Tired of Cotton Print Kimonos

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

Most of my kimono are cotton prints or solids. So I was thinking of some other ways of making them:

• Patch work kimono made from gilded quilting scaps...
  
• Mirrored kimono where foreground and background swap on left and right ...
  
• Dyed kimono where the edges are dipped in a dye and allowed to seep up the fabric ...
  
• My wife has been painting jeans, I hope to get her to paint a kimono ...
  
• Stenciling patterns
  
• Embroidery

Anyone try one of the above?

I know that there is a method involving tying many tiny knots and then dying the fabric. Anyone try that?

Anybody try anything not listed here?

[Saionji Shonagon]

Good morning.

I've done block printing. I would like to try stencil when the new silk comes in. If I can find a gold metallic paint I like, I want to try to mimic surihaku, since I can't afford THAT much gold leaf.

Be sure to use a paint formulated for fabric painting and follow any directions for heat setting to preserve your work. Dharma Trading sells a Versatex fabric ink formulated for screen printing. I've used it to paint directly onto a canvas tent with excellent results (and you can buy a mix in fixative for it if trying to heat set iwithout an iron is an issue). I used their Createx paint on my court uchiki but I think I watered it down too much because it's gotten very pale. So with either printing or stencilling, it's a really good idea to do some tests on scraps before you attack your kosode fabric.

I have not attempted shibori - the tie-dye technique you described, but I know Fujiwara no Aoi did a kosode for her laurel awhile back.

There is a pieced patchwork kosode shown in Money Hickman's "Momoyama" in blocks of red and white silk which was then covered with surihaku (gold leaf stencilling). Part of me wants to make this kosode, the other part knows I would have to commit seppuku if any of the red proved not to be colorfast and ran onto the white.

Idea I've not tried but think would work to produce a broad stripe. Cut your fabric into the panel widths you're going to work from, accordion fold it and clip it together at one side (you could probably use a sturdy dress hanger), then dip it into a dye bath so only the bottom part of the fabric gets dyed.

Just some ideas to kick back your way.

Makiwara

[Harutsune]

I've seen some nice asian-style prints at the local Wal-Mart here recently and the material feels pretty smooth. Has anyone else run into them lately?

[Iriye]

I have not; are you interested in using other fabrics, such as linen and silk?

Rizii

[0tagiri]

Harutsune said:

I've seen some nice asian-style prints at the local Wal-Mart here recently and the material feels pretty smooth. Has anyone else run into them lately?

I found them in the Wal-Mart here in VA. If we are referring to the same thing, they are a polyester Chinese brocade. The pattern is not really right for Heian. It could be used for such things as lining in late period jinbaori. I wouldn't choose it for kimono, partly because of the pattern, but especially because polyester doesn't breath well and I don't like being hot and sweaty.

But don't take my word on costuming stuff. I'm pretty much a beginner here as well.

[Iriye]

If you're interested in linen, try www.fabrics-store.com. If you want to try silk, browse through the vendor listing here. Order swatches. I'm glad I did, and am more comfortable for it, besides feeling downright lucious. Let us know if we can be of service.

Rizii

[Saionji Shonagon]

Otagiri said:

Most of my kimono are cotton prints or solids. So I was thinking of some other ways of making them:

• Patch work kimono made from gilded quilting scaps...
  
• Mirrored kimono where foreground and background swap on left and right ...
  
  
  Otagiri-dono,
  
  I was in one of my favorite local used bookstores this afternoon and I had to grab the copy of "Japanese Costume and Textile Arts" by Seiroku Noma. What a cool little book, BTW! I'm going to have to add it to the resource section on my website.
  
  Anyway, it has examples of some of the styles you mentioned in your original post. There's a full color picture of a wild looking dofuku worn by Usesugi Kenshin in a patchwork of metallic brocades and damask that looks like something from the 1960's instead of the 1560s. (The citation says it belongs to the Uesugi Shrine in Yamagata Prefecture).
  
  There are also several examples of TEXT ("half the body different") kosode from period with panels done in alternating colors and decorative motifs, so there's definitely a basis for piecework kosode in period. There's even a detail taken from the Kasuga Gongen Miracles picture scroll (c. 1309) showing a kneeling servant in a katagami-gawari outfit, which leads me to think that the economies of the humble classes in getting new life out of worn garments got copied in richer materials as a Momoyama fashion statement.
  
  Makiwara

[TachibanaOmi]

Wal Mart is where I have acquired most of the fabric for my outfits. I've steered clear of the majority of the chinese prints except for the gray and black versions which my girlfriend (who is doing all the sewing so I cant argue) insisted on creating kimonos out of. Between Wal Mart and Hancock's fabrics, I've been able to find non-period materials with prints and colors very similar to outfits seen in Kurosawa movies. I've only been stoped by the "period police" once for wearing a hakama and kimono "pimp suit" sewn out of shiny silver/black pinstriped polyester. Very shiny, very un-period, but an excelent party suit.

Tachibana Omi

[TachibanaOmi]

Hanthingy? the filter gets creative. I'm sure everyone knows which fabric store I'm talking about right?

Tachibana Omi

[Iriye]

Han-rooster? ;D

[Date Saburou Yukiie]

The members of Clan Yama Kaminari got together secretly and donated scraps of brocade and silk so some of our talented seamstresses could make a lined patchwork kimono for our Daimyo, Sir Ogami Akira. This "Coat of many colors" was given to him on the occasion of his being made a Court Baron, and looks very nice. He wears it for only the most formal of occasions.
I am told this was a late period custom that trusted retainers sometimes did as a gift for their Daimyo, so the thought seemed quite fitting.
I'll talk to Saiaiko-hime and see if we can't find a pic of him wearing it somewhere in the Clan Archives...
Date

[Saionji Shonagon]

DateSaburouYukiie said:

The members of Clan Yama Kaminari got together secretly and donated scraps of brocade and silk so some of our talented seamstresses could make a lined patchwork kimono for our Daimyo, Sir Ogami Akira.

Seiruko Noma's "Japanese Costume and Textile Arts" includes photos of a dofuku from the Uesugi Shrinte in Yamagata Prefecture that was worn by Uesugi Kenshin and dates to about 1560. It's an irregular patchwork of gold and silver brocades and colored damasks in various greens, blues white and browns. Pretty cool stuff.

Makiwara, who really SHOULD be packing.

[Saiaiko]

I'll talk to Saiaiko-hime and see if we can't find a pic of him wearing it somewhere in the Clan Archives...

I think I know where one is.

I'd like to throw my two cents in...

I really wanted to make an over-kimono (uchigi), but lacked the wallet to buy some of the wildly priced chinese brocades. Well, this is creative anachronism, so why not fake it? I took plain unbleached muslin, and working from an illustration, made an uchigi that actually looks right and hangs correctly on my very non-Japanese body. In the backyard in the middle of the night, which I believe is the correct time to start any Pennsic project, I cold-water/salt-dyed the garment a bright chinese red. I lined dried it, and then cooked it in the dryer (a laundromat dryer). Using a template of a tomoe, I lightly penciled the design in a regular pattern all over the ironed garment. I clamped the garment into a large quilting hoop and gently filled in the stenciled areas with melted paraffin (I might use beeswax next time to lessen cracking). I again dyed the kimono, this time in black. This next part is also better to do in the middle of the night: I snuck over to the laundromat again, and washed the garment in hot hot water in a triple loader. This removed any excess dye, and set the color. The final step is to remove the wax, which was done in part by the hot wash, and finished by ironing it out on a board covered in butcher paper or newspaper with an old-not-to-be-used-for-anything-else iron. This was the tedious part, but as I ironed the colors began to pop! The black faded slightly to a deep maroon, and coupled with the chinese red made a fantastic contrast. I love wearing this uchigi, and I plan to continue the fake with a slight embellishment of carefully applied gold fabric paint to the tomoe.

I am also thinking of doing more garments and trying different techniques like rice-paste and shibori.

[Masahide]

Saiaiko said:

This was the tedious part, but as I ironed the colors began to pop! The black faded slightly to a deep maroon, and coupled with the chinese red made a fantastic contrast. I love wearing this uchigi, and I plan to continue the fake with a slight embellishment of carefully applied gold fabric paint to the tomoe.

ooh, ooh, ooh...... Pictures, I want pictures!!!!!

Masahide


<later> A ha! you posted it in the Member Profiles... I Love it!

[Seiichirô]

Wow, I must try that sometime. Fantastico.