I spent last night making up a new set of Kimono for my Nijika figure. The first one had a lot of errors in them, such as a lot of places where the heat bond bled through the fabric and darkened it badly, and the bamboo leaves on the front of the under Kimono that I redid twice and then totally patched over - with heat bond that bled, incidentally - which resulted in a really horrid looking mess upon close inspection. It didn't show up much in the original photos - which I attribute to my cameraphone being somewhat lame and not to the quality of my work - however I couldn't help but SEE it as a glaring mess every time I looked at her. Also, I finally, a few days ago, decided to add the bamboo leaves which I had not put on the back of the furisode sleeves, however, again, the heat bond bled through very badly, and it looked horrid.

Plus, there were a lot of little details like I didn't like how the seams lay, and the way the back near her shoulders turned out on the first one, and some of the sewing pucker marks, and the fact that you couldn't see the Geta I made for her, and that the lining of the sleees was too bulky and the wrong shade, and that the Furisode really needed lined, too (since, technically, it is an Uchikake, which is an outer robe worn over a Kimono or Furisode, which is usually lined and trails on the ground behind, as opposed to either Kimono or Furisode, which are supposed to be pinned up under the obi so that they do NOT touch the ground) and also that the fan tassel was gold rather than yellow like everything else...

And I really kinda thought that, rather than yellow, all the accents really should be in gold or gold tone, as a symbol both of status and simply because it is more aesthetically pleasing.

Finally, yesterday, I couldn't stand it anymore and collected new materials and then ended up staying up all night last night to re-do her completely. Finished just in time for Animated, in fact. (and woof, what an episode... but that's neither here nor there)

The only things I did not touch were her teal Nagajuban (under garment Kimono), Geta (sandles), her face, and her actual hair and hair bow. The rest of it all got redone in some form or another.

The large crown shaped hair comb Kanzashi was painted gold foil metallic, as was the smaller pin Kanzashi, whose beads were replaced with gold plated beads in a better scale (tiny beads were frelling TINY and omg so hard to fiddle with!) and a little gold foil thread trim was added, too. Also, the stick pin Kanzashi were painted in the gold foil metallic, too. The Obijime (the cord which holds the Obi in place correctly) was replaced with a gold cord instead of the dyed yellow one. I did, however, leave the Datejime (the teal sash under the Obi) and the Obi itself, alone. I'm pretty happy with them, and the paper I used as the Obi-ita is keeping its shape quite nicely and preventing the Obi from wrinkling or laying wrong. (SO MANNY TERMS that I had to learn to do this piece!!!)

The primary differences in how this was all constructed this time are that, one, I found a MUCH better heat bond (I do not sew. My sewing machine hates me, and I lack the patience or skill to hand stitch more than a few inches at most at a shot). This stuff is designed for lightweight fabrics and does not bleed, no matter how badly I toast it. And it holds beautifully. It also is self-stick, which gives it INCREDIBLE use for creating appliques, which leads to the second primary difference: the flowers and bamboo are all - with the exception of the untouched Obi design - appliques rather than painted on.

I found a stunning matching metallic goldenrod fabric that I used for the linings, and it gives the flowers that perfect metallic touch to make it fit with all the new gold accents. The flowers were drawn out on the heat bond sheets, the center of the flowers was masked off with clear film, and then the fabric was sponge painted with white. Then once the paint was dry, I placed the fabric on the heat bond sheets, cut it out with an X-acto knife, and, voila, perfect appliques that match the fabric weight and MOVE with the fabric, rather than glopping on top of it. The bamboo leaves, of course, required no painting, and bonded on so nicely that the gold fabric essentially became part of the red. There's no bulking up there, which is awesome.

The entire Uchikake is now lined with the gold fabric, save around the shoulders for several reasons. First, I lack the skills to get that sewn in there right without screwing up the lay of the fabric. Second, traditionally, there isn't any lining at that part of the Kimono or Furisode anyway. I'm not entirely certain about an Uchikake, but I'm willing to fudge it for the sake of aesthetics. Also, I did a more traditional version of the entire Kimono patterning when I cut out the pieces, and made it so that I can actually remove the Uchikake from Nijika, if I am so inclined, rather than basically sewing it to her. The result was a more traditional back, and a MUCH smoother shoulder area. I did taper the whole shoulder area of the main body of the Uchikake, though, mainly because her body is so narrow that a true and faithful pattern would have swamped her. As it is, when it isn't carefully arranged, the Uchikake trails behind her as if she is walking, which is, in essence, correct to the design, but she looks better when I arrange folds into the fabric.

There are still a lot of little things which need adjusted, like all the tiny strings and snags trimmed or singed off to smooth some of the fabric edges, but, all in all? I am SIGNIFICANTLY more pleased with how she turned out this time. Oh, also, I found a paint marker that matched her Nagajuban and Datejime to use to paint the vanes of the fan with, so the color scheme is more consistant and faihful throughout. Of course, now, the purist in me is considering getting more brass to attempt to remake the fan with that metallic goldenrod fabric to REALLY match everything.... heh. But fortunately, I'm pretty much out of time to fuss any more. (Although, I may re-wrap her Obi layers, bring them down just a touch, and balance it a bit better... not sure yet. It's off, just a hair, but I may be able to survive that. Time will tell)

Why, yes. Yes I AM OCD. Thanks.

Oh, and yes, that IS a Morphobot trying to cop a feel in some of those images. :wink: And many mondo superhuge thanks go out to :devplushbots: for it! She did a magnificent job on it, as always!

That's Nijika in a nutshell.

For now. heh.