Walks around Saitama

There is not much to say in this post. These are just some photos I took as I waked around North Urawa, where I was living for seven weeks doing a teacher training course in July. Hope you enjoy the pictures of Japanese summertime suburbia. 

Kimono Collection

Even though my kimono collection (here and here give pretty good snapshots if you are interested) is pretty extensive, compared both to a regular Japanese person, not to mention the average Australian, I managed to come home with a considerable of new pieces after our six months in Japan earlier this year. 

Wearing new yukata and obi for work

For those who don't know, most Japanese people would have maybe one yukata (summer cotton kimono) at home, and maybe a formal one if they had to go to a wedding (like mother of the bride type thing). But a cupboard full of them is pretty unheard of and to be honest, I think lots of people hire them for events if they need them, rather than buying them. Especially since they would likely need help dressing too. My friend Haruka doesn't even have a yukata, she thought it was hilarious that I was buying them and wearing them. 

I tried to be restrained about purchases, but since they don't just sit unworn in my cupboard, I do have some justification. I did come home with more than I expected to, but in my defence, I was gifted a number of these which I was not expecting at all. 

My "haul" stacked up and sorted, disguising just how many items there really are. 

I did take photos of each thing, but honestly, there are so many and I felt like this would get boring and long if I put all of them in. Most of the yukata that I bought while in Japan, I actually wore while we were there (or the girls did), so you've probably already seen some of this stuff anyway (here and here). And there is more than just the yukata/kimono part, there is the obi and the ties and the under stuff and what not. In the interest of not boring you - here are some highlights. 

This is possibly my favourite new yukata. I bought it with my friend Haruka at an outlet sale. It's a designer label and has an Aladdin inspired print on it. So cool. Also, the fabric weave is a specific summer one which has very subtle sections that are more see through (let me know if I'm not explaining it right, or you want more info), so that the breeze can pass through and you can stay actually cool in the hot humid summer. It really works and is so comfortable to wear. 

I did buy a large number of obi (waist belts), because they are so easy to mix and match with different kimono and wear in a variety of ways. Also, I got most of these second hand for incredibly cheap so a really great way to bring more colour and fun to the kimono wardrobe. Most of them are double sided too, so twice as much really!

Hanhaba Obi - half width

The first two obi below are the fanciest that I got and the most expensive. Still second hand and cheap compared to what they would be new. Rachel picked out the green wave one for me and I got the butterfly one from a second hand store in Matsuyama. The other two were gifted ones. 

Full width Obi (formal wear)

Along with the two obi there, I was gifted three kimono, one wool with a matching haori (jacket) and the other two beautiful silk with peach blossom patterns. One even came with matching shoes (which you can see above). I could not believe how lucky I was to be given these, especially since I was only meeting the ladies who gave them to me that day! 

The last thing they gave me was this absolutely stunning fuirsode (kimono with long sleeves). I actually don't own any furisode, so I was doubly excited to receive this one. It's on display in our hallway. Photos don't do it justice. The butterflies are all hand embroidered with metallic threads and metal work. 

Aside from the yukata that I bought and wore a lot, I only bought two kimono myself. One was a gorgeous green colour that was only $10 at a shop in Takamatsu. I couldn't walk past it. My final purchase was less spontaneous. I was wanting to get a black formal kimono (usually worn at weddings). Not particularly to wear, but to remake into a fancy dress. Steve and the girls gave me lots of grace as I trawled through the formal section of the second hand stores and feedback when I pulled out options. 

I eventually settled on this one with its lovely honeycomb and flowers pattern. I'm excited to sew it into a dress, and I can see the design I want to get in my mind, but I know I'll be doing a fair amount of draft and pattern work first to get it right before I cut into the actual thing. It's not like I can go out and buy more fabric if I stuff it up!

Inconceivably, I managed to pack all of the new things into the storage that I already had in our room, with only one new shelf needed. Thankfully, that shelf was only being used by Sophie's Squirrel Girl tail, which was pretty easy to relocate. The best storage solution that I have for my kimono stuff is a self made "shoe storage hanger" thing that I put together years ago now out of the leftover fabric I had from making curtains. I could have sworn I blogged about it, but I can't for the life of me find it in searches, and I've written so many blog posts now (over 950!!), trawling back through them to find it seems like a lot of work. And maybe I didn't blog about it at all? 

In any case, everything has its new home and I'm pretty happy it's here. We are eight weeks into school term now, and I've worn a yukata every day. 

Experimental Dress

Since coming back from Japan, I'm finding we are super busy, and I do have loads to blog about, but actual blogging is proving hard. Not sure what it is. It's not the busyness. Maybe because I've got a bunch of people who signed on to read all about Japan, and now that that's over, I'm feeling self conscious about returning to my usual (mostly sewing) blogging fare. 

Well, to those people, I'm not at all offended if you click the unsubscribe. I've never blogged for the number of followers, and we will still stay friends even if you don't want to read about my latest sewing make. There will be no terrible repercussion if you decide to leave. I'm good. 

That said, here is what today is all about: Experimentation Dress! 

I watched this video from The Stitchery where she made a dress out of striped fabric fit by sewing along the stripes to bring the fabric in around the waist. I was so intrigued by this, because it meant that the fabric itself could essentially be a rectangle. It seemed a really good candidate for a Zero Waste design, and the magic of sewing/pleating along the stripes for the look was so interesting. 

While I was in Japan, she also did two follow up videos on the design (here and here), which only gave me more food for thought. I knew I had a largish piece of fabric left from making this jumpsuit back in 2022 (where does time GO!?!) and the whole idea really ruminated around my head, waiting patiently until I returned to the fabric and Sally the Sewing Machine. 

To say that I wanted to try out and play with the design is true, but I was also hoping that this would end up being a wearable practice version of something I wanted to make with some fabric I bought in Japan. So I guess this is step one of a journey. 

I made a quick mock up of my idea just with some random bed sheet that I had in the cupboard. Trying to get an idea of how much fabric I wanted and then the maths of how big the sewing would be to shrink it down to fit at the waist. It was really good to have some actual fabric to practice on. I sewed it with big stitches and no back stitching, so I could rip it apart really easily and use the practice pieces as a pattern for the real one. 

When I laid out the fabric I had left, I realised I didn't actually have that much. There was thinking about things, and redesigning the shoulder/sleeves, but in the end I just went for it with a vague idea of how I could make it work. 

It was cool to see how the fabric worked with the pleated sections and how much you could "gather" to shrink the fabric down. 

Obviously my fabric doesn't have any of the colour illusions of the original dresses from YouTube, but the straight lines of the stripes did make it so easy to line up and sew. 

I was super surprised that it turned out as great as it did. The triangles from the corners that I cut off I initially feared would be too small to give enough extra to the top of the dress to reach my shoulders, let along actually tie in knots like I was hoping they would. But they turned out to be perfect, even if I did include a selvedge edge or two. 

I pieced together pockets from any small scraps I had left (and also some random bed sheet fabric), and put them in the side seams. I tacked the tops of them to the pleated fabric on the inside of the dress to help give them strength too. The only other thing I did was an extra sew up the side under my arm. I don't know why it was gape-y there, but I just folded it over and sewed it down and now the fit is perfection. 

Please ignore my crazy hair, but I do think this dress is fabulous. I'm pretty sure the whole thing could be Zero Waste, and mine was certainly very close. I was also surprised at how little fabric I needed in the end - I think the dress is only a metre in length, and because it was 150cm wide, that's all I needed. Zero Waste really is saving fabric!

Tea Ceremony

Here is a throw back to something we did about halfway through our time in Japan this year. I didn't get around to blogging about it then because we were so busy with other things, and I wanted to include some photos that I had from the time before everything was digital. Gasp! Obviously those photos were not accessible from Japan. 

When I first lived in Japan way back in 2004, I somehow found myself studying the traditional Japanese tea ceremony with my school friend Yuki and another girl called Mona. The three of us would gather, I think every second Sunday, at Yuki's house and get dressed in kimono. Our teacher would arrive and we would each have turns practicing. 

2004: Mona, Yuki, Paula and our Sensei

It was generally a pretty fun way to learn, because you got to drink the tea and eat the beautiful Japanese sweets (wagashi) that came along with it. 

I wasn't particularly great at it, but the learning was fun, and I got to pick up the skill of dressing in a kimono as well. My teacher is still teaching and when she heard that we were over in Japan, she invited us to have tea ceremony at her house. 

There are a huge number of variations of tea ceremony, and we started this one with a trip outside to prepare ourselves with this lovely water feature in the garden. It had been filled with ice cold water and there was a whole ritual of hand washing, mouth washing and then also washing the bamboo scoop before the next person could use it. 

We then entered the tea room where my friends made us tea one at a time, and we ate the delicious sweets. 

Then we had turns making tea as well. I was proud of the girls for giving it a go. 

I also had a turn. It was funny because my brain couldn't remember any of the routine phrases I was supposed to say, but my body remembered all the movements for scooping the tea, closing the box, pouring the water and mixing the tea. 

My friend Mona was practicing a different type of tea making, so we all (well, the girls opted out of the second cup) had more than enough tea and then finished with the tea ceremony went to the living room to have more cool drinks (it was hot, humid summer) before leaving. So much tea and polite Japanese. The girls were exhausted at the end, but it was a fun experience.