和 敬 西 洋

Well, I took a few pics of The Boots and got them loaded into the computer, but the Facebook photo upload app is just FREEZING my computer.

So y'all are going to have to wait until I can tinker in Photoshop and dump them onto Photobucket.

So neener. Or something.

Also, I have more kimono/kitsuke pics, though I need to get the other person in them to give me the OK to put them anywhere other than Facebook (where she has an account, so it's pretty much kosher).

So, after spending my break time today reading about more and more (largely impossible to do on one's own) obi musubi worth trying, I came home, drank two large glasses of sake and limeade on an empty stomach, watched Shoot 'Em Up (a silly, violently pointless movie), and am now wearing my men's yukata and a hanhaba obi that's at least 25" too short for even a decent cho-musubi. Fun times. I'm also still rather buzzed. On the other hand, wearing a kimono/yukata with only a single koshi himo and the obi, and none of the other fussy underpinnings or clips or layers or anything is strangely liberating. and I fully intend to continue to do so in the future. Hell, I don't even have an obi-ita on right now.

Next time, I'll tie the obi low on my hips and walk around with a samurai swagger. Just for shits and giggles. Maybe even put my hair up in a high ponytail and pretend I have a topknot. (That would so totally go with my flowery too-short obi, oh yes.)

Well, I went to Kyoei after gettin' my hair did, and bought $100 of stuff. (My original plan wasn't a whole lot better at $60-or-less.) I did NOT buy the nearly-$500 silk lavender hitoe they had in LL, however badly I wanted to. Mainly because while I have the money in savings, it's going toward a new computer eventually, which I need more than another kimono (especially another kimono that I can only wear about 2 months out of the year). I did, however, buy the top underwear piece that has the proper collar but short, lace-edge sleeves like one sees on yukata slips. Because if I can get away with fewer layers, dammit, I will.

Oh! They had geta in my size! I now have proper *women's* wooden shoes to wear. :D :D :D Huzzah! No more big square men's shoes for me.

Oh, and my hair is now a dark blue-purple - to get the brighter purple that I reallyreally want, I'd have to peroxide everything before putting on the color, which is a lot longer process than I can stand to sit through - long hair means a LOT of yanking and pulling as the stylist works the dye goop through, and my scalp is still aching after being tugged on for 2 hours. I bought BLUE shampoo. (Literally - it's electric blue.) It was an expensive salon trip, but I only go once every 6? 8? months, so... eh. I needed a trim - she gave my not-really-layered look some evening up all around and not much else. When I get another few inches, I'll get that really layered look done properly. For now, I'm still growing it all out.

Pictures later if I can remember.



Tomorrow I'm going to try out the 7-day-freebie pass for the 24-hour fitness across the street. Those of you who do the gym thing, what do I need to bring/wear/do? I've never been to a gym before. Or formally exercised, for that matter. But I'm sick of creeping back up to a size 14 because I don't have any way to burn calories during daylight hours (and I get home so late that I'm REALLY not comfortable going for a walk).

I think I may have accidentally ordered the 4L-sized yukata, because I'm having trouble believing there is such a large discrepancy between LL and 3L that it is possible for even my massive American ass to wind up drowning in kimono. But they fit at the wrists!!

This means that a) Tiffany, if you want to wear a yukata Saturday, I've got one [Edit: re-reading this, I realize just how awful that sounded - I mean I have one to spare, rather than implying horrendous things about you], and b) I'm going to be doing some half-assed taking-in from the sleeve openings down on both yukata so they fit at the hips but I have the arm width I need. (Pretty much two hasty machine seams about 2" in on each side seam.) This also means that when I finally get confident enough to cut into the polyester I bought to make a kimono, the body panels will be about 14.5" including seam allowance (yey sergers) and the sleeve panels will be 16" (and about mid-length between ko- and furisode, to balance out my height somewhat).

On the bright side, it's a rather nice feeling to put on something that has always had a mental connotation of 'too tiny for you, lardass!!' and find oneself swimming in excess fabric. Good for the ego, if not the wallet. :P


[ETA: I just stitched 2.5" in from each side seam, and other than the taper under one arm being a bit on the awkward side, it does fit better at the hips without losing the width at the arms. But when I make my own, I will *definitely* be using wide sleeve panels and narrower body panels, because the arm seam falls quite low, otherwise.]

By the way ---


Orange County Buddhist Church is having their O-Bon festival next Saturday and Sunday, the 19th and 20th. Parking will be limited, so carpool, but everyone should go! :)  :)  :)  

So, I cut and edge-finished with the serger a handful of han-eri and a date-eri (started as a han-eri, but the fabric was too darn shiny and the pattern's small enough it would work as just a peep of color, rather than a visible full layer), and used the basting-length stitch on my old machine to tack down a light pink cotton-with-pinker-flower-buds layer to one of my juban. It's the lightest fabric I have for the purpose at the moment, as most of my han-eri selections were made back in December or so. I still have one to cut and interface (keeps the wrinkling down with a layer of lightweight interfacing) that's a VERY Christmas-y pattern of black with gold, red, and green curliques all over. As well as a flannel-like brown cotton that's better suited to autumn.

Which means I should do some careful accounting before Tuesday and see if I can't go snag another 3/8 yard of some lighter, more summer-y fabrics (amybe something gauzy?) to make into more date- and han-eri. And more fusible lightweight interfacing.

This is my practice before I start cutting into my black kimono fabric, primarily because it's good practice for cutting 45"-long straight lines (though the fabric is pinstriped, so it's not THAT hard...), especially as I lack a cutting table or similar expanse of flat surface. (That and I may hold off on the project after all only because it's black polyester and we're hitting the beginnings of summer temperatures. So.)

One more little project I've finally crossed off my list, at least.

Still haven't studied for my midterm tomorrow though. Ah well.

I'm a bad, bad girl with a credit card. Bad.

Last night, I found some fantastic-and-on-clearance black polyester with a silvered pinstripe fabric, got the entire 6 yards left on the bolt, and assuming my John Marshall book isn't TOO wrong, I'll be cutting and sewing this weekend (barring other schedule problems).  It's 45" wide fabric, and my calculations gave me a grand total of about 5.5 yards if I make 18" body panels and 16" sleeves (plus about a half inch seam allowance, which will be easy enough if I serge all the edges first and then stitch along the serge line) - the front overlap piece will be narrower, somewhat, probably about 7 or 8 inches wide instead of 9, but...   And then, all I'll need to do is find a bright red satin or silk for the lower half for some lining, and stitch that into place, blind stitch(?) it into place, and I'm golden. A swank black (non-mofuku) kimono that will FIT my Gojira-sized frame.

The hardest part on all of this will be the collar, and I won't use the Marshall book to cut that part - it's been shown to lay all kinds of wrong - instead I'll take some careful measurements of one of my unlined kimono's collars and see if I can't duplicate that instead. :D

The other sewing project... is linked above. :D Maybe. I requested a quote on sewing it up by someone who knows what they're doing, so we'll see. If it's another $$$ (as opposed to $$ or $), I'll just do it myself. We'll see.

For reference later:  Waraku, Torrance Super-M store

Kimono stuff: I went to Kyoei yesterday and picked up the kimono I ordered back in December, which is Crayola Purple and I luffs it. I resisted the urge to buy anything from the $5 bin with the intention of letting it out/sewing it into something else (though there was an AWESOME magenta-and-black one in a style that escapes me at the moment - it would be something like resist dyeing or similar, usually in more 'country' shades of blue and white). I DID however pick up 3 new obijime and 2 new obiage (of which part of that stack was courtesy Mom's Visa) and a tsuke-obi that matches almost EVERY polyester item I own. Not kidding - it has blue, pinks, purples, etc in its weave, which means that I can get dressed and ready in HALF the time and only have to worry about the -jime and -age. SO awesome. [I also snagged a polyester heko-obi in a coral shade for cheap, just because they look so dang comfy to wear. The static shock was an unpleasant surprise, though. Ah well. I'll look up how to wear this one, later.]

Also, they had LL-sized summer kimono. (!!!) $400, LL-sized summer kimono. I will be working this debt off with Mom for a while, and possibly making payments as well - data entry, housekeeping, etc. On the bright side, the summer items I already own match - the kimono is a periwinkle blue-lavendar-gray color, and I have a gray-green obi and royal blue age/jime set, so everything coordinates. I *might* look for a lemon-ice yellow age-jime set at some point, but as summer items are so restrictive in terms of wear, it will have to wait. (May to early September only, and most of the tea events that require kitsuke around here are November to March. So.)


I'm also a moron and signed up at the immortal geisha forums ages upon ages ago, and have since misplaced my login information. I remember the username, but not the password or the email I used. Oops. So I have to wait to re-sign-up, I suppose. Bah. I suspect the account was deleted anyway. Once I'm in, though, I have a few Tea-related events to post on the Calendar if the mods are game. (April at UCI is a one-day Tea demo class, I know there is an ochakai in November at a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles, etc.) So.


Spending the day lazy at home, it seems - Mom has a headache/flu thing (it's one of those miserably circular ailments, where you're nauseated from the headache and then the stomach upset contributes back into the pain above the neck, etc). She has mucho sympathy from me on this one - I know it all too well. If she were able, I would draw her a bath and add some soaking salts, because it really does help. Alas, she's not as young and flexible as I am, and my tub is on the narrow and cramped side, so there would be limited relaxation, I suspect. I wonder if I shouldn't go rinse off one of the patio chairs and set it in the (very large but lacking a tub) shower in her room, instead - the hot water would certainly be helpful. I should probably shower and dress and go pick up some mild soups at the store, as well as some saltines. Hm.

I owe the lady who did it more money than I thought (by a lot... it was not a well-thought-out plan on my part), BUT IT FITS!!


ETA: This shows the sleeve length (but I forgot to smile) so I look like a dork.  Ah well. I also erased the laundry and messy background because, well, no one wants to see that. And I look kinda rounded, because downward angles do that to people. Aaaaaanyway. I'm more excited than I look, I promise.