Hand embroidered -a mother's love

Black Friday sale at my Etsy shop will be coming soon!


So far I made 4 sales (on my Etsy shop it shows 5, but the first one was made by my husband to see if paypal worked or not, so I don't count it as a sale). And to my surprise, 3 of them are zipper pouch made of silk kimono. At first, I thought my tote bags would be sold but it seems I was wrong.

I made this red zipper pouch last night. The red part is from old Japanese kimono of a small girl, and it used to be collar. I saw the backside of the fabric and knew it was hand embroidered. According to the shop where I bought this fabric, it was a girl's mother who embroidered.

The fabric itself was quite narrow, so I combined linen with the red silk so that it can be large enough as cosmetic pouch. It may be a bit ridiculous to love an item made by myself, but I love this pouch so much (that I made it my avatar on Etsy and twitter.)

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

←It's autumn in Tokyo. I took the picture this morning on my way to my office.


How is your Thanksgiving day?

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving day in Japan, and I didn't know what Black Friday was last year. Last year, we sent a photographer to Seattle for photo shooting  for our magazine (I work as editor on week days) and he told us about Black Friday at a shopping mall next to the hotel he stayed.

I have decided to have Black Friday sale on my Etsy shop. I cannot give you 60% off like big shops, but all of my tote bags will be discounted 30% off from 12 am on 29th Nov. to 23:59 pm on 2nd Dec. And flat rate shipping, too. Only 7 us dollars will bring you a cute tote bag by EMS (International express shipping, with tracking number & insurance). Usually it takes only 3 to 5 days from Japan to USA or Europe by EMS!

Please check out my Etsy shop tomorrow on Black Friday !!

Oshima-Tsumugi Hobo Bag

Last night after I came home from work, I made this mustard yellow bag. I used vintage silk kimono fabric. The fabric is called Oshima-Tsumugi and has been produced in Amami-Oshima in Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan. Kagoshima is my grandmother's hometown, and I remember she wore Oshima-tsumugi sometimes.

Patterns on this fabric are very big, so I decided to make a large hobo bag so that we can see the whole pattern. I did not put on outer zipper pocket, as I though it would ruin the pattern. You can put A4 size magazines and books and a lot of other things.

The bag has 1 inner zipper pocket and 2 inner open pockets.

Of course you can buy the bag on my Etsy shop. And remember to check my Facebook page before you go to Etsy, so that you can get coupon code.

Do you want to learn more about the fabric? You can read this article, written in English!

Christmas decoration

Usually we don't decorate for Christmas in our apartment. My husband returns to Denmark to celebrate Christmas with his family, while I work in Tokyo. For editors in Japan, around Christmas is the busiest time of year, as we have holidays from 28th Dec. to 3rd (5th at my company) Jan.

But this year, I decided to decorate a bit. My husband will not go to Denmark, for he is busy writing his theses of Master's degree. I wanted to have a Christmas tree, but unfortunately we don't have a room for the tree in our tiny apartment (57 square meter = 613 square feet). And I don't like small plastic trees...So I chose to make a small  Christmas wreath of pine corns and red ribbon.

To tell the truth, I didn't "make" the wreath. I bought the wreath at a 100 yen shop (1 dollar shop) nearby and put some red ribbons. It's easy and cheap, but it's pretty, I think :)

I also made a red heart garland with felt. I clipped heart shapes and sewed with red thread. Rotteline seems to love it!

Combination of different materials.

Last weekend was sewing days. I made 5 bags (well, 2 of them were trial and failures) and ran out of zippers & butting fabric.

I started something new. That was, to combine two different materials; silk and linen.

The idea came to me when I surfed internet. I sew a pouch which was made of linen and cotton. It was really pretty and I wanted to make the combination bag. I looked for my fabric stash, and found light purple linen and deep purple silk Ikat. So I made this large size clutch bag.

I like clutch bag, but some people think it is difficult to hold. That is why I put on an wristlet band which is easily removed.

I hope this will be sold and loved by someone. Oh, by the way you can purchase the bag here on my Etsy shop :)

Rotteline Ørstad

Rotteline Ørstad is our cat.

She was found on a street in Chiba prefecture(suburb of Tokyo), when she was probably 2 months old. It was my boss’s cousin who found her.

As she already had two dogs and two cats, she could not take Rotteline Ørstad. So we decided to have her.

My husband gave her the name Rotteline Ørstad. “Rotte” means “Rat” in Danish. He gave the name because the cat looked like a rat very much. (See the photos. Don’t you think she’s like a rat?) I felt a bit weird when I heard the name for the first time and was against to him. Then he got thinking and decided to put some frills---line.

Rotteline Ørstad is very friendly to anyone. Perhaps she was born at someone’s home, then missed. She was really small (only 600 g), quiet, calm cat. Now she is 6 months old, weighs over 3 kg, and is very demanding. She always brings her toy to us and orders us to play with her. If we don’t, she protests by biting and scratching!

But at the same time, she is really sweet. She loves being hold, sleeping together in the bed with us and she always comes and says Hi (meow?) to us when we return home.

We love her so much.

Wrapping is difficult

As I got the very first sale yesterday (jubiiii !), I was busy in wrapping my items last night.

In Japan, when you buy something at a shop, you can ask free gift wrapping in most cases. So I had hardly wrapped gifts by myself, before I moved to Denmark. I learned how to wrap gifts (a bit), using ribbons and wrapping papers, but it is far from professional wrapping.

Every time I buy something on Etsy, I always get very pretty wrapped items. I also wanted to invent nice wrapping. It was very difficult and it took me two hours to wrap all the items.

I showed wrapped items to my husband and asked his opinion. He said, "it's pretty (kawaii)". I hope my first customer also think it's kawaii!

First Sale!

Today I got my first sale on Etsy.Theree of my bags are sold! I am so excited with this and I really hope the customer will like them. I will wrap them very nicely tonight and ship them tomorrow morning!

Bit sad, pretty happy

My husband was out with friend last night, so I made a tote bag with Japanese vintage silk. The fabric is from Meisen that I really love. I intended to sell the bag, but I decided to have it for myself.

To tell the truth, I was having a couple glass of white wine and made the bag. The result: a small mess at the top of the bag. It is not so big that some people would not notice it, but I did not want to sell it. I was very disappointed and blamed myself.

I bring the bag today. When I was in elevator at our office, an woman of other department said to me, “what a pretty bag you have!”. I said, “Thank you, I made it.”

I got so happy with her words. I got a pretty bag, anyway!

A bag of Japanese design

I have wanted to make a very Japanese bag. I always use Japanese fabric, but the most of my bags are neutral design. I like simplicity, and I do not want too much frills or laces. 

Simple but pretty, it is difficult. Finally I made a bag of very Japanese. It is an wristlet clutch purse, which features Japanese kimono & obi. The center fabric with string & a beed looks exactly like obi, Japanese belt. 

Outer fabric is all Japanese vintage silk. I like this design.

You can buy this bag here at my Etsy shop :)

My "moving" life

 Our apartment in Malmo, Sweden.
We lived there for 2 and half years.













Last night when I took bath, I was shocked, thinking about how many times I have moved in my life. As far as I remember, it was 14 times. 14 times in 38 years...!!

     

age City(District) Pref. Country
0 to 3 Sakai City Osaka Japan
3 to 6               Usa City　(not USA :) Oita Japan
6 to 7 Oita City (Minami Oita) Oita Japan
7 to 18             Oita City (Yokose) Oita Japan
18 to 19 Kawasaki City Kanagawa Japan
19 to 22 Toshima-ku Tokyo Japan
22 to 24 Edogawa-ku Tokyo Japan
24 to 28 Bunkyo-ku Tokyo Japan
28 to 30 Central Copenhagen Denmark
30 Nordvest Copenhagen Denmark
30 Edogwa-ku Tokyo Japan
30 to 33 Oestervaern Malmoe Sweden
33 to 35 Bunkyo-ku Tokyo Japan
35 to now Nakano-ku Tokyo Japan



As I moved many times in my childhood, I sometimes feel I have no loot. People often ask me where my hometown is, but I cannot really answer. My parents are from Osaka and I was born there, but I was raised in Oita most of time. I think that Oita is my hometown, but if my parents decide to move back to Osaka, I have no place to stay in Oita. Can the place still be hometown?

I moved a lot especially between 30 and 35. I moved not only in Japan, but also Japan and Europe. I got divorced and started my new life with my husband now, so no wonder why I moved a lot.

The toughest time was when we were in Malmo. My husband had to go to his university which was in outside of Copenhagen, and it took him almost 4 hours. I did not have a steady job and had no “real” friend there.    But on the other hand, I had a lot of time at home and learned how to knit !

Japanese Vintage Silk

I like Japanese vintage silk. They are mostly from old Kimonos (Japanese traditional cloths). 

Old kimonos, especially from before 1960', have traditional print, while modern kimono patterns are mostly simple.  

What I love most recently is Meisen (See the poster).　

Meisen was very popular when my grandmother & mother were children. It was used for everyday kimono and not so expensive. 

Many artisans made various patterns, and some of them look amazingly pretty still now. You can look some of them here.

The problem is, it is pretty expensive & difficult to buy Meisen fabric now.

I would love to make some totes with Meisen fabric, but could not find any shop which sells the fabrics at reasonable price. There are some internet shops which sell Meisen, but they are too small!

My shop has opened (Well, for a month).

It took me so long to start my own shop here.

I opened my bag shop on Etsy on 18th October, expecting that my shop would be so popular that I had to quit my day job. Yes, I was so naive. Over one month has been passed, and I have not sold A bag on Etsy yet. (I hope I'll do it soon :)

Why did I start a bag shop?

Because I love making bags.

Because I love looking & buying pretty fabrics.

And because I want to introduce Japanese fabric all over the world.

These are the biggest reasons, and of course there are some other "small" reasons.

I am getting tired of getting subway to my work place every day!

I take Marunouchi-sen, which is one of the most crowded line in Tokyo.

Luckily I work 10 to 19:30, which is one and half hour later than ordinary people, but still, trains are filled with unhappy people. (I bet anyone gets unhappy if she/he takes Marunouchi-line every day for work)

My apartment is very cozy. It's not big (only 57 square meters, which is roughly 60 square feet), but I can be very relaxed with my cat, Rotteline and my husband.

To work at home most of the week is my aim. I will struggle!