Selfies! Sorry!

I've got a bunch of lousy pictures today but I wanted to show you what I made and why I made it.

Last month when I went to the Women's Conference with Julie, there was a young woman there selling handmade goods from Onagawa, Miyagi which is a port town that was hit hard by the tsunami that destroyed the Japanese coast 8 years ago.  The goods were made by some of the women who live in Onagawa in hopes of raising money and keeping up the spirits of the people who still try to make their homes there.  Their group is called the Megumi Project.  Most of the handwork at the counter were items made from old kimonos... bags, scarves etc.

I was drawn to the scarf section as I do wear scarves but I already have quite a collection of scarves and hardly can say I need another.  Throughout the weekend I kept going back to the young woman's counter vacillating between my miserly tendencies and wanting to support the work.  Another friend whom I'd recently met, came to breakfast wearing one of the scarves saying that she had decided she would support the group and also have a scarf pattern to make her own scarves.  This sounded like a good idea to me and I soon made my way to the counter and chose a scarf that I had been eyeing all weekend long.

A scarf is a scarf right?  Well, the Megumi Project scarves are different because the one I bought also had sleeves... or maybe it is better to say that it is one big piece of cloth with sleeve holes.  Here... Let me show you what I bought.

A long piece of kimono fabric folded in half lengthwise with slits left open to put the arms through.  The fabric is light enough that it drapes around the neck and can be tied like a normal scarf, but with the arm slats, it also serves as a shrug.

The scarf I bought is rather somber with lots of different colored threads running through.  It looks pretty good with a sweater and jeans and I am extremely happy that I bought it!  I've already used it quite a lot just as a neck scarf!

In fact, I liked my scarf so much that I wondered if I could wear it with that blue dress I'm going to wear to Leiya's wedding... in case it cools off in the evening...  But alas, Marlene advises me that my beautiful scarf is rather on the casual side and that I would do better to wear something a bit more fancy.  Rats...  I really wanted to wear this scarf (well, as a shrug) just because it has a Japanese feel to it.  I'd like to keep a little of Leiya's Japanese culture in this wedding...

I went online to the Megumi Project website to see if there might be another scarf that I could purchase but I didn't find anything that really struck my fancy.  And then I got to thinking that maybe I could make my own with an old kimono especially since I had the pattern at my fingertips.  And when looking at the Megumi Project website (and they even have measurements posted!) I decided to try and make another of the scarves.  A longer one but made in the same pattern.  I rummaged around my closet to see if I had any old kimonos leftover from Tetsu's mother's closet...  Or maybe those are kimonos my friend left with me?  I'm actually not sure...  But I pulled one out that seemed elegant and had a general pattern (rather than embroidery just at the bottom which might not lend itself well to the shrug) and also that had a bit of blue in it that just might work with the blue dress.

So this was the kimono print.  It is on silk and there is a woven pattern in the silk itself...  First I ripped up the old kimono separating it into pieces.  The back, the front, the collar, the sleeves.  A kimono is basically rectangles of fabric made with the standard width of the weave.  I used the kimono back panel even leaving in the original center seam which joins the two widths of fabric.  Then I just sewed up the ends and left open a bit of the center seam at each end for the arm slits.  Done.

This is how long the original kimono fabric is from shoulder to hem.  When women wear kimono the length is adjusted by folding fabric over at the waist and holding it in place with the wide obi... thus the very long piece of fabric (and one size fits all in kimonos!)

Okay...  The fashion show starts.  (Wish I had a better model!)

Scarf.  It is just the long piece draped over my neck.  Of course like a normal scarf it can be doubled, tied into a bow etc.  I will probably use the scarf as a scarf most of the time.

And this is the shrug.  Actually it isn't much different from the blue one that I bought.  The back length is the same because both pieces are just two pieces of width of fabric.  This piece is longer though and so it puddles a bit more around my forearms...

And this is a twist because it can be worn as a short bolero.  I put one arm in the arm slit, pass the fabric around my back and loop it over the opposite shoulder then bring the second arm slit around the back to the first arm again!  That makes one fake shoulder!  That's kind if nifty!

This is the shawl look.  I put one arm in a slit, draped the fabric around the front of me, wrapped myself in it and brought the second slit to the first arm again.  Hmmm.  That's sort of an elegant look.  With a brooch to hold it in place it might work out nicely...

And this is called the French bolero.  One arm in a slit, wrap the fabric around my neck and then the other arm goes in the opposite slit.  I suppose I could wear a bolero and keep my neck warm at the same time...

Of course I can just ignore the slits completely, and just drape the fabric over my shoulders like a normal shawl.  This means there is a double thickness of kimono fabric.  Not particularly warm but maybe fancy enough in a pinch.

Oh well...  I went ahead and tried on the blue dress last night.  I guess I'll wear my mother's pearls.  Not as trendy as the ones I had tried on with the dress but they mean something.  And the shawl?  Well, I like that it has the Japanese feel...  I like that it picks up the blue...  Unless someone claims otherwise I'm assuming it came from Tetsu's mother's closet, so that has meaning for us also...  I hope the weather will be warm for us in Detroit in May...