Remember back in January when I was taking apart an old obi and looking at the lining fabric? Now the tables have turned, and as I sew more obi for Fanime, I find myself considering what I will line some of these new obi with. I have several bolts of fabric for Nagoya obi that…
Tag: vintage
Such a geek.
I was busy reading up on shibori yesterday when there was a knock at the door. We get a lot of door-to-door folks out here, mainly church people and vacuum cleaner sales people, neither of whom I really want to talk to, so when I opened the door to find a young man in a…
Random Shibori from the Stash
Some days I look around the studio and think “I don’t have enough fabric” which is probably what every fabric junkie thinks at some point or another. Then I have a nice cup of tea, sit down on the sofa and have a look around at the bags, shelves, boxes and piles of silk and…
Shibori musings III – it’s more than dots
So far I’ve posted several shibori fabrics that were primarily made up of dot patterns, which is a very common style of shibori. However, there are other techniques that are used to bind and dye cloth. Here are a few more examples. This is an example of ori-nui shibori, where thread is run through the…
Bless the little sheepies
I moved to the high desert of Central Oregon (elevation around 3,500 ft) several years ago. Here we have only two seasons: our winters are dry and freezing and the summers are dry and hot, but both are beautiful. Every winter I pull my Columbia sportswear jacket out of the closet, bemoan it’s lack of…
Bast again
Ah, those wonderful mystery fibers. Gotta love ’em. It’s funny, but to the modern eye, “vintage” Japanese fibers tend to be either brightly colored silks or indigo blue and white cottons, but historically this was not so. Prior to the mechanization of weaving in the mid 19th century, a great deal of weaving was still…
Electric bubblegum meisen, revisited
It took about 1.5-2 hours to take it all apart, but fortunately it was all hand-stitched and that always helps. Any kimono-type garments that have been machine stitched at some point are a nightmare to dismantle. Kimono are typically hand sewn of course, but from time to time I come across a vintage piece that…
More meisen!
I post nice things about meisen, and this is what I get: more meisen! Here’s a group of 4 nice florals, some of which will be for sale on ebay this week. You can find my listings at KimonoMomo on ebay. This next little piece is going to be an interesting challenge: It’s in somewhat…
Simple yukata how-to project for a rainy day
I often tell people my studio is knee-deep in kimono textiles, and sometimes I’m actually joking. Today, not so much. It’s raining outside, the snow is melting, and I’ve got a HUGE shipment of vintage kimono just waiting for me to tear into it. But first, a little project for your consideration. Working on ways…
Toxins in your textiles
Due to erm, unforeseen circumstances, I cannot access certain programs on my computer, including my photo editing software, so no pictures today. Instead I’m sharing some of the interesting bits and bobs I’ve found so far on leaded silk. You think lead paint in children’s toys is bad? A hundred years ago we were wearing…
Thoughts in process
I’m currently working on researching lead silk, as it’s something you don’t come across so much these days. I do have some pieces of it in my vintage collection from the late 19th century, both in US-sold cloth of the era and (I assume) in several of the Japanese textiles as well. If you have…
Musing on meisen
I must admit, when I started working with kimono textiles I didn’t care much for meisen, that fuzzy-looking weave popular in the early 20th century (early Showa). It made my eyes feel out of focus and looked really… weird to me. And then, this came into my life: Cherries! and they’re not fuzzy! Photos cannot…
A love for both the common fiber and the extraordinary textile @KimonoMomo 