Kimono Craftsmanship » Category_How to

Ever wondered how kimono are cleaned or maintained? A while back I had a pleasure to visit ANDO TAKASHI Dye Factory – a traditional company which does professional cleaning and restoring of kimono as well as new made to order kimono (“ANDO”). こんにちは。いかがお過ごしですか？最後に着物を着たのはいつでしょうか？毎日着れるなら、着たいお着物ですが、食べこぼしとか怖いですよね。 少し前ですが、着物の洗い張りや修理及びオーダーメードの着物をしておられる安藤孝染工場（以下、安藤）さんにお話を伺いながら見学させていただきました。 Curious as to how such an operation may look from the inside I paid them a visit. The staff of...

※Continued from my previous article / 前回の記事の続きです。 The final step after dyeing is to turn this 12 meter long fabric bolt into a wearable item. That of course means cutting and sewing it. I am not giving an instruction of how to hand sew it in this post as it is way too complicated and lengthy (but maybe one day, who knows!). Also if...

※Continued from my previous article / 前回の記事の続きです To continue the journey of my original yukata let us take a look at the next step: Fabric dyeing. In this case the traditional Japanese dyeing method called: 伝統的なオリジナル浴衣の旅の続きです。ついに、染めに入ります： Chuusen (注染) This craft of dyeing has been invented in the Meiji period (1868-1912) in Osaka and is a very practical way of dyeing a long bolt of...

For a long time I wanted to make my own design kimono or yukata the traditional way. In April I finally went onto a tiny journey to make this happen. 前から自分でデザインした着物が欲しかった。そして伝統的な技術を味わいながら作品を作る夢がありました。 そして、ついに今年の４月にその夢は現実になった！ Here is my story. How to: Yukata Part 1 – Japanese stencil cutting 浴衣の作り方：パート１　ー　着物の型紙を彫る Before departing I found some information about a newly to be opened place where you can cut your...

Last year in October I started with Wasai (和裁) – traditional kimono sewing by hand. I am being taught by a sensei which has been a professional kimono tailor for over 50 years. My lessons are once every week for 5 hours to learn the art of kimono sewing. To be honest – it is quite tough! One wouldn’t think how many hours, days...

Last month I already had my 5 year wedding anniversary! My husband does not wear kimono, but he is kind enough to hear me babbling about kimono all day every day for some time now. For our anniversary we thought it would be kind of boring to just walk through the city and stuff ourselves in a fancy restaurant. So instead my better half...