Man's kimono conversion - finished!

I finished remaking the woman's wool hitoe kimono as a man's kimono yesterday - see the sleeve difference? The first photo shows the original sleeve sewing, the second one the alteration. The sleeves are now sewn further down the body, there's no gap under the sleeves in the side seam and the back of the sleeves is sewn closed. I managed to gain about 1 1/2ins extra on the "yuki" measurement (from centre back seam to cuff) too. Approx 12cm of sleeve is left free from the side seam - I didn't want to go for any less, as that would have meant unpicking more of the side seam.

Over the last couple of days, we have had a few visitors dressed up in wool hitoe, and they had fun posing - following some of the ideas from Mamechiyo's "Kimono Modern" book! Margaret's sparkly black and burgundy wool blend kimono didn't need any further treatment - as soon as she put it on, it made the perfect evening coat, and it went home with her.

My current sewing is a reddish pink hemp and polyester blend summer kimono, made from a bolt I bought in Sakata in 1992. About time I sewed it! It is, of course, hitoe. I managed to squeeze 59cm long sleeves out of the 12metre bolt, so it will have a slightly retro Taisho era feeling to it. I plan to wear it with the accessories I bought with the bolt - a straw coloured fukuro obi in an open mesh summer weave and peach obijime cord & obiage sash. Finally finding an openweave "ro" bolt for the juban (to wear under the kimono) helped.

I'm surprised I've got so much done, as the number of visitors increases daily! The exhibition is open until January 25th (weekdays only).

"Wrexham Leader" photo

Our local paper, The Wrexham Leader, included a good photo of one of my wedding kakeshita (above). This kimono was the first one I bought, at a kimono sale at Shimizuya department store, Sakata City, in Autumn 1991. It has dyed and stencilled clouds on silk rinzu damask fabric and the flower cart motifs are machine embroidered. The lining is synthetic. It is, of course, ex rental. I can remember selecting it from a great heap of kakeshita and uchikake heaped up on the temporary tatami mat floor laid down in Shimizuya's gallery space on the top floor. Most of the other garments had very bad snags in the embroidery or dye migrations. It was a choice between this one and another that had a pair of golden pheasants (?), but I chose this because I preferred the red background to the more orangey vermilion. It used to hang in the tokonuma alcove in my house in Yuza-machi.

We had lots of visitors today Dot Sherlock brought her "Quilters' Needs" travelling quilt shop today, and demonstrated machine patchwork. If you didn't catch Dot today, she will also be at the Nantwich fabric sale at the Civic Hall on Sunday 20th January, and at the Quiltfest Trading Day on Sunday 10th February. She is having a special sale on her Kona Bay fabrics, at 20% off in January. Perfect for some Japanese style quilts!

Gresford quilter Maureen Poole helped me cope with the rush!

Kimono ensemble for next Sunday

"Kimono Dreams" http://www.susanbriscoe.co.uk/diary.htm will have it's only Sunday opening on January 6th. I'm planning to wear kimono for the event, if all goes according to plan!

Reiko sent me a lovely komon (small pattern) kimono in a subtle olive grey that would work nicely with the nagoya obi pictured above. Problem is I need to sew a new two piece juban to wear underneath, as none of mine really work with this kimono, plus I'm not sure if my new kantan haneri ("easy collar") will arrive in time. With the kantan haneri, I can wear a collar independently of sewing it to the juban, so adjusting the juban doesn't interfere with the collar alignment... I used my only other kantan haneri to dress "Gertrude" the dress form in furisode kimono for "Kimono Dreams", as again the only juban I had for furisode didn't fit the kimono.

It may seem like a small thing, but the width of the juban and the width of the kimono need to work together, otherwise you will end up with the juban sleeves poking out the back of the kimono sleeves...

The nagoya obi needs to resewn too, as the front section has been opened out. In theory, it could be tied with this part unsewn, but it would be tricky.

Must start sewing!