Sew a yukata by hand=check

Hi, there! I'm coming to you from the Tokyo airport. We have a few hours to wait before boarding our flight to Singapore. I am so excited! We'll be meeting a couple of our friends there to enjoy a week-long vacation in Singapore and Malaysia. Can't wait to tell you about it.

Anyway, I've been wanting to blog about my yukata for a while. You may remember my mention of it last summer when I first started sewing it by hand. Well, almost one year later, I finally finished! It was a struggle for me because I found the whole process to be a bit boring, and it really tested my patience, but now I am so happy to have it finished. I think it will be an item I treasure for a long time. But, I'm not sure it will last very long because I'm pretty sure I forgot to reenforce most of the stitches. 

The picture below is of my yukata debut. We attended a Tanabata party hosted by my yukata sewing teacher. There was a ton of great food at the party, and we had a great time. 

Here it is! What do you think?

Many of the girls in my class were overly ambitious (well, in my opinion anyway) and also sewed their husbands a yukata. So, they finished two yukatas in way less time than I sewed one, but whatever. Travis' yukata was purchased. There was no way I could handle making another one. 

We wore our yukatas the second time to watch the final day of the sumo tournament in Nagoya. I'll post sumo pictures soon. We joined our friends Chris and Jessica at their place so we could try and help each other construct our outfits.

Here Jessica and I are attempting to watch a Youtube video on how to tie an obi. We eventually figured it out, and I think it turned out pretty well. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture from the back.

And, here we are. Looking pretty sharp if I do say so myself. The funniest part of the day was when we all proudly walked into a ramen restaurant near Chris and Jessica's apartment. We were immediately greeted by the restaurant owner pointing out that all of us had layered our yukatas incorrectly. They are supposed to be layered left over right. Right over left is how dead people wear them in their coffins and is also the way we were all wearing them. The best part was that I confidently explained to everyone exactly why we needed to make sure we layered our yukatas correctly, but I had it backwards. Oops. Wasn't much of a problem for the boys because they could easily fix the issue, but there was no way Jessica and I were going to be able to retie our obis. So, we just rolled with it.

Lastly, here's a picture of Travis and I sweating at sumo. I think he needs some bushy chest hair and a gold chain to really complete the photo, don't you?