bookmark_borderMaekake Aprons

Back when I was making the Mizuoke based on this inspiration image from Spirited Away, my attention turned to the blue apron-type garment that Lin wears in the film.

There are better shots of it in the movie. There are even some scenes where she wears it tied around her neck as a kind of halter top. It turns out that this kind of apron is called a maekake, and it is basically just a length of indigo-dyed fabric with a waistband. These are common even today in Japan, where they are sometimes seen as a kind of folk art. They will often be printed with the name or logo of the business where the wearer works, so older ones will even be sold as antiques for that authentic decor accent. Modern ones often have art or promotional designs.

I went through my fabric stash, but I didn’t have a good piece of blue canvas or heavy linen. Instead, I picked some red and yellow canvas pieces. I had enough blue linen for the waist ties, though.

Red Maekake Apron, on Hakama
Yellow Maekake Apron, on Hakama

I hemmed the edges to simulate selvedges. The bottom edge would have just been left raw to make the fringe, but I decided to stitch across just above the fringe to keep it from fraying too much.

Red Maekake Apron, Flat
Yellow Maekake Apron, Flat

You can see that I did my standard 4-layer waistband. I made the ties about 3 yards long so that they can go around the waist twice and tie in front. The ones you can get today in Japan appear to have special fabric woven for the waist ties that is just doubled over instead of 4-layer. Hard to tell for sure.

Red Maekake Apron, Detail of Waistband
Yellow Maekake Apron, Detail of Fringe

I might eventually paint or stamp designs on these. An escarbuncle on the red one and a comet on the gold one might be fun. I will have to figure out a good placement.

bookmark_borderJapanese “Travel Coat”

I was watching the thoroughly inappropriate cut of the 2010 ridiculously entertaining Japanese action movie, “13 Assassins“, and while on the road, everybody had these great travel outfits. We go to a fair percentage of events where the event is primarily outdoors, and the weather turns out to be terrible. I figured that something like what they were wearing, only made to be waterproof and super-warm would be about the right thing to have in my wardrobe. Hence, the travel coat.

I made mine out of cotton canvas. It’s huge, with 18″-wide panels so it will fit over just about anything else I am likely to wear. I tried treating the canvas with kakishibu (fermented persimmon juice) to waterproof it, but it turns out you need many many coats of kakishibu to waterproof fabric, so I eventually sprayed it with a couple cans of waterproofing spray.

I lined the coat with poly-fleece fabric. Combined with the water resistant and windproof shell fabric, this is basically a bedspread with sleeves. I have not tried it in a driving snowstorm or downpour, but there was one damp, chilly night at Pennsic where I was awfully glad to have this with me.