Daimon hitatare project

[Ishida Kentarou Mitsumasa]

So I decided that I wanted to make something a little dressier than my silk kamishimo. I also decided that I wanted it to be made out of something that I can machine wash with a straight face. That suggested a daimon or suo.

My seven yards of white heavy linen and seven yards of orange heavy linen from fabrics-store.com arrived this past Monday. I cut the panels and ties for a white hakama and white hitatare on Thursday, then slammed together the hitatare tonight.

This thing is large. In fact, it's so large it doesn't fit into one picture.


Hitatare undershirt, left by tomlapille, on Flickr


Hitatare undershirt, right by tomlapille, on Flickr

I'm fairly pleased with how this went. The pattern is accurate, but I am particularly pleased with the finishing details. Everything is a little more buttoned down than it should be historically, as I used a machine and finished all the seams very securely so I have no worries about washing machines, but it's very clean and nice. I can tell that I am getting better at this.

Many of the seams that I finished extra-securely are at the edges of panels, which would have been selvage with period-width fabric. However, I'm curious now how the bottom sleeve seam was finished in period. There's no way to make that selvage, and I haven't read anything about seam finishings anywhere. Does anyone know where I would find that kind of information?

Now to get to the underwear hakama...

[Deleted]

Sept 3, 2011 3:30:00 GMT -5 Ishida Kentarou Mitsumasa said:

Many of the seams that I finished extra-securely are at the edges of panels, which would have been selvage with period-width fabric. However, I'm curious now how the bottom sleeve seam was finished in period. There's no way to make that selvage, and I haven't read anything about seam finishings anywhere. Does anyone know where I would find that kind of information?

What did they do in period? I think they left it raw. Remember that period laundering techniques deconstructed the garment and reconstructed the bolt.

What could they do in period? Without machine sewing to put nice finished edges on everything they way I do it today? (All hail the serger!) My guess would be French seams.

(French seams are a double-sewn type of seam that encapsulates the raw edges. First, sew the raw edges together right sides out with a narrow (maybe 1/4") seam allowance. Trim the seam allowance down to about 1/8" with scissors. Now, turn the seam wrong side out with right sides together, and iron the seam flat. Sew the seam again with a 1/4" to 3/8" seam allowance, encapsulating the raw edges. This makes a nice smooth package of the seam, with no raw edges. Some people do this for comfort even on modern garments.)

The only place I know of where you could find this out for sure would be that out-of-print Japanese language book where they developed patterns from museum garments. I don't have a copy.

[Saionji Shonagon]

Sept 3, 2011 9:12:37 GMT -5 @ishiyama said:

What did they do in period? I think they left it raw. Remember that period laundering techniques deconstructed the garment and reconstructed the bolt.

What could they do in period? Without machine sewing to put nice finished edges on everything they way I do it today? (All hail the serger!) My guess would be French seams..

What he said.

However, French seams confused the hell out of me and I inevitably ended up sewing sleeves on inside out. Instead I use running stitch on my seams, then fold the raw edges in on themselves and bind them with an overcast stitch. It's sort of like flat-felling, but not. And it results in a clean, finished seam that won't fray, which is essential when working with linen.

[Please Delete]

My technique these days starts with planning where I want selvedge and where I can get away without. When I don't have selvedge, I will often turn the edge over to the inside and sew it down, then I'll turn it over again and tack it down with an invisible stitch (or as invisible as I can make it), which I've seen in modern "traditional" Japanese garments. I find that this spreads out the bulk, and gives nice, crisp lines for things like my hitatare kamishimo.


-Ii

[Saionji Shonagon]

Sept 5, 2011 16:12:13 GMT -5 Please Delete said:

My technique these days starts with planning where I want selvedge and where I can get away without.

This too. For example, I've started on the to-dye-or-not-to-dye hitoe. Fabric was wide enough to allow me to have selvages on both side seams and one edge of each sleeve, so those will be attached with running stitch. (Sleeve edges will be hem stitched.)

I finished the center back seam by doing running stitch, folding the raw edges in on themselves and binding with overcast stitch as previously described and will do the same on the migoro-okumi seams.

[Ishida Kentarou Mitsumasa]

I finished the underwear hakama tonight. I don't normally do halfway-dressed shots, but I'm also not sure this one counts as such:


Daimon underwear layer, SamuraiSpace shot by tomlapille, on Flickr

This is a lot of fabric. Even just this much strikes me as being heavy to wear already. I'm quite interested to see what the whole outfit together feels like.

[Suzuki Ken'ichi]

That looks really good, Ishida-dono. Thank you so much for sharing your garb adventure with us! I have learned much from you, and you always inspire me.

[kazuyama]

Looks totally awesome. I always love seeing your projects work out, you do a great job

[Ishida Kentarou Mitsumasa]

Sometime between starting this and Halloween, this hitatare kamishimo turned into a straight-up costume project. I still made something that has several historically accurate aspects, and I intend to go back and do this again in an actually accurate way, but for now I wanted to at least show what my screen printing experiment resulted in. All in all, I'm fairly pleased.


Lion kamishimo hakama by tomlapille, on Flickr

I used white ties because this won't be worn for SCA purposes, and that seems to be the more formal option.

Here's the hitatare.


Lion hitatare back by tomlapille, on Flickr


Lion hitatare front by tomlapille, on Flickr

I stole the placement of the kamon from the costuming in Kagemusha--check the scene just after the title character is unmasked. I was originally going to use larger kamon and place them on seams in order to be consistent with the daimon I have seen, but I preferred the way Kurosawa's looked and, well, this is a costume. I have to assume that he got it from somewhere, but I've never found it in a book so I wouldn't do it for a serious project. (Side question: where did he get that? I do think it looks nicer...)

Another interesting note is that the Kagemusha costumes in question are transparent enough that I could see the finishing details I was asking about. Those particular hitatare are finished in something very close to the way Ii-dono suggested I do it, and his method already seemed sensible, so it's what I did.

How did the screen printing turn out? And what's that kamon?


Lion kamon detail by tomlapille, on Flickr

Like I said, this is a costume. However, I'm extremely happy with how this turned out. I intend to do screen printing again the next time I have a design of this sort. I will probably foray into block printing for simple designs, but for things this intricate I am more than happy with what I got with the screen.

[Deleted]

The screen printing came out super sharp! Wow.

I like the golden color of the fabric, too. What is that, linen?

[Ishida Kentarou Mitsumasa]

It is the heaviest weight of linen from Fabrics-Store.com. It has a nice loose visible-weave appearance, comes in a million colors, is affordable, and is very durable, although it occasionally comes with a little more slubbing than I would prefer. It is basically the only linen I use, as it is consistent and really quite good.

[Saionji Shonagon]

I love the color! Sure it looks smashing on you.

The costume designer for Kagemusha, Seichiro Kagakusawa (yes, I IMDB'd it!) recreated a number of known extant 16th c. garments to costume the film, so I would not be surprised if he knew of an example of a hitatare that we don't.

On the other hand, he turned the Uesugi Kenshin dofuku of patchwork madness into a kosode and put it on Oda. Make of it what you like.
www.kurosawamovies.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2272

(I think I'm going to have to pop it in the DVD player this afternoon - no good can come of sewing kosode to subtitled films, but there it is.)

[yumehime]

I have two silk kimono, one lace and one that I mistook for heavy cotton before the burn test, and both fearure a waffer thin silk ribbon on the back seam as reinforcement, applied just like seam binding and then tacked flat, and though both kimonos are dark, the colors are not the same, but the ribbon is identical in weave and color. Since I also have a silk juban with no back seam (gasp) I suspect this is a modern standard notion for kimono in places that a propper double role adds too much bulk, but aditional reinfocemen is needed and may be useful on thick but fray prone brocade. Both kimono are fully hand stiched, and I suspect my lace piece has more inside the sleeve based on the way it was roled, but it also has an inch and a half of extra on both sides of the bottom despite being shear and unlined, and likely costom tailored for the original buyer.

My lined "pink smoke" kimono got a sleeve adjustment witch showed me a radical weave change about a centimeter from the bottom on each side of the sleeve, like a marker built into the bolt to indicate where to cut, made of a tighter waeve then the paterned sections, though I can't say if it was period or even used to mark the whole bolt or just the sleeves, but both methods are plausable for a clever period crafstman to use.

I'll keep watching museum pieces and hope I can catch more difinitive information on weather or not these methods go back further.

[Deleted]

I was browsing through some pictures on the web of costumes at this year's San Diego Comic Con, and look who it is...

[Saionji Shonagon]

He found me recently on Facebook and re-connected. He's currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and working for another gaming company. Sadly (for me - he's so talented), he is not active in the SCA at this time.