The Japanese dance group in which I’m a member sells vintage kimono, obi, and various items at our events to make money to support the group. Someone who visited one of our practices wanted to buy this kurotomesode kimono, but when she tried it on, we were dismayed to see that some of the embroidery had come apart. She still wanted it, but asked me if I could fix it up.

Here is how it looked before:

Before starting this, I referred to a fabulous book I own called The Techniques of Japanese Embroidery. I had a good idea of how I’d go about fixing the loose threads, and what the proper stitch was, but I just wanted to be absolutely certain. I didn’t want to mess it up.

In the book, the closest I could find was this couching stitch which uses two pairs of gold strands; however, on my subject there are actually two sets of three strands. It appeared to be stitched the same way though. I found matching thread and got to work. A challenge was not stitching through the lining. I didn’t want to disassemble the kimono, so I just had to take care to keep the stitches on the top layer.

Here’s what it looked like after it was all fixed up. It’s not perfect, but at least it’s safe to wear without worrying about catching loose threads on something and destroying it completely.

Here’s the entire pattern. So pretty and traditional.

Unfortunately, it seems that this great embroidery book is out of print! However, you can still preview some inside pages and buy used copies at Amazon if you want to learn more about this beautiful art. This is the best book I have ever seen on Japanese embroidery. It covers many basic and advanced stitches, and has beautiful examples for each. There are simple to follow diagrams, and full color photos. Wonderful book. I can’t believe it’s out of print!

I’ve been reading a book called Living The Creative Life. I’ve barely gotten into it, but one important point the book makes is that everyone is full of creative ideas - it’s just a matter of learning to encourage, embrace, and capture them… So when I woke up and this image flashed in my mind, I had to capture it before the day ended. I did this quick sketchy with watercolor, gouache, and ink. Not sure what I’m going to do with it yet, maybe it will be an embroidery or quilty thing, or perhaps I’ll just repaint it bigger and better. Really, the image in my mind is much better, but at least got something down in order to recall the mental image again.

So anyway, back to that book– It is a little hard to read because the type is smallish, and it’s overlaid on colored backgrounds; however, it is beautiful to look at in my opinion. It’s full of lovely art from featured artists, and each of them discuss their work, studios, their approach to creativity. I just purchased it over the weekend, so I haven’t gotten too far yet, but I can’t wait to get home and read on. There are some preview pages available at Amazon if you want to take a peek inside.

I finished my taxes! yaaay Effectually, we broke even, which is what we strive for every year—thus meaning we haven’t paid in too much over the year, and have kept as much possible of our money in the bank earning interest and making dividends!

On to the good stuff! I have been busily cleaning up my craft room over the past few days. It is by no means perfectly clean, but the floor is clear and there was enough space on my drafting table to set up my sewing machine and serger to make a nice halter tank top! I used Simplicity pattern 4561, which I actually bought a few years ago, but never had a chance to use. (I have tons of patterns in that category! haha)

This is made from a nice cut of light knit fabric I got at the thrift store for about $3.00. (While we’re on the subject, I also got this dress form at the thrift store for $15. It’s kind of old, but it is fully adjustable and serves the purpose well for me.) I loved the colors and design of the fabric, and decided this was the project I wanted to use it on! I really like how it turned out. I don’t know where I’ll wear this thing. There’s a lotta bare skin, not very work-friendly. haha

As for the pattern, here’s my review: (I made style B, btw.) I give it 4.5 stars out of 5. I think the instructions were slightly impaired by poor organization. Due to there being more than one style to make, the instructions combines steps for all the tops that are the same and they jump around a little bit making it more difficult than necessary to find the step I need. Also, I found it a bit difficult to attach the upper front parts to the lower front part and keep the gathers looking nice. Maybe not a design flaw, it might have been due to the fabric… Overall, I like the design and the finished piece looks great.

Some crafty gals at work and I decided that we’d each make a bunny for Easter. It’s been a busy week, but I did finally finish up my bunny early this afternoon. I gave it away to my mummy, so I didn’t get a lot of detailed pictures of it. I made my bunny from the pattern in this cute little Japanese book:

In Japanese, it’s Hajimete No Nuigurumi, which translates to something like “Beginning Stuffies”. (ISBN: 4529039013) You can buy it on Amazon Japan and there are some preview images available there. The book also includes cat, dog and bear patterns. There are two versions of the bunny, small and large. I went with the small one, but I wish I would have done the larger one in this case. I was all set on button eyes, but buttons on this little guy kind of make him look funny to me. My mom loved him though, and that’s what counts! Like the title would lead you to believe, this book is great for beginners. The pieces are simple, and the construction process is shown step-by-step with illustrations and photos. The finished works are very cute too.

Also of interest, on the back of the book there is a link to this website: http://www.tezukuritown.com It’s in Japanese, but there are a few free patterns there. I like this little cross stitch Matryoshka pattern (PDF link). Maybe I’ll make one!