Recycling an obi

 I bought an obi in lovely silvered silk brocade in a secondhand kimono shop in Tokyo for only about £6 - which seemed cheap at the time but I saw many more later in my trip for as cheap as £2.50.  I had seen quite a few bags and pouches made from recycled obi fabric, which is quite stiff so a bit like sewing with canvas.  My obi had brocade ends, then a middle section of plainly woven silk dyed pink grading into cream, with a lining of plain coarser silk. I decided to start with a zip pouch.  I used the Monstera Zipper Pouch pattern by myhandmadespace.com, which I acquired when it was a free pattern (it is now available for purchase and has been upgraded to include a zipper tab).  I cut my exterior fabric from the silvered brocade, and my lining from the plainer pink/cream gradient, and used a bit of the obi lining for my inner pocket backing.  The silk was a learning curve to work with: as soon as I cut into it, it started fraying, particularly the brocade section which has long silk floats on the reverse so I stabilised those with some iron-on woven interfacing.  The internal seams I stabilised with zigzag stitch. I added one of the 'handmade' metal tags I found in Seoul.  The result is quite a classy looking pouch which could almost be an evening clutch.

I also finished my yukata this week - I used machine stitch for the longer seams but handstitched down all the internal seam allowances to finish them, which was a big job.  It's turned out fairly well I think. I had additionally bought a cheap polyester secondhand kimono to convert into a nagajuban or traditional kimono undergarment.  So I've shortened that, added a belt tie, and stiffened the collar with a homemade erishin or plastic insert.  So in theory, I now have the components to attempt to dress in an authentic Japanese yukata - I'm waiting for a day when I am feeling more energetic.

My Lori Holt My Favourite Things quilt had come off the frame before I left on my trip, so I have trimmed up the borders on that and added a hanging sleeve, and am currently finishing off the quilt binding.  Then there are some more embellishments that I need to add to the quilt.  Meanwhile I have loaded the New Zealand Turning Twenty Around the Block quilt onto the frame and chosen a pantograph design to quilt it with. But I will need to practice the panto for a while with the machine turned off, because obviously I haven't done any quilting for two months now.

The garden has had a first pass on the weeding now, and a few days ago we pulled out the pressure washer and washed down the garden patios and concrete paths.  I just bought the pressure washer last autumn, it's not particularly powerful but the concrete paths literally changed colour from dark grey back to concrete colour.  It's also great for getting all the weeds out from between the cracks of the pavers but now we need to brush in some more sand into the cracks.

I've started downsizing again, listing some handbags online and selling one of them.  We also took a couple of loads to the charity shop this week.

Today, after visiting the caravan, DH drove me to Oxford so I could go to the Pitt Rivers Museum to see an exhibition on Hawaiian quilting entitled Hawai'i Ma uka to Ma kai: Quilting the Hawaiian Landscape, which is on until 30th June.  I knew it was on, but recently listened to a Haptic & Hue podcast interview with the commissioning curator which was quite interesting so I wanted to see the exhibition.  The exhibition is in one room with an adjoining corridor, and the 15 quilts are wallhanging size, but so different from each other and several are not your typical Hawaiian quilt designs that you think of.  There is also a ton of written information explaining the meaning of the various motifs and their significance in the complex Hawaiian culture, and also about the members of the Honolulu-based Poakalani Quilters who created the artworks based on the designs of  one of their founders, John Serrao.  It was quite interesting but also made me feel guilty about the bed-sized Hawaiian quilt I started after DH and I visited Hawaii in 2009.  It's probably my oldest UFO at this point and I don't think I can even finish it because the smaller fabric motifs that haven't been sewn yet have all started to fray badly due to the passage of time - so can no longer be appliqued to a symetrical design.  In retrospect, I should have started with a cushion and not jumped right into a bed sized quilt.  I need to re-assess it and perhaps recycle the fabric into something else.