Me Musing . . . March 15, 2010 . . .

I spent about half an hour this afternoon playing with the Colorhue dyes from Japan again . . . what fun! I have almost used up my little sample kit, so ordered larger amounts of my favorites from my
'Ohio turned Texan friend', Ginny Eckley who is the distributor for them.

Hangin out to dry!

The main thing for me that makes them so fabulous is that they are instantaneous! I just used the little pipettes and made little squigglees with eggplant or pumpkin and then dipped the whole thing in a mixture of goldenrod, pumpkin and a drop of brown for the background and they were done! Rinse (almost no colour comes out), then hang to dry and press. How easy is that????? I also tried an overdye on a few pieces of kimono silk and that worked well too.

Maybe the gold paint in my new little Creative Space has me going on gold just now . . . so here is the assortment:

I also received in the mail today the two kimono I had ordered off ebay. This was the description for the first one:

Vintage Japanese Men's Kimono, 100% Cotton, Made In Japan. Discolored from storage and very wrinkled - in good condition with no rips, tears, holes or stains - just needs some TLC. Navy - Denim Color

It was one of those 'Buy it now' items for $14.99 so I figured I could always use the fabric if was too bad . . . and it turned out to be a real charmer. Hand-sewn and I would guess, indigo, which having been folded and stored has richened its patina. Into the washer and dryer it went, then pressed and it came out great!

The other was described as:

THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL KIMONO. MID 1940'S TO 1950'S. PURCHASED IN JAPAN AND BROUGHT TO THE US BY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER AFTER WWII. PALE GREENISH GRAY COLOR WITH BEAUTIFUL ORANGE, YELLOW AND WHITE FLOWERS. INSIDE BOTTOM LINED IN ORANGE SILK. BEEN HANGING ON THE WALL OF A LOCAL ESTATE FOR 50 YEARS. RECENTLY CLEANED. I AM SELLING "ASIS" AS THERE ARE MOTH HOLES DOWN THE BACK. IT IS STILL USABLE FOR EVERYDAY USE OR AS A COSTUME. THE MOTH HOLES ARE NOT AS NOTICABLE AS THE PATTERN AND COLOR SEEM TO MAKE THEM BLEND. THEY ARE VERY NOTICABLE IF YOU HOLD THE GARMENT UP TO THE SUN. LOVELY GARMENT NONE THE LESS. ONE SIZE FITS MOST. THE KIMONO MEASURES 61" FROM THE SHOULDER TO THE HEM. BEAUTIFUL PIECE AND WOULD MAKE A LOVELY WALL HANGING OR A FABULOUS OUTFIT.

It too was one of those 'Buy it now' items for $9.99. I thought if nothing else I could try stuffing it for a YoGi Kimono quilt! Judging from the other kimono fabrics I have gotten lately which are wool, (but most people would swear were cotton or silk), I guessed that it must be wool, otherwise, why the moth holes????

Like every other piece of fabric that enters here . . . if it can't survive the washer/dryer, then it's out of here! Course, I have found that even things that shrink are still usable for something! I have washed all the wool kimono fabrics as well as the silk ones and it doesn't seem to bother them at all . . . and this was no exception!

I spent at least 3 hours this evening on the blog of Donna Watson, a friend of my friend Iona. I had to smile as she posted photos from the little book, 'BORO: Rags and Tatters from the Far North of Japan' that I wrote about a few times back. That got me to thinking again about this new kimono . . . the moth holes will be the perfect place to create my own 'Boro Kimono'!!!!!!!

Back of kimono
where I will patch the tiny holes

Until soon,

Che'usa

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