A shirbori class in Kyoto

On my previous trip to Kyoto I missed out on visiting the Shibori Museum and taking one of their classes in shirbori dyeing (just ran out of time). This made me very sad. I nearly missed out this time too as they were closed for New Year, right up until the day before we flew out. Talk about cutting it fine!

Way back in 2014 I took part in a Spoolettes shirbori workshop that for some reason I've never written about. During that class we learnt about quite a few techniques for dyeing fabric and got stuck in to folding, clamping wrapping, tying and scrunching our fabric before submerging into vats of stinky indigo dye.  I was surprised to see that the class in Kyoto does not use indigo dyes (not quite sure why, that was a bit "lost in translation"), but rather chemical dyes that allow you to produce pretty much any colour combination you want.

I decided to try the wrapping and scrunching technique for the silk scarf I was going to dye as I loved the pattern it produced (that's them over on the right). It seems so delicate compared to the techniques shown on the left (which are folding and clamping mostly). Wrapping and scrunching  was something I avoided during the class in Sydney as I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by information and options so I stuck with simply folding and clamping with pegs.

I have to say, the array of colour choices in Kyoto was a bit overwhelming but in the end I decided to go for a red base with a blue over-dye. I didn't dye the plain scarf first as I liked the effect of having some white showing through. I love that I got to dye a silk scarf as it feels lovely to wear. My teacher explained that in Kyoto they dye on to silk and in Nagoya (the other shibori area in Japan) they dye onto cotton. Glad I got the "silk town" is all I can say!

The process was pretty simple: wrap the material around a tube, tie it with string/elastic, scrunch it down, wet the fabric, soak in the red first dye, soak in the blue dye next, and voila, you're done!

The moment of truth...

The scarf ended up way more purple than I was hoping, but I still really love it. The scarf has great memories associated with it of a great holiday in one of my favourite countries and I'm bummed it's only been cool enough to wear it once since we got home in January.

Apart from the class there's quite a few exhibitions to explore on the second floor of the museum. My teacher took me around the museum and explained some of the displays to me which was great.
This shibori kimono is for sale at the museum for about US$50,000. It look about 18 months to make and all the knots were hand tied. It's only basted together as it will be tailored to fit its eventual owner and then hand stitched together. I feel I need to up my sewing game after seeing this.

The class I did cost 5000 yen, so about AUD$60. Not cheap, but it was a lot of fun, and I'm totally chuffed with my me-made souvenir from Japan! I would highly recommend this class and a visit to the museum of you have an hour or so up your sleeve.

Details on the Kyoto Shibori Museum can be found here. It's a good idea to email ahead (via their online form here) and let them know when you want to come in so they can be prepared for you. 

Fabric haul from Kyoto

Dave and I have *just* returned from 2 and  a half weeks in Japan, where we spent the bulk of our time in Kyoto. The beauty of staying put in one place for so long is the chance to revisit places you REALLY liked...such as my beloved Nomura Tailor. I went there about 5 times, making purchases three of those time and just perusing all the goodies the other times. It was...bliss!

There are two Nomura Tailors in Kyoto, one on Shijo Dori (the bigger store with ALL the fabric), and a second smaller store, around the corner in one of the arcades at the end of Nishiki Market (there are two arcades parallel to each other and I cannot remember which one it is in). The smaller stall sells some haberdashery and quilting items.

Needless to say I spent most of my time in the big fabric store...with most of that time up on Level 2 where the knit fabric lives.

I bought this lovely wool (?) for what I hope will become a lovely "coatigan" - B6244. The pattern has a shawl collar that shows the underside of the fabric (the lighter side) and I think (hope) this will work out really well). I hope not to hem the shawl part of the garment, rather use the selvage; or stitch it so I can fray the edges.

Next up is this cozy knit that I see as an Oslo Cardigan. I have no idea of any of the fabric content on my purchases...the tags being in Japanese...but they all feel nice

Nomura Tailor have a few different patterns made up, including the little cape in this photo. I tried it on and it fits (pretty much) so then I set about finding a fabric that I could use to make it. Nomura has HEAPS of wools, mostly in plaids, but I knew matching the plaids would make my head explode, so I went for this lovely blue fabric. I spent about 2 hours choosing this fabric - my head exploding at ALL the choices on offer. After some sign language I ascertain the pattern is from this Japanese pattern book so I purchases that too (hopefully I'll be able to decipher the pattern, otherwise this material might become something else, like a Seamwork Camden Cape).

Initially I had thought this fabric would work for the B6244 coatigan, but it has quite a bit of stretch so I walked out of the shop and left it behind after fondling it for about an hour. I then went back a few days later as I thought the fabric so was nice plus super soft and cosy that it deserved to come and live in Australia with. More agonising ensured about which colour - black, navy blue or grey. That decision took me hours also! I have no idea what this will become yet...hopefully a nice cardigan or coatigan if I can find a good pattern (suggestions welcome).

I bought a similar fabric to this back in February and it became a Linden Sweater which I think is a great way to show off the double sided fabric. This fabric will suffer the same fate...with the polka dots serving as the contrast fabric on the bands.

And last, but by no means least, is 1.5m of this lovely fabric that I found in their remnant bin - the colour combination is olive and mustard. Delish. The remnant bin at Nomura can be the source of hours of happy rummaging...trust me, I know. I see this becoming a Mandy Boat Tee - it has a bit of a "wool" feel to it, so it will be a nice winter top.

I love everything I bought and I'm glad I have visions for some of it straight away. I also loved that with JAL we had 50kg luggage allowance EACH so I could go as crazy at the bank balance would allow with my fabric shopping.

Misuyabari Needle Shop, Kyoto

I had read about the Misuyabari Needle Shop in Kyoto but like most things in Japan I didn't really make a plan to go there as it is often really difficult to track down places as the Japanese address system is tres confusing. Couple that with the fact that many places in Kyoto don't actually have an address...and English signage can be thin on the ground also. Really really!

On our last day in Kyoto we were wandering around the Shinkyogoku shopping arcade in the downtown area looking for a Taiyaki stall (one of Dave's favourite snacks) and stumbled up the needle shop just across the street from it! If I hadn't read about the store online I would've just walked straight past...but thankfully I knew better.

The Taiyaki store on Sanjo-dori

The only clue you'll have that Misuyabari Needle Shop is on Sanjo-dori (aka Sanjo Street) is this little sign out the front that will lead you down a narrow corridor and into a cute, garden courtyard. Above the sign is some signage showing a picture of the pins the store sells so I knew I'd stumbled upon Misuyabari. In Japan shops and restaurants are not only to be found on street levels of buildings - there is so much to discover by going up in to the buildings (they are like "vertical malls" if you will) or by wandering down little alleys that look interesting.

Misuyabari has been owned by the same family for over 360 years (!!!) and back in the day used to supply handcrafted sewing needles to the Imperial Court. Seeing I've not hand-sewn anything in about 1000 years I was here for the super-kawaii (aka super cute) pins...each one is handcrafted and no two are alike. I think when we go back to Kyoto in December I'll go back for some sewing needles though (and I also believe they sell machine needles).

The store is very small. Whilst we were in there two young Japanese also came in and the store was very...cozy. They were enamored by the shop and when the owner pointed out a very cute pincushion to me the two girls gasped loudly, covered the mouths and in a hushed voice whispered "Pincushion! Pincushion! So kawaii! So kawaii!". We all burst out laughing...one of the most funny moments of the trip.

This is such a special store and such a unique experience. I'm so glad that we stumbled across it, but it's worth hunting for, trust me.

It was hard to narrow down my choice of pins, but in the end I bought just four (as they are about Y300 each, so not cheap, but also not expensive).  I'm not sure what I'll do with these yet, but they are just nice to have!

There are a few blogs/website giving directions on how to find Misuyabari...they are here, here and here.  Enjoy!

A snuggly Linden Sweatshirt

I bought this lovely, soft double sided fabric during my visit to Nomura Tailor whilst in Kyoto this February.  I was REALLY frugal with my fabric buying during this trip as I didn't have a lot of spending money and we also had a really small luggage allowance (boo to you Cathay Pacific).  I'm happy to report that when we fly to Japan with JAL this coming December we have a 52kg luggage allowance (!!!) and are allowed two suitcases. EACH. One will be filled entirely with fabric (and KitKats) I'm sure!

Japanese fabric (well the stuff I bought) seems to be REALLY narrow. This was only 80cm wide so I bought 3 meters of it..just to make sure that I had enough to make whatever it was that I was going to make from it.

When I got home from Japan the fabric went straight into the stash as I didn't want to sew it up "just yet" in case I fluffed it up. After my first Linden however I began to think, this soft and snuggly fabric would make a lovely Linden and the cuffs would be the perfect, yet subtle way to show off the other side of the fabric.

For this Linden I sized down to the size 16 all over and the fit is much better. I do find the sleeves rather long on the Linden, especially once the cuff is added but I think this adds to the coziness of the top. Perhaps the top could be a little smaller all over but I think it might start too lose it's comfy factor if I go too snug.

Everything went fairly straight forward with this sew (mostly). The neckband went on ok, though I think I stretched the neckline out a bit...luckily not too much and the top is still comfortable to wear.  I'm starting to feel quite confident about attaching neckbands but I don't want to become too cocky as pride does come before a fall and all that.  I did fluff up one of the cuffs however and had to unpick it and reattach which was a nightmare as this fabric is quite fine and didn't like the unpicker at all...

Pattern: Linden Sweatshirt by Grainline Studios
Size: 16
Modifications: none, other than going down a size this time around
Fabric: Mystery fabric from Nomura Tailor in Kyoto, Japan
Changes for next time: none, though I might make the sleeve a few centimeters shorter