Blue Day

Today I resumed back to wearing a kimono for a full day. Today was also a day when I decided it was time to resume to my thesis project. After all that happened during last week, I really was not in a mood to start on friday when I was supposed to do it. To tell you the truth, I have been rather down for the few days.

To match my mood, I decided to wear blue. Todays trouble was that the yukata was bigger in widht than the kimono. After suffling and huffing I finally got it to stay in place. And I really need a light blue obiage/obijime.

From the back. This white obi is cotton with satin weave and is handmade by me. I purchased a sabloon from a local handcrafts store and printed the image to the obi.

The peek-a-boo yukata.



Because we will be facing financial problems in the upcoming months, I've planned that I'll be selling some bead jewelry on Etsy. I also have 2-3 kimonos that I've bought in bad shape, too small etc. and in need of luv, but the truth is, I cannot give them the luv they need. So, I probably part with them. I will make a separate post on this matter later this week, so keep tuned if you are interested.

Day 6: Violets are... purple!

"HEY! WHAT HAPPENED TO DAY 5?!"
Well, day 5 I had to spend in normal clothes. We needed to go to a meeting about my student allowance, which turned out negative. So, right now, we are left with only 1/2 of the income we've been having. After that I didn't really feel like dressing in kimono for the rest of the day.

Day 5

This outfit I really like. Why? Because it's all purple/violet and it MATCHES TO MY GLASSES! Yay! I also wore the obi lover than I have used to, because something has inflamed my shoulder and I really could not tie it higher. The lining color is mint green.
We were going to see Ville's parents today and there's two enthusiastic dogs there so I changed into normal clothes before we left.

You can also see that I'm starting to pose in the pictures.. The otaiko image went a little up, I forgot to adjust it properly. Also the taiko looks a little smaller than the taiko I normally tie.













I had also made these earring  a while ago and wore them just to match the kimono. Yup, those jingle bells are really jingly bells and they make sound as soon as my head makes a fast movement.






I was asked in IG what kind of shoes I had been wearing with my kimono. These ankle lenght shoes are my choise when the kimono is long enough to cover my ankles. Normally I wear my boots, that also keep my legs warm and I do not have to be afraid of getting snow inside my shoes when it snows hard and the amount of snow is high.

Day 4: Komon with cinnamon bread and surprise to go!

Today I wore my small komon. I love the pattern in this one. The base looks black, but in very strong lighting it's actually dark greenish. The left collar has never been my friend and it always tries to take over the juban collar.

As the kimono in itself is too small for me, I wore it hiked up with my knitted socks. Well, boots when I went out.

This musubi is the result of a fight. I tried to make a nice bunko, but after trying to turn it around (I tried to tie it in the front) it fell apart. So after trying to save it, to no help, I took it appart and did this, I think it's, tsunodashi musubi-ish knot. You can also see that the juban sleeves are too long for this kimono. I have already shorten them to fit into my (homemade) hikizuri, so it was not SO bad as it could have been.

I've owned a bread making machine, the kind that you only put the flours and all needed ingredients inside and the machine does the rest, for a long time now, but now I've really started to learn how to use it. So today I experimented on what a cinnamon bread would be like. I had seen the recipe in the booklet I had, but never actually tested it before. It was yummy! And the smell that wafted from the kitchen was like smells during christmas time! Definitely will be doing this again!

This morning I read from ImmortalGeisha how people have found stuff inside their kimono and thought that funny how my kimonos seems to only hold fabric in them. So while dressing I noticed that something was peeking from the juban collar. I thought that my collar hardener had just come loose, but further inspection showed that this was not the case. It seems that the collar had originally had a hardener inside it, but it was so soft already I didn't (and the seller) didn't notice it. It's also smaller than the new hardener I had inserted into the collar. I probably will not be using it for now, but it looks perfect for wearing with a yukata in the summer.

Day 3: Brown Houmongi & recruitment fair

Day three brought the annual job recruitment fair on our local Music Centre. Because of this I managed to make an otaiko even when my shoulder was highly againt it. The Music Centre was so full of people it was hard to move anywhere, so we just went to the places we wanted, left our applications and walked to another spot. .

Because my kimono collection is rather small, I cannot play with the rules of seasoning my clothes. Today's choise of wear was because of the fair. I wanted to look a little better so I wore my light brown houmongi, the pattern was about the color of terracotta so that's why the orange nagoya obi. I would have wanted dark brown accessories, but I didn't have any.. The layering kimono's base color is ivory, so it's a little paler that the top kimono.

Here's the ensemble on the back. I took longer than normal to tie that otaiko. My shoulder is still bad and I had to take breaks while dressing to let the blood circulate as my hand became numb very fast. Since I needed a presentable outfit, I chose to tie it back. I'm very bad at tying on the front and most of the time the musubi falls appart as soon as I try turning.. I need practise on that.

Peek at the layering kimono. Today's choice was a RO summer kimono. Which caused another problem: The ro kimono was about 10cm longer than the top kimono. It was quite a job to get them nicely, but I think I did a good job, even if the kimono was left a little long. First I hiked the layering kimono to a good lenght and then the top layer kimono. After getting the hems to more or less match (A kingdom for a full lenght mirror!), the collars and the ohashori became a problem as the kimonos where different in lenght. After a lot of sweat, I finally got them to sit nicely.

 After the fair we went to the local fabric store to get kimono making fabrics. This light blue one was chosen by my boyfriend for his kimono. It's pale sky blue with white and dark blue flower pattern. The material is linen.

This red fabric was chosen by me for my own kimono. When I saw this at the window a few weeks ago, I fell in love! I HAD to have a kimono in this fabric! Since the pattern runs in one direction only, it will be a komon kimono. The material is cotton, which would make it a yukata, but it's also thicker than normal cotton or the fabrics in my other yukatas, so I think I can pass it of as a komon.... maybe....

Day 2: Grey Iromuji

Hello,

So my kimono experience has gotten to the second day and today it was time for my green iromuji kimono layered with dark blue butterfly komon. I still wore the same hanhaba as I did yesterday. I've gotten my right shoulder stuck pretty bad so otaiko musubi is a no-no until I get it unstuck. It has given me headaches for the past 1.5 weeks, but luckily non so bad that a painkiller would not help.

It seems I've been favouring this musubi lately, it's so easy to tie and with this hanhaba, it does not necessarily require an obijime. When I  go out I usually put the obijime, just to make sure it won't fall appart.. I don't know what's going on with that ohashori there, it was not in an co-operative mood. Yesterday the layering kimono was smaller than the top layer kimono, today, as you can see, it was the opposite.

Detail shot of the layering kimono. The top layer kimono is silk and the blue kimono is synthetic.

Today's featured accessory: Half gloves! (I'm not sure if it's the correct word) These ones are very long, all the way up to my elbows so they kept my arms nice and warm.

And here's the little rascal who tried to smuggle herself in every picture I took today. She's our 4-years old kitty lady Kiki.

Comparing yesterday and today I'd say I prefer the yukata to the syntetic kimono. It's a lot warmer, I grant it that, but also it feels a little too hot because the outfit does not breath as well. Othervice I loved this outfit and if the cold air comes back, I know what kimono's to dig out of the closet. Oh, and as a final word: This video cheered me up this morning: Setsubun Obake, Imoseyama by Arumukos It's in three parts, so please watch all parts to enjoy it to the fullest!

New starts

This day came to me with two starts. One was the beginning of this blog and the second was the decision to start my experiment to spend the next few weeks in kimono. I have been planning this for a while and now the temperature outside has gone down to more suitable degrees. For the past weeks we have had nice -30C which is too cold for me to go out no matter what I wear, but now it's warmer so I can start.

I wore my christmas gift from my boyfriend. Normally I would have paired this kimono with a nice Nagoya obi, but I needed an obi that I was comfortable in for the whole day and not be afraid of getting it stained. I was scared enough about the kimono. I need to get more casual wear into my collection.

This pictures are taken after I had been in kimono for 6h already so things are starting to get loose. I'm also using a koshihimo to keep the sleeves up. I didn't want to get salad on them and I like to keep my sleeves up when in home because othervice I get stuck everywhere, mostly doorknobs. I have to say that the musubi looks rather good, even thou I made it in a hurry.

Peek-a-boo of the yukata I'm wearing as an extra layer to keep of the cold. I could have taken it off when I came home after the grocery shopping trip, but I decided that the appartment needed a good airing.

Survival in Winter

Hajimemashite! Lumikettu desu!
This is my very first blog and my very first blog post, I hope you will understand that I will be making mistakes from time to time and find patience. This first blog post will be about how I wear kimono during winter here in Finland, where the avaridge temperature is about -20C.

My first layer of cloth consists a pair of long underwear and if it's cold or windy a long sleeved shirt. Your arms will be the place that suffers the most so it's important to shield them. I also use a turtleneck, sleeveless knitted shirt if I'm wearing just for fun. My padding is made from a folded towel so that goes over the undergarments.

From Fuyou

From The New Kimono by Nanao Magazine

The next layer is the juban. If it's very cold I usually layer my kimono by putting a yukata under the main kimono. If it's really cold, you can use an unlined wool kimono too. The extra layer keeps the warmth, but the cotton yukata also breathes well so it will not be unbearably hot while inside. Layering will make the ohashori very bulky, so you need to fold the inner collar. This also works as an extra padding.

Layering and the fold is shown in pictures.

When going out, shield your neck with a scarf and wear a hat to shield your head and ears. Glows are a good thing to have. You can wear a haori, michiyuki or a cape, it's recommandable to wear a jacket. Wether to wear shoes or zori/geta is up to you, but mostly during winter I wear shoes. I have a bad blood circulation in my feet and so my toes freeze very quickly. Once it was very cold and I had 4 pairs of socks and still my toes were numb with cold when I got home from work. If you have warm feet, you can manage in zori/geta, but if you have cold feet and the weather is really cold, I recommend a good, warm pair of shoes.

From Noppin

Noppin seems to have fleece lined tabi and mink zori available. They look rather cute.

And so, these are my humble advices on winter and kimono. I hope you have found some help with these and can enjoy kimono even in winter.