Aki Matsuri!

*warning this post is going to be a bit ADD*

Aki Matsuri is the Japanese Fall Festival. This year, the DFW Japanese Association held the festival in North Dallas/Addison area and… I might’ve attended. OK I did, but I didn’t have a ninja outfit to wear to sneak around in so I made my own yukata. O_O Huge undertaking for someone without a working sewing machine neh? Yup.. all by hand.

Hmm… I originally wanted to put together a video of the “making of” my yukata but since I was sooo pressed for time (started on it Friday night, the festival was Sunday morning) I ended up not doing it. Just happened to take a few  photos on my phone. I did however, take video at the festival also but it was also a fail. Why? My video editor is the Adobe Premiere Pro and my files were Quicktime .mov and somehow… it wasn’t a supported file. I’m sure I can convert and etc but I don’t have time for that right now. Le sigh. So I’ll just recount my festivities and bring on some photos, k?

Making of my obi… O_O

The huge crowd there at the festival.

Yoyo Tsuri game.

My bento lunch.

My finished yukata and the goldfish I won!

From the beginning: Thursday, I went to the fabric store and hunted high and low for a fabric I liked with an acceptable pattern and lightness. Went home, washed, dryed and ironed the whole 5.5 yds I bought. Had my brother help me hold down the pattern as I cut it. Friday after work, I begin the tedious task of figuring how to piece it all together.. and so I began. Had to handsew the whole dang thing because my sewing machine has loose stitches from the bobbin or the thread from the bobbin will get completely tangled up and rip my fabric, so…. yeah. Sewing by hand is a beeeeee. Anyhoo, went to bed around 1AM after attaching the two front panels to the two back panels, the two sleeves and half stitching the sleeves closed. Do recall these things are like, 6 feet long so they’re mighty loooooong stretches of fabric thus requiring many, many stitches and I don’t do wussy stitches, no sir. They’re the sturdy kind. Woke up in the morning to run some errands with my sister and to pick up fabric for the obi. Procrastinated til 2:30PM when I said to myself, wow you suck and continued sewing. And ironing. There was a gawdawful amount of ironing involved, esp since I chose fusible interfacing. T_T Made my collar, the obi band, obi bow, fake strings and hooks for it, attached everything together, “hemmed” the sleeves and entire length of the yukata.. finished at 2AM. Of course I didn’t work non-stop then. I’m ADHD remember? So I had a TV show (old school TVB show Hap Hak Hang aka Hiep Khach Giang Ho starring Tony Leung) running in the background, snacks surrounding me, and made bento lunches for myself and two Jens for the festival in between all that sewing. BTw, before I retired for the night my mom goes, “Wow, you look like crap/haggard. How’re you going to go have fun tomorrow?” Me: “I’ll just take a shower.” LMAO!

Day of the Aki Matsuri Festival – Sunday September 26, 2010. Woke up, showered (ahha), and put on my face. Dressing in yukata at my friend Jen Ws. It was a beeeeaaauuuutiful day. Jen M and I got dressed in our yukatas and Jen W was decked out in her Sixh punk outfit. We looked cool I must say. Got to the festival no problem but it was very windy and chilly. Perfect ushering in for fall I suppose.

We walked around, viewed the games, looked at the adorable children running around in their yukatas, and had lunch. Afterwards, we went to play games ourselves. Jen M played Yoyo Tsuri. Its a game where there are balloons with a bit of air and water in them attached to some string floating in a tub. They give you a rolled piece of paper with a paperclip hook on the end so you can fish the balloon out and win it. Then we got in the ridiculously long line to play Kingyosukui. Thats the cute one where a ton of goldfish are in a tub and you have to scoop them out with a little paper ladle. I caught three but one jumped out of my bowl. Got some cotton candy, took some pictures and etc… it was a good day! Made some sushi for my sis when I got home… had some pho ga. Good day, good day.

Here are some more photos for your viewing pleasure. There are repeats.

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Funny story, afterwards, I had many friends message me on Facebook saying Hey, I saw you there.. my initial response? Well why didn’t you say hi??? Hahahah

 

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