How to make Japanese style tabi socks

So yesterday I got a fabulous surprise in the mail! For my birthday I ordered geta 下駄 from Japan and they came about a week early. I am happily wearing them now.
Geta are Japanese wooden clogs that make a wonderful sound when you walk in them. They look like platform flip flops although I cringe at using the word flip flop when comparing them to the beautiful geta. Although it seems that geta are just as casual to the Japanese as flip flops are we Americans. Geta can be worn with or without tabi -- Japanese socks that have the big toe separate from the rest of toes. These are also worn with the waraji  わらじ sandals I made in my last post.

This is what happens to you when you start to watch anime or at least me. Because of my desire to understand anime without translations or dubbing, I am teaching myself to be literate in Japanese and have desire to learn more about the culture. Wearing the traditional clothing and consuming the food of another culture I think is helpful in gaining a deeper appreciation and perhaps an affection for another country.

Tabi or 足袋 are super easy to make when you start off with a sock. I have not tried to make them from "scratch", but I am sure I will tackle that too. Stay tuned.
Materials/Supplies

• pair of socks - any kind you like that look nice because you want to show them off.
• chalk to mark the socks or hell a sharpie works--just use a thin one.
• thread to match or close enough -- since the seam is between your toes who is going to go looking there?

Tools

• sewing machine or hand sew these if you prefer.
• good scissors

Construction:

1. Turn your socks inside out and put one on each foot
2. Spread out your big toe from the rest of your foot
3. Mark the area in between the big toe and second toe with chalk, sharpie or whatever. Be sure to follow the curve of the big toe so that it doesn't end up with an SNL "cone head". (see pics)
4. ***If you do both socks at the same time you will not have to worry about ending up with two left socks or two right socks. Here is why: once you turn the sock inside out and put it on your right foot and then sew on the marking line, it now becomes the left sock when turned to the right side. I knew this and still ended up with two left socks. Doh!! Marking then simultaneously solves this issue nicely.
5. Time to sew along both sides of the marking line leaving space for your scissors to cut (about 1/8"). First start with the straight line (back stitch at the beginning). When you reach the end back stitch again and then make the turn to start up the toe side by making only one stitch that is at a 90 degrees to the stitched line. Back stitch the one stitch to reinforce it. Now start sewing up to the tip of the toe rounding the corner and back stitch again. Easier to do than describe I promise!
6. Scary part: cut between your stitched lines being sure to also cut the curve from the toe. Do not worry about clipping seams.
7. Turn inside out and put them on. Don't you look cool!

Let me know if you tried this and how marvelous your tabi turned out. Try this with unusual socks rather than just plain ones for something extra wild.

Boozy Cantelope Sorbet

How's that for a title? I had a cantelope that I let sit on the counter for too long. It was sweet and tastey, but too soft. So I started looking for a recipe too use it in.

The sorbet promised too be easy, without sugar, and used gin to keep out from getting rock hard. So I threw it all in the blender with some orange jest and a little honey just in case. For hours later it looked yummy.

Scooped some up for my daugherty and I and....."Mom, did you put zest in. here?"  Yes, I Did. Do you like it? "Uh, you better taste it" she says with a twisted up face.

Ugh. Idk. Was it the gin or the orange rind? Nasty nasty stuff. We even doused it with honey to see if that helps. Sadly no.

Halloween costume Shinigami, Arrancar Hallow or Espanda?

What do you want to do for Halloween? Are you dressing up? "Well Mom" she says, " I want to be......." So what part did I hear? LOL. The shoes. And not just any shoes, I did my research. We are going to make Japanese waraji. In case you haven't guessed it from the title we are Bleach fans. (No not the nasty stuff in the bottle, the fun Japanese anime on the net.)

While she is working on her mask (leaning more towards the Espada characters at this point.), I am in charge of wardrobe. Today we tackled the waraji which are traditonal footwear  of the soldiers, commoners, and travelers. This is a good article about the waraji. Apparently travelers measured the distance they traveled on long journeys by the number of waraji they used.

Waraji were made of rice straw, but since Home Depot doesn't do rice:

• we used sisal rope 1/4" (10' per sandal) and 
• jute thin stuff (1 pack made 1 pair of shoes but you may need more depending on your foot) 
• We also bought a scrap plank of wood 4ft x 12" wide x 1" thick for a dollar.  For our looms we had the wood cut down to 20" in length. We are 7-7.5 shoe size if that helps you in figuring out what size loom to make. Bonus: the Home Depot guy cuttin my wood was smokin hot! Yummmy.
• My own tip here: keep the hammer handy because the nails loosen up quit a bit as a result of the weaving process. And..uh... take the loom off your knees before resetting the nails. Doh!
• Total cost per pair of shoes: $7.00. Love it.

There are plenty of tutorials on the web and here are two that we found useful. This one gave directions for a homemade loom:
Make your own cosplay Bleach sandals on Instructables

We found this tutorial good for making the loom  and for the actual weaving (easy easy easy to do): 
How to make you own sandles for Bleach Cosplay on Youtube. I recommend watching the series (3 vids total) at least once all the way through to pick up on all the great tips she gives.


Here are the pics from our adventure.

Ta da! Waraji. And very comfy.

So how did we do? It was fun. We really enjoyed the process and are very happy with our waraji.

Forgive me, I have not blogged the crafting.

Wow. Has it really been that long ago? April?? Really? Oh well, I am back now.

The last thing I remember crafting before dropping out of sight or blog land are the accessories for my daughter's Jr. prom. She didn't want me to post it on the web until after the prom. That was back in May? Hmm. ..piss poor excuse to show up again in September I know.

Making her accessories was so much fun because she didn't go with the typical HS prom outfit. She wanted to be herself which is very artsy and smart. Her personal theme was steampunk and boy did she rock it!!


Together we made her facinator, even  the top hat portion. A combination of sewing and gluing did the trick. Added some feathers, a playing card, and red ribbon to match the corset. There is even a skull bead among the feathers.

Speaking of the corset, there is a tank worn underneath it. Since the thin straps did not go well with the look, we added black lace to the straps and the front portion. It went from plain, to dramatic.


The earrings were made from sale parts I found at JoAnn's Crafts and so was the black center piece for the necklace. The beads and long red crystal were re-purposed from an old pair of my earrings.

The choker was made from some black brocade that I had (tag sale find) and I just threw on a clasp for the back. That too had little red crystals hanging down the back.

Lace from a spool as well as fabric lace were used to make the fingerless gloves. Embarrassingly easy to sew. Just trace the hand and sew it up the side. Doubling over the fabric prior to sewing the glove resulted in a better looking lace pattern and a "pocket" to put in the red ribbon.

Now here is a confession. All of the close up shots in this post were cropped from other photos because I didn't even take close up shots of the accessories. Doh!

Wait till you see what we are going to make this weekend for her Halloween outfit.

Mata nā!