Motifs and my old Blog

Ok so really quickly i want to post a few things.

First Up is this:
Motifs for the months!
I had originally found this list on a site called Ruby Kimono, but it seems to be down and i don't want to track down my old blog again... so i'm gonna post it here. This list is really helpful for beginers and those who care about seasonality. I Still do not own this list really but since Ruby kimono is down at the moment i feel there should be a second source to pull even this much info from...

January

shou-chiku-bai - plum, bamboo and pine combination
lobster
takara bune - treasure ship
noshi - paper strips
snow and snowflakes
hana fuda - card games
kites
pine trees and cones
plum blossom
hawk
ducks
rabbits
temari - embroidered balls

February

plum blossom
daffodils
beans
uguisu - bush warbler
camellia
tachibana
magnolia

March

plum blossom
rape blossom
peach blossom
butterflies
narcissus
peony
camellia
cherry blossom
tachibana
maple (green)
rose
magnolia

April

cherry blossom
butterflies
lanterns
azalea
rhododendron
magnolia
rose
peony
hollyhock
maple (green)
wisteria

May

butterflies
wisteria
azalea
iris
butterflies
carp
fawn
peony
paulownia
willow
thistle
carp

June

butterflies
paulownia
iris
willow
pinks
hydrangea
umbrellas
water
dewdrops
gardenia
swallows
peony
thistle
carp
goldfish

July

butterflies
fans (round and folding)
hydrangea
fireworks
pinks
dragonflies
pampas grass
moon
nandina
lotus
lily
thistle
fireflies
goldfish

August

pampas grass
morning glory
round fans
pinks
dragonflies
fireworks
moon
deer
bellflower
bush clover
nandina
lotus
lily
thistle
fireflies
goldfish

September

pampas grass
fireworks
morning glory
pinks
bellflower
bush clover
orchid
deer
bellflower
nandina
dragonflies

October

pampas grass
chrysanthemum
golden bamboo
maple (red)
persimmon
gingko

November

chrysanthemum
maple (red)
snow
hawks
ducks
persimmon
gingko

December

toys
bamboo
pine
snow
hawk
ducks
rabbit
lobster

For those of you who never saw my old blog here is a link, there were only 8 postings and i wasn't very good at my kitsuke at the time but it tells a lot about who i was at around 1 year ago. yup soon i will be full circle and one year into my kimono love i got my first yukata some time in mid august and fell truly in love. so next month around lets say... the 18th, i will have some sort of celebratory thing, maybe it will be just dressing up, maybe i'll go somewhere... or maybe i will make a bento, get dressed in kimono and head out to the local park to wlak around in nature... who knows but i will do something.

well thats it for now. Good bye all of my readers (who ever you guys are).

Onigiri, Rakuten, and general kimono News

Alright I am beginning a sort of self Bento challenge, see every year my lunches start out as a whole sandwich and some fruits... But by the end of the year I end up eating just fruit and not much at that! So this year my resolve is to start making real bentos... I do have three bento boxes so I'm set on that, but I don't have that many things I can make and bring to lunch... I am a person who cannot stand to eat the same thing more then twice... unless its fruit...

So today i began my testing phase of sorts. I desided to begin by making onigiri. heres how they turned out.

Not bad looking right? for now they are plain but i plan on trying out diffrent fillings... though i have to be careful that i fell it with something that isn't greasy because i will probibly be making them weekly... Like say make three on sunday, and stash  them in the fridge and eat them through out the week..

But if the filling is greasy then it will surly come apart... right now my list of fillings to try just to try include:
-Avacodo
-tuna+mayo
-salmon
-egg
-hotdog

The avacodo will probably keep the best but i think hot dog can work well too...
I already plan on making rolled omlets to pack in too... so i probably won't use egg as a filling once school starts.

Currently i will look for otherthings i can stuff in a Bento... if anyone has a sugestion, post a comment please (i don't expect much just so you know)

xXx



Alright Next is my Rakuten bit, which won't take long because i don't have much to say at the moment. Today i bought a pair of black and blue (or so it said... could barely see the blue) Zori for a grand total of 700 yen which totals to just over $8. This is my first buy ever from Rakuten and due to the fact that the Zori were so cheep (they mentioned imperfections but hey... how bad can it be? and besides my feet will cover most of the top.) i am curiouse as to how it will end... I hope my first Rakuten expirience ends well and without isues because well, it has lots and lots of pretty things that are much easier to get off of there then say off of eBay... like zori, i saw a good number that was discounted.

xXx



Finally i have a general kimono news i would like to share. I have offically desided to wear Kimono to my senior prom. Soon i will be starting my last year of high school.. and truthfully i was quite undesided as to if i would go western dress so as not to stand out or to wear kimono and be able to rewear the dress and the memories. well i desided "i only go to senior prom once, why not make it memoriable."

Now see i did some "scouting" ( i guess you can call it) a few months ago and whent to prom as an 11th grader. that was a big part of my desision, i didn't dance much, i mostly sat and talked and i saw a girl wearing a sari which kinda made me wish i had worn kimono (never mind that she was indian in ethnisity and i am so totaly lily white...) either way i found myself wishing i had done it last year.

Now as for what i have desided upon for the moment all i have in the desired color departments are Black or bold... or maybe both? Also i want to wear a Houmongi or Tsukesage, not a furisode, i can't aford to think of my sleves in that sort of enviroment, and i think i'll probably wear a Tsuke Obi (I don't even want to think about my obi sagging pitifully.

so for now my list includes:
1 kimono
1 obi
1 obiage
1 obijime
1 pair of zori
1 matching clutch bag
hair accesories

Now the other thing to consider is the time of year, Last year prom happened in may... so i'll probably need a Hitoe kimono...
and the paterns i can wear are:
-butterflies
-wisteria
-azalea
-iris
-butterflies
-carp
-fawn
-peony
-paulownia
-willow
-thistle
-carp
I almost couldn't find this list becaus ethe website seems to be down at the moment... Luckly i had copied and pasted the list into a post on my old blog... I will repost the lift just to be helpful.

Well thats all for now, look for my posing of the Seasonal motifs which will be coming soon.

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!