sale to their watch list! It only happens twice a year, in Spring and Fall, and there are tons of great things to find there!

Amid the racks of kimono, most priced at $10, are several rare items like this yogi:

This is also a great place to find affordable tansu.

Sorry, blurry pic... I had my eye on this one because of its massive size. I could probably fit all of my kimono stuff in it! This one was around $3100, and I saw another nice one that was only $1400.

There was a huge stack of kimono design sheets that would look lovely as framed art. There were also bins full of obi weaving samples.

This bolt of fabric was sooo gorgeous, but I couldn't figure out what it was. At first I thought maybe an obi bolt, but it is so soft. The entire thing is very fine embroidery.

Racks of kimono. Unfortunately I did not find any kimono this time that suited me.

There were a few giant banners. These are banners that get flown on Kodomo no Hi. They striked my interest as I visited the sale the day before Kodomo no Hi!

A mikoshi shrine! This is something I never thought I would find for sale! Another strange item I saw was a giant wooden statue of a Japanese demon, as tall as the ceiling, but I was unable to get a picture of it as it was hidden behind boxes.

Here is what I got from the Kyoto Art & Antique sale:

Very shiny gold foil zouri embossed with rangiku. They look like solid gold, they are so shiny!

Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival

At the end of April was the Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival. This year I volunteered to work at the festival, so I did not dress up or get to look around very much. 

My view walking up to Seattle Center, the iconic Space Needle framed by cherry blossoms. Early morning it was rather dreary, but I think the sun did come out later in the day.

 Yoroi on display. There was also another set of armor that people could dress up in and get photos taken.

Tatsuhiko Konno, one of 4 togishi sword polishers in the US. 

I was backstage for the rest of the festival and could only sneak glimpses of the performances from behind the stage. On my stage were taiko groups, buyo dance performances, and several martial arts.

Mary Ohno of Kabuki Academy dancing to nagauta shamisen accompaniment. 

Kabuki Academy dance performance.

The Washington Japanese Queen scholarship candidates, prior to their dance performance.

Judo. This was very entertaining to watch the little kid in the back throwing around full grown adults.

Kodomo no Hi!

Today we celebrated Kodomo no Hi, Children's Day!

Bryan was very excited to wear his origami kabuto helmet. I told him this morning that it was Kodomo no Hi and he immediately fetched the paper kabuto! We decided to go to Point Defiance for the day to visit the beach and Japanese "pagoda" garden after breakfast. He was so dismayed that I left his paper kabuto in the car when we went to the restaurant for breakfast that he decided to wear the restaurant's children's menu on his head as a replacement...

The Point Defiance "pagoda" is used as a popular reception hall for weddings and parties. 2 years ago it was burned down by a teenage arsonist, but the renovation was finally completed a couple of months ago.

The red torii, shrine, and lamps are very lovely. It was a nice spot to take photos and watch the ducks playing in the water.

He wore his kabuto over a baseball cap, to keep the sun out of his eyes, and we found that helped keep it from sliding off his head so often! 

The small shrine in the center of the pond. The asymmetrical shape of the roof is cool!

The footbridge was a bit tricky for him, but his koinobori swam better in the breeze from the top.

It took a few tries to make a paper kabuto that would fit on Bryan's head. I think the newspaper I picked up must be smaller than standard newspapers. I ended up layering a couple sheets of newspaper to make it wider and ended up with a good one! Our practice kabuto was from construction paper, which we later gave to the cat. Kitty cat Matrix was not pleased.

Bryan later gave him a kiss and thanked him for being a good sport.

And we made and colored a koinobori as well during craft time! We had a very happy Children's Day!

Recently Made Bags

Long time no post! I have a lot of catching up to do on sharing some photos. Recently I've made a couple of bags for yukata and casual kimono. I'll share the most recent first~

I am very proud of this box bag! A while back, a friend sent me a vintage Japanese craft book from 1953 (Showa 28). This book has a variety of crafts, including purses, hats, woodworking, and kids hand puppets. The first craft in the book was of a box purse made of bamboo bark basket-woven around a box, with a wooden bead handle that passes through grommets in the lid of the box.

I had been looking for bamboo bark ever since I received the book, however I haven't been able to figure out where to get it, so I started looking for alternatives. I finally decided I could get a nice looking woven basket style look using woodgrain vinyl contact paper, the stuff that is used to line drawers. It actually worked nicely!

I actually quite like the vinyl, it is light and smooth, and I don't have to worry about it chipping or catching on my clothing. I used glass and porcelain beads for the handle, because I liked the look much better, however it is more expensive than wood beads.

The box lid slides up the bead handle to open. 

Pretty cotton lining! I like a surprising pop of color. 

I'm very happy with it. I devoted a few days to the box-bag project (and a small hammer-to-finger incident, heh..) and it was worth the effort, I think!

The second bag I made is a more simple cotton purse with bamboo handles and dark purple lining:

I hope to get some time soon to start making more yukata items! Spring and Summer are always busy festival seasons in Seattle!

Current Project

I actually started this project before Thanksgiving, but put it aside out of lack of motivation. I decided that I want to resew a few of my kimono so that they fit me better. I started with a kasuri kimono that was given to me, which has always been too small for me to wear comfortably.

I've worn it once, last year:

I only wore it for pictures, so the fit didn't matter much, but I'd like to be able to wear it out around town comfortably. So I decided to take it apart. I knew that it had some tears in the fabric, such as a really bad one near the hem, but when taking it apart I found many more tears hidden in the seams. Some were hastily repaired by the previous owner (she told me this) but I didn't think there was so many tears!

There are long tears like this that were hidden inside the front sewn parts of both sleeves under the wrist openings.

Here is the repaired tear. Not bad!! I can still see where the tear was, but it is sturdy now and the hole is closed, and it will not be seen since it is right where the seam will be sewn. Some of the tears are in visible areas that will be seen on the outside of the kimono, but I am fine with that, since it is an old kimono, and a dark color so it won't be seen easily. I will be happy to have this be a functioning garment. I'm still only working on the sleeves right now. On the first sleeve I've repaired a total of 9 tears, and have 5 to repair on the other sleeve. I haven't even looked at the body of the kimono yet to see how bad the damage is!

And as always, whenever I have kimono around my son, he wants to wear it:

He wrapped himself up in the kasuri fabric and marched around the house like a prince. I need to find the motivation to sew a lined kimono/haori set for him. I'd really like to have one for New Years!
I have some wool for making a wool set for him, but I don't know how well black and red would look on a child, hmn. So much sewing to do!!

I'm still here!!

Hi, just a quick message to let everyone know I'm still here! I've been terribly busy lately. I had a temp job recently that had me working extremely long hours (7am to midnight, woo hoo!). That temp job is now finished, but now I am trying to play catch up on everything, as well as busy with holiday things. I hope to get back to kimono-related stuff soon, I have a kasuri kimono I need to finish repairing.

One new thing I can share, is a sewing box I made recently. A Victorian Needlebox, the kit is from Needleboxes Etc. Not really kimono-related, except that the cotton fabric I used looks like chiyogami paper.

The box opens up like petals, the walls of the box hold needles, or I can tuck sewing tools in the straps, like little scissors. There is a smaller box in the center to hold sewing notions, and the lid of the little box is a pin cushion.

The box cinches closed with a drawstring. I sewed fabric beads on the ends of the kumihimo drawstring to act as stoppers, so the ends of the drawstring don't slip out of the drawstring guides.

Etsy: Pink Koshihimo

I've added pink koshihimo to my Etsy shop.

Set of two koshihimo. There are 2 sets available. The pink cotton has a very small pattern. 

Measures 90 inches long, and 1 5/8 inch wide.