Muromachi kosode, part 2

The kosode is coming along. The entire outer shell is assembled, with the eri tacked down, and the lining needs to have the sleeves cut out and attached before I start laying it in. I also need to work out how much curve the sleeve corners should have.

I finished the obi, which in period was 3″ wide and long enough to wrap twice around the body. I made it 4″ wide to improve the proportions of my un-willowy frame and because the early 17th-century obi I admire are about 4″, and it’s long enough to wrap at least three times because of those same Edo-era obi. So there’s some historyfail. But it’s gorgeous, and very comfortable to wear.

After I finished the obi, I put on the outer shell and obi and sat down to watch TV, amusing the friend who was watching me sew. Then I started assembling the lining. My friend: “There’s a woman in a kimono sewing in my living room. My life is strange.” The kimono was actually rather comfortable to work in, apart from the sleeves, which caught on everything. (That will be fixed when I sew up the front edge.) The skirts were wide enough for me to cross my legs without flashing too much of my yoga pants. Wearing the kosode in public is going to require learning to move more gracefully than I do now, but nothing like the delicate little steps you need to make to look good in a modern kimono.

The pulling at the heels has resolved itself, so the issue I face now is that kosode are supposed to be cut straight across the bottom, not curved like European skirts. When I belt the kosode, my Northern European derriere hikes the back of the skirt up, so hemming to the right length for the back means dragging on the floor in the front. I don’t want to mess with folding the excess under the obi in the front, and a curved cut will make the kosode hang wrong. It’s a problem I’ll gnaw on once the kosode is assembled.