Furoshiki and Other Omiyage

When we went to Japan in April, I knew I'd be seeing a fair few friends that I would need to have omiyage for. Omiyage is like a souvenir or gift that you give someone. Japan is big on this kind of gift exchange etiquette. I knew I'd have to transport them in our luggage so I didn't want anything breakable, and I also wanted something more meaningful than Tim-tams (delicious though they are). 

So I turned to sewing. I bought some lovely Jocelyn Proust fabric from Spotlight (native Australian flowers are her thing) and some other Australian themed prints. Then I cut them up and sewed the hems to make furoshiki. 

Furoshiki is a term that refers to cloth that you can wrap things up in. They come in all sorts of sizes and the most common use for them is for Japanese lunch boxes. I used one every day at school when I was in Japan, and I also had a comparatively enormous one to wrap and carry all my kimono gear to my tea ceremony classes. 

I thought some Australian furoshiki would be a nice omiyage. 

I also made (for my homestay brother's girls) this little dress up dress. It had been a while since I'd made one (2018 and 2016), but the design is so great it went together fine. I wanted to use up as much of this fabric from my stash as I could, so I added the ruffle on the skirt. 

The little girl was very pleased with her dress, and I was happy to see that fabric finally used up - it was leftover from when my mum made me a dress from it when I was 11 or 12! The last thing I popped in was a headband from the plethora I made in January, which had turned out way too small for my girls. 

Funny story about the furoshiki, I had made them, I'd given them and I'd talked about them. Then, on our last night in Kyoto, I was at a shop asking the store person if she had some when I came to realise, I was using completely the wrong word. Some how, my mixed up dyslexic brain had thought they were called fukuroshi, instead of furoshiki. The shop person very kindly gave me a history lesson on where the word came from so I'll never forget again.