I finished the false back seam of the kosode last night.
Darting to and fro / Above and below the silk / Racing through the task / My needle leads thread along / A delicate hide and seek
It seems my desire to write poetry was well timed. Saionji no Hana has issued her yearly challenge for November, one tanka every day for a month. Yes, please.
So what’s a tanka? It’s a form of waka or Japanese poetry. You’re likely familiar with the more modern haiku, a poem with a syllabic count of 17 in a 5/7/5 arrangement. The tanka was exceptionally popular in the Heian period. It has a syllabic count of 31 in a 5/7/5/7/7 arrangement, and was usually written as a single line.
I’m excited to share what I come up with here and on the SCA Japanese Facebook group.
As for the kosode, I decided to move on to the side seams next. I’ve marked both sides with a 1 cm seam allowance and a stop point 40 inches from the hem.
I broke down the task of sewing the kosode into chunks, in this case, each seam has about a day. Following this, I should finish the kosode in just over a week. November 12 is the garment due date I’ve set. I may need the few days wiggle room to finish the raw edges of the silk with a rolled hem.
I also completed my first monthly check in for C3 yesterday. So far, so good.
