Black and Mustard Yellow Sakura Kimono - Outfit 9

Time to dig out an old dress from my teens.

Yes this dress is 11 years old and I still haven't found an occasion to wear it until now. Okay I'm not wearing but I'm going to use it which is close enough.

My previous attempts to make a steampunk inspired kimono outfit left me wondering. What would the outfit look like if I could create a bigger bustle effect. hmmmmmmmm.........

Well it would look like this.

I thought it would be a shame to hide the dress under the kimono so like before, I pulled the kimono so you can see the lower half clearly.

Then I made the kimono collar low as well so you can see the opening at the front. You will also notice that the traditional white juban collar is missing. This is on purpose because for once I just wanted to have black against the kimono. However looking back the addition of the colour white wouldn't be bad although a red collar would be better to complement the obi-jime.

Now the bustle part. As I folded the kimono up in half at the waist, this gave me loads of fabric to play with. Therefore I pulled it all back to create this bustle.

This is much better then the previous attempt and you definitely at the big bum effect.

This side shot gives a nice clear view of the poofiness that is possible!

It would be a shame to ruin the look with a musubi that would deflate the bustle effect so I tied a tsunodashi variation with my obi. Its isn't the proper one because my obi is a bit short.

Anyway what do you think?

Outfit

Obi - Black ro nagoya.

Dress - Something brought a long time ago.

Obi Jime - Dusky pink

Black and Mustard Yellow Sakura Kimono - Outfit 5

First off, I'm sorry for not posting anything for a long time but I have been very busy with exam revision, sorting out etsy store and generally keeping up with the admin side of my online presence.

Without further comment here is outfit 5.

These pictures are also the debut of my new dressmakers dummy! I have named her Miffy because she is silent. It was strangely hard to dress Miffy because she has a hard body however as she doesn't move I was able to get the collar nice and curved at the back!

So how have I accessories her then?

Obi - Black and red hakata obi

Obi-jime - Dusky pink

Obi-age - Bright pink-red

Han-eri - White and red flowers on grey.

This obi is actually a kid's obi but I love the colour and with a slight modification, I should be able to wear it.

And since I have Miffy to dress I can now show off the back.

Question, what do people think about a series of musubi step by step tutorial? I'm only asking because I would like to create some but what would people prefer to see? A) a video of the musubi being tied or B) a series of photos (with detail explanations) of musubi being tied?

Black and Mustard Yellow Sakura Kimono - Outfit 4

I have a habit of colour coordinating my obi-age and obi-jime so this time I am going to break it.

I use the same gold metallic obi-jime but the obi-age is actually not an obi-age!  A few weeks ago there was a vintage sale and there was tons of scarves to chose from.  I brought a lot for making kanzashi but I also picked up a couple which were perfect for my kimono accessories.

This is a navy blue scarf and it has a white and yellow dot pattern all over it.  Again this ties in nicely with the yellow and hint of blue on the kimono as well as the flowers theme.

And since this is a floral kimono, why not go full out and add a daisy pattern han-eri which was given to me by Shelia.  It doesn't stand out as must as a white han-eri but it gives the outfit a modern feel which is good.

Black and Mustard Yellow Sakura Kimono - Outfit 3

Hmmm what other colour could I possibly use now?  How about bright yellow?

It is not too bad actually.  The feeling that I'm getting from yellow is neutral as it complements the mustard yellow on the kimono and the gold obi.  However it doesn't stand out too much unlike the red co-ordination.

The yellow obi-age is just a plain one with a woven hexagon pattern so there is no way I am going to be able to get photo of the pattern.  As for the obi-jime, it is a sparkly gold one and the other side is silver so when you tie the knot you will get two colours.  I can't decide if I like this obi-jime, don't get me wrong, I like metallic shiny stuff and this obi-jime tick those boxes.  However it is stiff so I am never sure if I have tie it enough.  One does not want their obi to fall apart when you are walking about in public.

Black and Mustard Yellow Sakura Kimono - Outfit 2

So yesterday's out was this one below.

This outfit consist of the a white han-eri, pastel blue obi-age and obi-jime.  There is a shibori fan pattern on the obi-age which you can't see very clearly on this picture but it is very pretty.  As for the obi-jime, it is just pure accident that I own a obi-jime which matches the obi-age so well.

Now outfit number two!

Here you see I keep the same obi and white han-eri but I changed the obi-age and obi-jime.  The obi-age is red and has a lot more shibori on it.  This time the pattern is kiru (I think) and you can see the pattern more easily because of the contrast.  The obi-jime is a dark pink and is one of my widest ones (1 inch) and it is lovely to use.  It is very soft, making it ideal to tie into a square know but it is stiff enough to retain its width so you have a huge knot at the front of your obi. 

This colour combo is more vibrant then the cool looking one of outfit number one.  It is amazing how a change of something so small creates a completely different feel.