A festival of street performance

Last weekend, I went to a street performance festival in Yokohama.
There are many performers on the street.

I like this guy who does juggling and performance of bycicle. He jumped over 5 persons by bycicle.

There was a woman who danced with a doll.

And there was a girl who wore a costume like japanese manga. Her juggling was so-so but her story was interesting. She chose one of audience for her partner, an elder man, and talked to him as a girl and called him a name of girl("Umeko").

In another street, there were some jazz performances. There are many jazz bar near this street and they are local musicians. So the sense of unity between performers and audicence was really good.




There was a little girl who helped a street shop to sell "mochi"(sticky rice cake). I bought one from her. I liked her thanks in a loud voice. There were some children who helped their parents.

I enjoyed the festival with my boyfriend and our digital and film Nikon cameras. The photo of live performance is of the film camera.

I hand stitch about 400 yards a month.

I mainly use Dual Duty 250 yards thread.
I began to use a thread on April 1st and finished it on April 20th.

It seems very long, but I sew for 5-6 hours a day, only.
And at the weekend, I sew little.

These days, I'm sewing more than before I opend a shop on ETSY.
I'm really happy to sell my items on the shop because I can meet a lot of people through it.

So even if my fingers have many small holes ( by the needle), I continue to enjoy sewing!
I'm really happy now!

Our first film camera!

I and my boyfriend bought old Nikon film camera last week.
When we bought it, we soon tried put a film in it.
But we couldn't even open the back cover from where we put the film...
We read some instructions at the book store, and somehow we succeeded to put the film in it.
But,,, we put it in a wrong way. We knew that at the camera shop where we went to be developed it.
We disappointed very much...

Then we bought a new film and ask the man of camera shop to put it in our camera.
And finally, we could take some photo with it.
It's different from the photo which I take with my digital camera.
I like the photo of film camera more, but it costs...
So we decided to take with it several times a month...
Here are some my first photo, with Nikon FE(I think it's about 30 years old camera).

How to sew a patchwork furoshiki

Today, I want to write how to sew my patchwork furoshiki.
I sew it like korean patchwork pojagi, but I don't know how to sew it, so this process is my original.

At first, make the center of the furoshiki. Cut two pieces of fabric of same height. I've never measured the size...I cut them according to the mood.


And then, lay the pieces with right side together, taking a 4-5 mm seam allowance for the one piece and a 8-10 mm seam allowance for another. And stitch the fabrics.


Fold the longer seam allowance to half, like upper photo.

And then stitch the folded edge. You can see one stitch line from the upper side, and two stitch lines from the wrong side. The upper side becomes like above photo. This block is the first(center) block.


Then, go to second block. Cut two or three ( as you like ) fabrics as much length as the first block and the seam allowances. ( I've never mesure it and after I sewed the block, I cut to the right size.)

Sew the pieces like the first block. Mmm,,, I have to cut the right block a little bit, but after I sew them together.

Then, sew the first and second block each other, in the same way. Trim it to become a rectangle.



And then, go to the third block, and then, the fourth block...


As above, sew the blocks in order like the photo to become the size you want. I make this about 23-24 inches size usually.


At last, trim it with a bias tape.


Finish!!!!!

It's difficult for me to explain this process in English...
But I tried it for my friend!
Thank you for reading this.

You can use this furoshiki as a cover, or as a wrapping cloth.
And sometimes, as a small bag.


I'll list up this furoshiki on my etsy shop.

I sewed a tunic.

Last week, I sewed a tunic by hands, as usual.
It's of very simple pattern of a sewing book japanese, so I could sew it in only 3-4 hours.


Usually, I take the patterns from my favorite clothes.
It comes better than when I use patterns from sewing books, because of my body size, maybe.
So,,, I need a diet...

Dancing turtles in a pencil case

I made a pencil case for my boyfriend.
He wants something very simple, so I couldn't decorate the outside.



But I wanted to stitch something...

So, I embroidered dancing turtles and a fish on the inside.
It's simple!

Monkiri, japanese paper cutting technique

Yesterday, I found some craft books about Monkiri.
It was japanese paper cutting technique.
I tried one of them. I found the patterns and how-to guide here(Sorry, Japanese only).

I folded a paper in two, and then in five.


According to the pattern, I cut the paper with scissors.


I made a flower. It's simple and beautiful. It was very easy. But many other patterns are difficult to cut, only with scissors.


Then, I tried to apply it to sewing.
I cut a cotton cloth with this method and made a pouch.
It's a little bit difficult to fold and cut the fabric like paper. So I put a thin interlining to sharpen it.

African festival in yokohama

Yesterday I went to the african festival in Yokohama. Many volunteer stuffs made up this festival. There came many famous talent and musicians, and they were also volunteers.

I sew the speech of an african talent very famous in japan. He lives in japan longer than he lived in africa. He told us about japan and africa. He told about 4 important things that his father taught him, sharing, the spirit of give-and-take, making allowances for each other, and the feeling of thankfulness. And he told us a proverb that an old man/woman's dying is same as a library being gone away. He respect elder people very much. I agree with him.



And next, there is a live performance of an african group of percussion. One of them speaks japanese very well. Their music was very strong. Many audiences were dancing and singing. It's rare in japan, because most of japanese people are shy... But the group excited us so much. I danced and sang with other people. I liked the live very much. They were great.
And the talk of the vocalist was really good. He said only a few words. But it impressed us very much. He wants the beautiful earth for our children. He thinks our long for peace becomes the most strong power in the world.

After the live, I went to a library to read some issues about africa and war in the world. And now, I want to talk about these things with many friends.

I don't know what I can do but I think it's important to talk this feeling and thought with many people.
So, I write this. Thank you for reading my poor english...

I bought a cloth from Guinea. It was really beautiful!
Here are some photo I took around the holl of the festiva.

Patchworked bias tape

I like to make a bias tape, with variety of printed fabrics.
Even it comes to very small pieces, I keep all my fabrics in a box. So sometimes I make a bias tape with them.




I made it with some of vintage kimono fabrics, too. Because most of them are polyester, it was hard to made up a tape.


I used these tapes for my furoshiki.


And today I made a drawstring bag with them.