Tying ribbons, obi, and stuff

One unexpected requirement of this hobby is learning to tie different types of ribbons & knots. For example, on the apron here on the Head Pastry Chef outfit,

 

 

Also, on the Damask Lace-Up Skirt set, there's actually a really nice big ribbon on the back of this dress, but I don't have a good photo of it,

 

 

Ribbon's aren't that hard, but I did sink a lot of time trying to get those to look the way I wanted. FYI, here's some helpful links,

 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/281967626642269020/

http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/226403/three-perfect-bows

 

But this baffles me! It's the obi on the Apricot Kimono/Furisode from Dolpa Kyoto 10,

 

 

I had to figure out how to tie it myself. It comes tied, and fortunately I took photos of it before I untied it which is how I was able to do it. I think I ended up tying it right, but my technique (ha!) is bad and it looks crappy. Unfortunately I don't know what search terms to use, there's a bunch of ways to tie obi and I don't know what this is called. Any ideas? It's supposed to look like this,

 

https://www.volks.co.jp/page_ex.jsp?CONTROLID=SC0040&BUSINESSID=InitDisp&jancd=4518992401676&version=en

 

Actually, I didn't get a photo of it but the two green straps that go around her neck tie up into another interesting knot. Fortunately that was easier to figure out, but I wonder where you learn to tie these things

Any ideas?

 

I believe that could be a variant on the basic yukata obi knot, although without the need to halve the belt in two, which I've used as a base to make a similar though not identical tie-knots for my hakamas.

 

like so (although sub-par picture):

 

 

(two pairs of belts so two knots)

nice! Thanks for the info! I was wondering about how to tie the exact same knot for the apricot kimono set outfit since I undid it to wash in the washing machine.

I emailed Volks USA about it (although I bought it from .jp, it felt better to go local when asking dumb questions in English) and they replied telling me how to tie it! It took them a while because they had to contact headquarters to get the info. I asked them what kind of knot it was so I could look it up,

 

This knot is a special knot for just this outfit.

The obi on the right side (looking at the front side) of the outfit first goes through the hole

that is on the left side of the outfit. Then you would wrap the obi around the outfit and when

its back on the left side again, the right obi will be higher than the left obi (the left obi is

wrapping vertically around the doll while the right is slowly going upwards). Afterwards, you

will then bring the right obi down and the left obi you will wrap around the right obi. Then

for the right obi, you will fold it inwards around one/third of what is leftover and fold that

obi once again where you tied both of the obi together. Once again, you will have to tie your

left obi so that it ends at an angle of North-East.

 

That made sense to me because I had taken photos of it before I untied it the first time, but this section was still confusing,

 

then for the right obi, you will fold it inwards around one/third of what is leftover and fold that obi once again

 

This 'one/third' part is the final–ish fold of the obi that sticks out horizontally; basically you're folding up the remainder of the obi into its final shape. But that second fold is confusing. What I ended up needing to do (and worked out perfectly so that the remaining length of both obis was correct when it was all tied up), was so that after I do that 1/3rd fold, I wrap the left obi around a second time, and tuck folded right obi under this second loop.

 

Here's how it looks,

 

 

It's a nice knot and works well; I tried doing a few different types of knots with this thing but trying to get the remaining lengths of the obis to not look weird was tricky. And the more you tie it the more the embroidery wears out (>< )

 

FYI the original looks tied up like this,

 

 

Unfortunately DDs have very thin waists, so in order to get it reasonably tight the leftover obi is going to be longer than shown there. Also, learning how to tie these kinds of things tight without being able to ask the patient to suck in their stomach temporarily is hard.

 

Uh, I just noticed that the link to the Volks JP store I pasted above isn't working anymore. The kimonos are also not showing up on the After Event page either O_o

I'ma bring this back because I have a question about tying hakama! I recently traded for a Taisho Indigo Schoolgirl set, and the girl I traded with was going to tell me how to tie the hakama, but I was certain I could do it because I was used to tying my kendo hakama years ago. Well, it's not going to work like that and still look nice, and now I wish I hadn't been so excited to let myself get so sure of my skills. So, is there a tutorial for how to tie the Dollfie hakamas and get them to look nice, without horrible bunching up and creases all over the straps?

You might find some of that on martial arts sites and in books on Japanese martial arts. At least some of the Japanese clothing out there for dolls - like Hakama - is used in martial arts like Kendo and Naginatado.

 

From what I have read when it comes to putting on a furisode modern Japanese women often have to hire a professional dresser to assist them because it's not something they do very often, and it's complex enough that you have to know how to do it to do it correctly. I think it was the same with the dresses noblewomen wore hundreds of years ago, but Kimono are way cuter looking in my book.