Bunny Yukata!

Well my Bunny Yukata came in the otherday, ok two days ago.. my computer wouldn't let me get to where the pics were... but i got em now so here we go! Picture time!!

Bunny Kimono!

Ok so as the day of arival gets closer and closer i find myself planning! I want to wear this yukata to an oragami exibit held at the Lady Bird Johnson Wild flower center. Lucky for me i have a pink Hanhaba obi that should fit quite well! But i don't want to do a normal Bunko Musubi or anything similar i wanted something i could mix things up with.

so i'm gonna try this Tsunodashi style Musubi adapted for a Hanhaba obi. ^^ or thats how its labled on Imortal Geisha any way... it looks more like an Otaiko musubi...
well here is the link:
http://yukatalism.com/html/sp_kituke_12.php

also i will be doing the version that uses an obiage and obijime... or thats what they seem to be doing the translated version calls it Deep-fried and seems to refer to the fabric as Dough...
http://yukatalism.com/html/sp_kituke_13.php

I will probably try for a Kimono Hime Look... if only a little bit. I will be going with a half up and half down hair style, i recently got an easy doughnut bun maker that makes a cute if not slightly messy doughnut shaped bun... it works flawlessly with half of my hair... all of my hair is a diffrent story though! XD now all i need to do is make sure i have a purple hair flower accesory!
meh i just had to rant a little.

ah but here is a pic of what i bought just in case you're woundering!

This pic is dirrectly from Yukata Kimono Market Sakura and does not belong to me in any way but my isn't my new yukata cute? Yukata Kimono Market Sakura carries tons of cute and beautiful kimono... though the obi story is lacking...

Ok well overall obi arn't nearly as easy to find as cute kimono... when i one day go to japan i will buy kimono... but i think i'll have to stock up on Obi, obiage, and obijime... aka: buy 2-3 kimono and like 10 obi, 15-20 obijime, and 12-16 obiage. Oh and maybe i'll buy some obidome... though my friend is looking into an "instant Obidome" thing... it would help with all of my broaches...

ok rant done. i'll end this here.

Slow season...

Well the slow season for kimono sales has started, i had heard about it but wow never realised how slow they ment... Shinei's sales on E-bay have come practicaly to a standstill... and they are who i buy from the most... well Ichiroya and the other such websites are still running and updating but i have yet to find my pink iromuji for my cosplay... sigh well i do still have a lot of time...

On brighter news i finaly desided to get a new Yukata, a girl needs more then one and they are much easier to get then ro or sha... i mean yukata kimono  market sakura sells a ton for a pretty reasonable price... infact i'm going to buy one today... the shipping is quite fast so i should expect it in a week... Ah maybe i can wear it to an oragami exibit thats here all summer! well see you soon, i'll definatly have to post a pic of my outfit, its so cute you know... bunnies.

Cosplay Progress/ Animal ear tutorial

Ok so Yesterday i made the apron for the outfit... and today i finaly made the ears!

Not too shabby right? I chose this lovely brown fuzzy material because it most closly matched my hair. I atached the finished ear to a hair clip and so the ears fit quite well.

And now for The Tutorial i supose:

 

How to make Semi-realistic cat/fox ears

Note: Ok just as a note to any one just stummbling across my blog, i am not a super sewing hero or anything, i have sub-par hand stitching skills and a decent amount of skill on the sewing machine. Anyone can make thease ears its not rocket science.

Also I am A Pure loving kimono Fan and  i just want to be clear this is a kimono Blog and as such will probably never have a tutorial like this again.

Supplies:

at least two square feet of your fabric of choice (Fake fur works best but fleece can be used as well)

1 sheet of felt that closly matched your fabric

1 sheet of stiff felt, this is what will give your ears shape and a certain flexability you should be able to buy it at a craft store.

1 needle

1spool of thread that closly matches your fabric

scissors

Vacuum

1 sheet of paper

The one to the left is the normal felt the one to the right is the stiff felt you need to have one

Step 1: Cut out your pattern. I used some basic printer paper. The patern for the ear should be curved and not too pointy. I added a curve to the bottom so that it would fit the conture of my head better.

The second part of the pattern is the bottom ear liner, this helps keep your ear in the shape you desire.

If you wish to copy my pattern so be it but my tutorial should work for any similar pattern.

Note: make sure that the bottom liner pattern is a bit big

Step 2: Useing your pattern cut out the following amounts.

2 sets of the ear pattern (two for outer ear and two for inner ear)

2 of the bottom liner out of your same fabric as the inner ear

2 of bottom liner out of your floppy normal felt

and finaly two ear peices out of your stiff felt. here is what mine looked like:

As you can see the shiner of the two materials is my fake fur for the ears. the rest is some variation of felt.

Step 3: Take one set of iner and outer ear. thats one of each. Now Place them right side to right side, or in my case fur side to fur side and hand stich the whole length.

You could use a sewing machine but trust me hand sewing looks much better. Also Start at the top center of the ear and work your way down one side and then the other, this helps with symatry.

when you are done your ear should look like this:

Step 4: Turn your ear right side out, or fur side out like so:

Now i sugest you insert one of your stiff felt ear peices, it should be larger then the surounding fabric due to the fact that your fabric shrunk a little due to seams.

before trim

After the trim

Also don't forget to remove the stiff felt, if you leave it in its harder to sew.

Step 5: now take one of your bottom libner peices, it should be the the one made out of the same fabric as the inner ear:

First take the center and line it up like so:

As i said before start at the center, in this case start at the narrow part. work your way to one corrnor then tie it off and start in the ceter again.

Here i am half way sew on.

The second side can be a bit more difficult but don't worry too much.

when your done it should look like this:

Step 6: Make sure the fur sides are out. Now its time to insert your stiff Felt into the ear once more.

As you can see the ear now stands stright up on its own... but it does take a bit of wrestling to get the stiff felt in.

Note: you may need to trim again on the corners. also if you want to add any stuffing to the ear nows the time.

Step 7: your getting close to being done.

 Now just to make it easier on ourselves before the last step do a wide and quick stitch to seal the pocket with the stiff felt.

 Just quickly sew it shut, trust me it makes it easier on yourself.

 Step 8 (the final step): Lastly sew on your soft felt, don't worry about visible stiches because its on the bottom, though this is why i sugest fake fur and not fleece.

When you get towards the outer edge of the bottom liner you may find you need to trim your felt, you should have the fur bottom liner visible for about 1 cm, fold/roll it in and sew the felt to it.

And you are done! your ear should look something like this:

And there you have it, from here you can sew or glue the ears onto clips, headbands, or anything else that will hold them in your hair.

I know this hasn't been the best tutorial but i hope it helped one or two people out there.

The biggest challenge...

Ok so i desided i would do what i could as soon as i could because, who am i kidding? when was the last time i have given myself this much time to plan 1 outfit? (never)

So i desided to start with the hardest and easiest parts first... The ears and the apron. The apron is very easy, its oval shaped with ruffled, both of wich are no challenge to my sewing skills. The Fox ears on the otherhand are in comparison crazy difficult...

At first i throught i would do some pillow thing... but now i want something realistic and with form... but thats easier said then done i supose.... I say this because after a good few hours of looking at tutorials i did not find one even close to what i wanted but on the bright side i did find some people who have actuly made (by hand i think) something close to what i want.

Now many of you, my dear readers, probibly do not know how nit-picking perfect i want things to be... Thats why i like kimono and general costumes... i cant go too wrong and i buy them... if i make it i tend to nit-pick everything... its just how i am... so when i desided to take up this cosplay challenge i knew thease ears would drive me crazy because of my issues.... but i wanted to try and make them...

So if all goes well and my plans don't backfire i will right an iternet wrong... i will post a tutorial (the first ever i will have made) on how i made my ears... because when all you find are silly little triangle ears atached to a headband for tutorials you know you have to do something....

well i better get started. wish me luck!

Cosplay

Ok so i've been wanting to do some sort of cosplay, or more acurately have some one to cosplay as, for a while now. I like many a cosplayer have a school girl uniform and a few other choice items... But since i have rediscovered kimono in full i really realised how much of my cosplay was Wa-loli in my colection any who. 

So this cosplay i will come up with will also be kimono oriented. I wracked my brains for a suitable charecter that i could play as and for the longest time i could thing of none... see when i cosplay i like a) generic (like the school girl uniform) or b) some one i can do without too much work on me or my hair... So in other words anything that needs a wig is out... I was shopping with my mom the other day when i came up with the perfect cosplay for me.

The charecter i am cosplaying as is called Zakuro. the manga/anime is called Otome Youkai Zakuro.
Zakuro is a good match for me because she has dark hair, wears kimono, and has bangs...
here is a few pics of Zakuro and her fox girl friends:

SO aside from the Furisode length sleeves ( i am not getting a pink furisode) i will do my best to follow the cosplay.

So i will need:
1: a set of black or dark brown fox/cat ears, clip on preferable.
2. a pink (preferably vintage) kimono
3. a white ruffled wrap around apron
4. purple obi
5. red date eri
6. some large pink hair bows
7. lace and ribbon to atach to my juban
8. a belt with a white/silver buckle thing with black belt
9. darker pink obiage

and in the undesided range:
10. a branch with pink blossoms all over.


i will need  to buy the kimono, obi, and a few other choice bits like the lace... but otherwise i can make a good deal... such as the apron, date eri, the hair bows, and i am trying to make the ears...

now where will i wear this you all are probably asking... well I plan on wearing it to Ikki-con which is from december 28-30th. so thats almost six months to make this baby work and to get the perfect stuff. this should be a fun cosplay!

kitsuke test run...

Well every time i get a new kimono i have to, have to, have to try it on and improve so it dosn't have a horrible clashing thing going on... so i di it with my orange cherry Komon. This is a Wool Komon and super cutefurther delay... Pics!! Its in Mint condition except there were some shouldertucks... they had no function so i let them out (the past owner must have had shortish arms?) so now it dosn't even have that. also my newest Zori came in not long before... so with no further delay here are the pics!

 my new zori, they look pretty nice right? very casual though.

 And to finish it all up here is a picture of my cat in a box...