July sale… purses and more purses!

Purses… This month’s special sale category in my shop is obi bags. All purses, clutches and messenger bags are marked 25% off through the month of July. Need a new bag for the fall? Now’s your chance to score one of my sturdy messenger bags for a great price.

Cresting Waves obi messenger bag

And more purses… The lovely Kaz Style creates charming purses with yukata cotton yardage, some of it from my shop. Originally from Tokyo, Kaz now lives in Georgia where she sews lovely little wristlets, pouches, drawstring bags and other items from yukata cotton and vintage kimono silk.

Sakura Wristlet

Sakura Sukiya-bukuro Pouch

She also makes coordinating sets (each sold individually). I may have to get one for myself!

Ume pouches

Kaz will be at the upcoming The 16th Year of Asian Cultural Experience in Duluth, GA, July 25-26 so if you’re in the neighborhood, say hello!

Full circle

The complicated dance of having three (somewhat cranky) generations crammed under one roof has taken a new turn as I move my bed into Mom’s old studio. Three decades of craft supplies, unfinished projects, patterns, equipment, photos and books are being boxed up and moved out of the way, at least for now. I’ll be sleeping in here with two computers, several sewing machines, my own boxes of books, fabric, piles of kimono, and one custom-built work table that will definitely be coming with me when I move out.

What this means is that there will be delays in my ability to list new products as quickly as I’d hoped, but ultimately a more efficient and smoother way of doing business as I can finally find my own space amid the family chaos. That’s the plan, anyway.

It’s odd, this feeling of coming full circle. The room I’ve been occupying since Mom passed away was my old bedroom, but the studio was my first bedroom. I wonder what sort of dreams I’ll have sleeping in here tonight.

Sumptuous pineapple cherry shibori

I disasemble a veritable bounty of kimono every year and figure I’ve seen some crazy fabric combinations, but this piece made me laugh when I first came across it. Used as a sleeve lining for an early 20th century kimono, this synthetic fabric dyed in bright yellow and vibrant red has oodles of cheeky charm.

It’s 2:00 am Pacific Coast time and I get a little silly after midnight, but bear with me.

Pineapple shibori

Like bright rings of pineapple, the kumo (spiderweb) shibori circles dance between wide stripes that were stitched, bound and dyed. Keep in mind this piece was not visible when the kimono was worn. The kimono itself was far more subdued, but this gives a hint to the potentially vivacious personality of the wearer. That’s what I like to think, anyway.

Pineapple shibori 2

Hiding bright linings inside of more subdued garments is very Japanese. To wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve is common enough in the West, but to do so in Japan would not be iki, or chic. It was not always thus, but suptuary laws and class distinctions similar to those seen in Europe in the past made it impossible for the common man, regardless of his affluence, to wear certain colors or textiles in public. To work around restrictions, many people simply went underground, so to speak, by wearing fantastic linings under their plain kimono.

Here’s a bit on sumptuary laws from Wikipedia:

Japan under the Shoguns

According to Britannica Online, “In feudal Japan sumptuary laws were passed with a frequency and minuteness of scope that had no parallel in the history of the Western world”.^[13] During the Tokugawa period (1603–1868) in Japan, people of every class were subject to strict sumptuary laws, which extended even to the types of clothing that could be worn. In the second half of that period (the 18–19th centuries), the merchant class (chōnin) had grown far wealthier than the aristocratic samurai, and these laws sought to maintain class divisions despite the ability of the merchants to wear far more luxurious clothing and to own far more luxurious items. The shogunate eventually gave in, and allowed for certain concessions, including the allowance of merchants of a certain prestige to wear one sword at their belt; samurai always wore two swords.

Draconian as these restrictions may have been, at least people at that time didn’t have to endure seeing brand name labels splashed across bodies everywhere. That’s not iki, that’s just ick.

Sakiori obi

Sakiori (saki=rag, oru=weaving) is one technique among the fine arts of resourcefulness and reuse. A worn out, damaged or otherwise ruined garment is torn to shreds and woven over a new warp to find another useful life. I know people who cringe when I tell them that I tear kimono apart, but this is something that the Japanese have always done when a garment was no longer wearable.

sakiori obi 1

This is one of my favorite obi. Chocolate brown and soft, this hanhaba (half width) obi is easy and comfortable to wear, especially with the indigo blue ramie kimono and brown silk pinstripe hakama I like to sport these days. It has a single tear which we can use as an opportunity to examine the weaving more closely:

sakiori obi 2

The silk for this obi likely came from a man’s kimono or hakama and has been torn into very narrow strips. The warp threads are a fine dark brown cotton or possibly silk. The obi has a wonderful feel and flows like… well, like heavy silk.

sakiori obi 3

It may seem odd that I focus on the flaws of a piece, but I prefer to think of flaws as opportunities to see the how textiles wear and age. From these we can infer a bit about both the weaver and the wearer/user of the piece.

More vintage fabric packs will be in the shop today after I brave the 90-100 degree temperatures outside to take photos. I invite you to try your hand at some creative reuse of your own and give these textiles a new life.

Need needles? Yep, we got ‘em.

Finally! Sashiko needles have been restocked.

New items in the shop will be appearing as fast as I can list them. So far today vintage kimono, sashiko supplies and vintage kimono silk scrap bundles have been added, with more on the way.

Sunflower Juban

Shop updates for late June

So you want sashiko needles. I hear you! They will be back in stock by the end of the week, if all goes according to plan and the USPS holds up their end of the bargain. White thread will be back as well as a few other sashiko supplies. I’m having to economise when it comes to restocking the shop, and it’s tough to choose which items to order and which to leave until next time. If there is a particular item or color of thread you’re waiting for, let me know and I’ll add it to my list for next month.

I’ve been digging through some of my old show stock and pulling out loads of half-meter lengths of yukata cotton. I often cut short pieces to take to shows so I wouldn’t have to drag around cases and cases of full bolts, and now I’ve got piles of these short cotton fabrics that had been forgotten, all waiting for good homes. Some of the cottons in these bundles have been out of stock since last year when I was doing more shows, so grab what you like before someone else does!

5 pack cotton indigo fabric

FOLKWEAR patterns are back in stock. I found one remaining pattern on a shelf and wondered what had happened to the rest… then I realized they’d all sold at shows last summer. Oops.

Folkwear pattern for Japanese kimono

More to come, just as fast as I can photograph, edit, and get it up in the shop!

Bundles are back

The ever-popular kimono scrap fabric bundles are back in in the shop. My stash practically exploded and spilled out across the studio floor over the weekend, prompting me to take notice of all the bits and pieces I’ve been collecting for years and not passing on to wily crafters like yourself. Last time I put bundles up they sold out very quickly, and being the lazy sod that I am at times, I didn’t dig into the pile and sort more for a very long time.

kimono silk assortment #1

So here is your chance to stock up on some delightful fabrics in a wide variety of textures, styles and colors. They are mostly silk with some silk blends and mystery fibers (rayon? synthetic? wool? cotton?). Light, medium and heavy weight textiles in ikat, meisen, batik, rinzu, prints, etc., all from the early to mid-20th century.

kimono fabric assortment #2

I will be posting more of these as they roll off the assembly line… that is, my ironing board. If you’d like to see particular colors or styles, please let me know.

kimono silk assortment #3

June sale now up

The special for this month is 15% off all Japanese yukata cotton yardage. I have a few bolts that are down to just one or two meter-long panels and I’d like to see them find good crafty homes.

Must be a change in the weather…

It is definitely starting to look like summer in San Francisco. For those of you not acquainted with Mark Twain’s famous adage, “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,” let me tell you now just how true it is. Our typically mild winter was followed by a brief, hot spring and now proceeds to be cold, foggy, and somewhat dreary.

Looks like scarf weather, which probably explains why I always seem to make scarves in the spring, instead of the fall. Crazy, huh?

Pink Chirimen Wrap

Some of the scarves now appearing in the KimonoMomo Etsy shop are old favorites, recently pulled from storage. Others are new, fresh from the sewing machine or off the bolt and fringed during contemplative hours spent staying warm with piles of silk on my lap.

More will be on the way, especially if this cold front continues!

Lovely!

I have been mentioned on the beautiful Ennui blog today. A blog of few words and many images, Ennui isn’t at all boring and really lit up my morning. I highly suggest taking a stroll through the collection of images there if you day is getting hectic and you need a breath of fresh air. It’s very peaceful and relaxing.

Temperatures here in the East Bay Area are in the 90’s, hot and dry and miserable for pale-skinned computer geeks like myself. Oddly enough, this tends to be the season when I start making scarves again. Either it’s forward thinking of me (fall is coming!) or very backward (it’s hot! let’s make scarves!). Either way, my friends in the Southern Hemisphere tend to benefit the most as it’s now fall in Sydney and Melbourne, time to be shopping for warm things. And let’s face it, summers in SF are pretty cold until at least August, so silk scarves are always in vogue.

New items will be up as soon as I can photograph them. There’s quite a backlog of items to list… I’m working diligently to update them all for you.