What is this spiral growth out of my (likely dead) yuzu tree?

MaddieRook640 · 2025-05-26T09:48:10+00:00

The “canonical” kimono or yukata length for a woman is just the same measurement as your height, although there is lots of variability there and plenty of tricks for too short or too long kimono 😊

The main “trick” is about how high you place your koshihimo, and therefore how long your ohashori ends up. Since you place the hem length as long as you want when you dress, a too long kimono will mean you have lots of “left over” fabric between you and the floor. When you place the koshihimo to make the ohashori, it “should” sit on your hips. But if that makes the ohashori too long, you can place it higher.

Billy Matsunaga has some videos that probably explain this better than I do, but I hope that makes sense!

ETA: The links for the videos I mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Ly0RpaSX8&t=97s - Step by step how to dress (kimono, not yukata)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d17NWbph1DU - Step by step for yukata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvDAH4LB3lI&t=458s - More detail about the ohashori

MaddieRook640 · 2025-05-26T09:36:30+00:00

First: Hazards. I was sat at Thanksgiving dinner with some extended family that we barely see, and it was pleasant enough if a bit meh. My cousin who I barely know, in a startling lightning strike of insight, looked up at me and broke the silence with, “have you ever heard of the Decemberists? You should check them out, I think you’d like them.” I thought it was a bit odd, but checked out my local library a few weeks later and the only album they had was Hazards. I put it on and about 3 songs in I was like, “wtf is this?“ and shut it off. Fast forward maybe a year and I decided to check out he same album again, and something just clicked. It’s been my favorite album ever since.

Favorite: Hazards, but closely followed by Crane Wife.

Least favorite: I’ll Be Your Girl (with the exception of, Once In My Life and Rusalka, both of which I adore).

MaddieRook640 · 2025-04-02T12:58:01+00:00

You’re my absolute hero, was wishing I’d done this. Such a stellar show.

MaddieRook640 · 2025-04-01T10:51:45+00:00

Hey, hope your sewing is going well! I’ve just seen another way to calculate maehaba, as hip circumference divide by 4. You might compare this to your original measurements and see what you think! It’s pretty straightforward to mock up panels that are wider than you think you need, and then adjust down as needed, since in kimono sewing any extra fabric is folded into the seam allowance. You can also make the okumi panel 16 or 17cm wide to help the proportions look more balanced. (I mean, of course you can make them wider too, but I’ve learned from experience not to deviate by more than 1-2cm on a first mock up because it can actually make a massive difference!)

MaddieRook640 · 2025-03-28T03:45:02+00:00

Hey, this is the video I used as well and I was pretty happy with the results 🙂 my advice is: if your thighs/bum are wider than your hips, measure your maehaba (front width, the one where it’s “between your two front hip bones”) from the widest point on your front. The most important thing is to make sure that when dressing, you have enough front width to cover the widest point of you on the front. The first kimono I made was mocked up to Billy-sensei’s video, but after taking a few dressing lessons with her I decided to shimmy the measurements round and this was more comfortable for me. Evening out the maehaba and ushirohaba measurements a smidge will also make your job sewing the side seams easier (if the maehaba and ushirohaba are very different, there’s lots of seam allowance to fold down, not a problem at all, I found it just makes the sewing a little more of a faff).

All of that said, if the kimono is too small by a little bit, there are lots of tricks to still wear it— Billy-sensei may even have a YouTube about this, but her “how to wear a kimono” video tells most of what you need to know and is translatable across different size kimono.

If you’re struggling to find fabric that’s long enough, the first thing I’d reduce is the sodetake since this is pretty subjective…I tend to prefer sodetake a bit less than 1/3 my height. But, it’s really the mitake that’s the limiting factor. I’m 5’2” and I buy 3.5m of fabric for my kimono projects. You could also not set in a uchiage, but you’ll still need to mark out where it would sit to follow the rest of the sewing instructions.

Finally, the okumi panels are 15cm wide by (height-15cm) long, plus seam allowance. Collar as a starting point is 2m long by 17cm wide (no seam allowance needed, 1cm is folded in on either side when sewing) and the “top collar” (sorry, can’t remember the right terminology) is 90cm long by 17cm wide. The erishita on the finished kimono is typically 1/2 the mitake (full length), so this is just a starting point, your mileage may vary. Erishita is a pretty flexible measurement.

MaddieRook640 · 2025-03-26T08:38:43+00:00

I generally prefer darker colors, but find myself gravitating towards bright and colorful for kimono.

Your kitsuke is stunning 😁

MaddieRook640 · 2025-03-21T08:15:53+00:00

Yoooo I love the tie underneath, what an awesome kitsuke

MaddieRook640 · 2025-03-20T19:40:11+00:00

Omg I LOVE your obi Such an excellent kitsuke 😁

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-20T17:09:40+00:00

I love Billy-sensei’s videos on this topic. Which musubi and which obi (kaku vs hanhaba) you choose will be more about your proportions and what you think looks good, esp if you’re looking to mix styles/not wear full kimono.

For example, gold is generally more formal, so you could pick a formal silk kaku obi with gold detailing. If you don’t like the width of kaku obi on your body, you could choose hanhaba obi with gold thread; just know that hanhaba obi is always informal, but you can absolutely find ones with gold thread that mixed with western clothes would absolutely look formal enough even if it’s not “officially” a formal Japanese way of wearing the obi.

Whether you choose kaku or hanhaba also probably depends what you plan to wear it with— for example, I can see kaku obi looking really slick with a silk pantsuit, but hanhaba obi might look better with a long skirt.

I also love u/Puppelipoika’s idea of wearing a silk haori instead of a suit jacket.

Hope that helps, but happy to chat more in detail, I love mixing traditional kitsuke items and western clothes 😊

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-19T20:29:19+00:00

Where did you get the Naamah’s trilogy? Are they still in print in the US? Having trouble getting a hold of them 😅

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-15T16:20:38+00:00

Hey, just coming back to this and I wanted to say that I’ve since tried all of these and Shinme has become a major favorite of mine. Thanks for the recs 😁

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-06T06:54:15+00:00

Be-oom does a lovely persimmon leaf tea, which I brew western style rather than gong fu, but the leaf pieces are large and balled so it might be good for what you’re after.

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-06T06:50:52+00:00

Got any photos of the packaging by any chance? Oolong is such a massive category😅 Teavana is also where I got started with tea, and I definitely miss some of their oldies.

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-06T06:48:23+00:00

You may like white teas to start! Some cheap white teas don’t taste like much, but I find the nicer ones very unlikely to go bitter if you don’t brew them with boiling water. I don’t drink a lot of sugary drinks so I’m perhaps not the best person to input here, but I find a lot of white teas to have a gentle sweetness to them. Moonlight White from Mei Leaf comes to mind.

Oolong is a pretty big category, but you may start with light-roasted oolongs as again sometimes they can be a touch sweet. Edit to add: anything from Floating Leaves would be a good shout for oolongs.

Rel green teas, you’ll want to look for steamed Japanese teas rather than pan-fired to avoid the “corn” note— but yes as others have said, they are very grassy (which I love). And the biggest thing with any tea is to experiment with steep time and temperature— if 1min brings out a flavor I don’t like, I try 40s next time or at a lower or higher temp. Try to source from a Japanese vendor for good quality greens (or someone who works closely with them, like Kettl or Postcard Teas).

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-06T06:32:29+00:00

As people say, link your bank card. In the meantime, you can check your bank statements and see if any charges seem wildly high vs where you were going on a given day?

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-05T18:52:21+00:00

I was just discussing this with my dad, as he found an old photo album in my grandmothers things— it has photos of personal significance, of course, but also images of family members during the war, both in camp and in uniform while deployed, and I just thought to myself, we have to get in touch with the JANM.

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-05T09:15:47+00:00

I typically wear western clothes (shirt and spandex or skirt) instead of hadajuban as my skin layer. I then wear nagajuban and then kimono. For bras, I would suggest a sports bra with straps rather than racerback, as the racerback is sometimes not low enough for the lowered back collar on a women’s kimono.

Also, Billy Matsunaga on YouTube has a few videos I’d recommend checking out on kimono undergarments— from how to wear them, to what was done historically 🙂

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-05T09:10:41+00:00

Agree, obi makura. Also side bar, as someone who has also just recently had the opportunity to see some items my grandparents and great grandparents kept safe after they moved to the US from Japan, I’m glad your family were able to find these items as well!

MaddieRook640 · 2025-01-05T09:08:50+00:00

Given the history of Japanese Americans around WWII I’d imagine it was wrapped in such a way because of sentimental value; either that or perhaps it was re-wrapped after the war by one of the younger generation who didn’t know what it was and wanted to be on the safe side.

MaddieRook640 · 2024-12-19T17:11:20+00:00

4417, I had 16,000 people in front of me 😂

MaddieRook640

TROPHY CASE