Tourism...

what’s wrong in these pictures? Apart from the obvious too high hem line... Which almost gives the impression of farmers wear... oh, while I wrote that down, that might be a clue ^_~

The kimono is perfect size for me (as I made it myself) so I could have had the hem just on the ground... that's what I did, but for some reason everything crept up. Ah well.

I made the kimono using the book by John Marshall This actually is a very nice book to make kimono. Though some things aren’t quite right. He advices to make a "neck template which gives a wider/lower line, I do not like this. I do make a small curve when sewing on the collar in the back, but the template is just too big; it's nice when sewing a nagajuban for geisha or brides kimono.
The other not to good thing is that he says you need to keep the kimono strait at the side seems, this is not correct. When you do this the kimono will be way too big around your hips. To prevent this I use his tips for "men’s kimono" there he makes the width smaller from the bust down, this way the kimono becomes perfect. Also, it's correct because when you look very closely at a kimono, you'll see that the seams of the shoulder are slightly wider then the seams at the waist...

The obi, obi age and obi jime are home made too. I decided to make the obi bigger too. Most kitsuke fans only talk about the lack of width of the kimono... but what about the obi? When looking at old photographs I noticed the obi sometimes looked very big almost completely hiding the wearers back. So, now I was sewing everything myself I decided the obi should be bigger too. I made it 3 cm. wider then the widest maru obi I own (which is 33cm.)
I must admit it looks a bit weird and funny, maybe even wrong, but with a second look, I thought, yes that looks like the pictures I saw...