Home at last. The little fellow arrived shortly after my previous post, but I had mixed feelings about his restoration and it’s taken some time for me to sort things out in my head to where I felt comfortable writing about it. If you’re just joining this series, click here to read part 1 and…
Tag: vintage
Meiji Ningyo Restoration, part VII
The little fellow is coming home! At long last, our boy is ready to fly! He is packed and double boxed. His kimonos are clean but the outer one is oh so fragile. The dyes and fabric were held together by years of dust. The black edging around the inner one has been replaced and…
It’s my birthday, and I’m in Stitch!
Pick up a copy of Quilting Arts Magazine’s special Fall 2010 issue of Stitch, turn to page 69, and there’s a new sashiko project in there from me! It’s a birthday present from me to you. Today I’m packing up orders that came in over the weekend, and updating the shop with new and vintage…
Meiji Ningyo Restoration, part VI
Sometimes I get so distracted with my other work that I forget to come in here and keep you updated. As I am so fond of saying, I could really use an assistant… and a chef, a maid, a chauffeur, etc. At least I have the dog to get me up and out of bed…
Meiji Ningyo Restoration, part V
A very welcome email arrived in my box early Friday morning from Anne Weaver: I will speak for the little guy. He is now being made whole again by filling the missing surfaces of his body. The clothing is the biggest challenge due to years of dirt and aging. His face is in the early…
Meiji Ningyo Restoration, part III
After removing the layers of kimono and juban, I spread them out to air for the night. I wrapped the doll in a tea towel, laid him flat on a table and went to bed. In the morning, I found the smell from the dirty, dusty clothing to be cloying and not particularly pleasant. Even…
Meiji Ningyo Restoration, part II
Loading the doll and his glass case into the back seat of my car, I wedged the case in between some blankets and a sleeping teenager. Another teenager, surly and tired from waiting in the car while I’d chatted with the shop assistant and owner, looked over from the front seat. “Can we go now?”…
Meiji Ningyo Restoration, part I
Wandering through a local estate liquidator’s shop last week, this little fellow caught my eye. He stood in a glass case, carelessly dressed and dreadfully sun faded. His hakama had been tied up as if it were a pinafore, and his face was cracked and poorly repaired. Still, I thought he had a charming smile…
Summer Projects
Just this week I started three new projects… despite my inability to finish several more from the past two years. Every studio seems to have its share of UFOs (UnFinished Objects), so I don’t feel so bad. Projects One and Two are sashiko pillowcases. The first is a scrap of yukata cotton that caught my…
Sashiko, shibori, and everything else
With all the craziness of packing, painting, a family wedding, kids getting out of school, etc., I allowed myself to be overwhelmed by all the other things that needed to get done and ended up ignoring things like, oh, my shop and this blog. Whoops. I logged on this morning to check a few orders…
An experiment in washing vintage indigo kasuri, part 2
(Continued from yesterday’s post, as promised) So how did it fare after the second wash? The blue background color is sharper and clearer, but the splash areas that were once light blue are now white. This does not diminish its attractiveness in my opinion, but I had been hoping to retain the light blue on…
An experiment in washing vintage indigo kasuri, part 1
Along with shibori and sashiko, I am a sucker for kasuri (絣). Popular in Japan since the Edo era, kasuri (or gasuri) is a double woven ikat, meaning the threads are dyed prior to weaving and the design is in both the warp and weft threads. Machine woven Bingo kasuri, which constitutes the bulk of…
A love for both the common fiber and the extraordinary textile @KimonoMomo 