I’m teaching a few sashiko classes this fall, so I’ve been working on demonstration pieces to share with the students. I was working on one of them last night while Thomas and I listened to a baseball game on the radio. We cut off our cable TV a few months back to save money and…
Tag: vintage
New in the Kimonomomo shop: a rainbow of vintage yukata bolts
Summertime is yukata season, and in the Kimonomomo studio that means getting the dozens of yukata bolts I’ve had hiding on the shelf (some for years) out into the sunshine where I can photograph them in the best light. Here are a few of my favorites, old and new. Click on the images to view…
New in the Kimonomomo shop: Vintage Japanese Ceramics
For the past two years or so I’ve been squirreling away stashes of vintage ceramics I’ve been picking up from estate sales, antique shops, and other sources. In Japan last year I had to resist the urge to buy even more as I didn’t have room in my three suitcases that were already stuffed with kimono, obi,…
Kimono Tuesday is now the Weekly Kimono
… Mainly because Tuesdays don’t always work for me, but I do enjoy wearing kimono at least once a week. So! Let’s catch up. Springtime in Northern California is back-and-forth, warm then cold again, rainy and cool, rainy and warm, dry and warm, dry and cold, and we all get confused. The sun is shining,…
Kimono Tuesdays
For some reason rainy spring days make me want to wear kimono. I wore kimono more frequently when I lived in Oregon (mostly in the high desert, not the rainy valley), but since moving back to California several years ago I haven’t put in the effort. On Monday, while rain clouds moved in over the…
Washing shibori yukata cotton
Textile junkies love color and texture, and shibori has both in spades. When it comes to using these fabrics and not just collecting them (as my mother so often did), we take a step back and ask, “What is going to happen if I wash this? What if I don’t wash it? Will washing make…
Yukata Disassembly – indigo shibori
We live in an era of mass-produced, off the shelf clothing. That which was novel a century ago is now commonplace. To make clothing by hand is no longer a necessity, but a novelty. That’s great for saving time, but where is the love? In vintage, of course. Hand sewn garments of decades past can…
Vintage Katazome Comes Clean
Meiji era katazome cottons have a special place in my heart. I started collecting them years ago, back when I could barely afford to, and now it’s become something of a joy and an obsession. The fine dots and designs that remind me of having henna painted on my hands when I was 12 years…
Home again, with an extra suitcase or two
I left California two weeks ago with a half-filled medium-sized suitcase and a nearly empty duffel bag. I returned from Japan two days ago with those bags packed to bursting and added even more; a new, larger suitcase and a box, both filled with kimono, haori, obi, raw silk, furoshiki, books, obijime, yukata, and other…
Postcard from Ginza, Tokyo
It’s been a whirlwind of a tour here in Japan. From the picturesque mountain countryside of Gunma, to a lakeside hotel in view of Mt. Fuji, to the packed city streets of Tokyo, every day has been an adventure. I’ve been shopping at used kimono stores over the past few days, finding many treasures and…
Shop News for May, 2013
Things are about to get very quiet for the KimonoMomo Etsy shop, and very busy here at The Ardent Thread blog. I’m going to Japan with Shibori Girl! On Monday, May 13 I’ll be saying goodbye to the dogs, my kids, my fiancee, and the garden to head out across the Pacific Ocean. I haven’t…
Meet Sue, our new Tansu
I didn’t name him. Thomas did. And yes, I think of the tansu in the corner as male, unlike my sewing machines, which are always female. So far as Thomas is concerned, according to Shel Silverstein and Jonny Cash, Sue can be a boy, too. After looking at tansu in antique shops for years but…
A love for both the common fiber and the extraordinary textile @KimonoMomo 