How to Sew an Obi

I feel fairly overdressed for what I have planned today. It's just casual stuff but it all looks so fancy together. I personally can't believe that my channel exists already for such a long time and I have never shown you how to make an obi. So we're gonna change that today. In case you're here for the first time my name is Billie Matsunaga. I'm a fully trained and certified kimono teacher and stylist. And I think without further ado let's just look at the fabrics I'm going to use to make this hanhaba obi. These are the two fabrics I have settled on. As you probably already can tell I'm a tiny Star Wars geek and this is my first Star Wars inspired kimono item. One of my students, hi Amber, has this here as a haneri and I was kind of like this is just a perfect hanhaba obi fabric. So I have this imported from the US. It was insanely expensive because it is an imported fabric. We're not gonna talk about it. I'm really looking forward to this obi and I think the two fabrics work really well together and look really on theme. And before we can cut this out we have to talk about what fabric I have chosen because that is a question I probably receive with the most. What kind of fiber, what kind of textiles actually suitable for kimono? I am someone who has studied historical kimono. Historically when you were part of the upper class and you had the chance to import textiles or lay a hand of imported textiles they used whatever they laid their hand on because it's something fresh, it's something new in the kimono fashion and it was new to Japan. And then the broader population would like it and they would try to recreate it and this is how some of very popular kimono textiles were actually developed because they were just recreations of what they have seen in textiles that were imported from India, China and even further away. So it is only logical to say you can basically use whatever fabric you can lay your hand on. For example my Star Wars fabric, my Darth Vader fabric is actually a print cotton and the glittery one is actually I think it's a jersey fabric. It's super stretchy, I'm not looking forward to sew with this but this is what I'm using today and I basically just chose it by pattern and what would match. This is how I chose my fabrics. But now let's really get started with cutting this out. The reason why I have chosen two fabrics is because most hanhabobi, not all of them, most are revisible. You have a different front and a different back fabric. You have basically a right and a wrong side but you can show both if you want to and that makes it actually really cool because then you have two obis in one and that's amazing. You also can twist and turn it and show sometimes both sides or not, that is completely up to you and if you want to learn how to tie this type of obi and how to play with it a tiny bit more I have a whole playlist with only obi musubi, obi styles on my channel and make sure to check that out. I will link it in the top right corner and down below. So while I'm cutting this out let's talk a tiny bit about the sizing. Hanhaba obi means actually translated half width obi and that is because when the hanhaba obi developed the obi width was already set at 8 sun which is about 30-31 cm but hanhaba obi's width is actually 4 sun which is half of the width which is about 15 cm and that is why they are called half width obi. So usually hanhaba obi should be about 15 cm and I think the widest I actually have in my closet is 18 cm. How wide you want to have the obi is to balance out your whole look depends on your silhouette. So when you're somehow on the plus size side you will have to make the obi wider. By the way in Japan when you're really tall this is also considered as plus size so you want to have the obi more on the wider side which means you want to go up to 18 cm width. Conclusion of that is when you make a hanhaba obi make it in a width between 15 and 18 cm keep it rather on the wider side when you're considered as tall or plus size. When you're a really petite person you can actually have a 15 cm width obi. Let's talk length. Actually hanhaba obi have a length that differs between I think the shortest I actually have in my wardrobe is 3,65 m I think and the longest I have in my wardrobe is actually 4,5 m long. This is the range we're actually working with. But here's a tip that I give you. When you make obi keep it between 3,80 m and 4,20 m. Now for my plus size people when you want to have an obi that actually fits you try to keep it between 4 m and 4,40 m or 4,10 m and 4,50 m. It's always a 40 cm range we're working with. And you will need short obi as much as long obi because different obi musubi require different lengths of obi. So these are some of the factors you can consider when deciding on the length and width of your obi. So in conclusion it's first of all your silhouette and then it's also what you want to tie with this specific obi. Okay so let's get to the sewing machine and sew these parts together. I have sewed together all the pieces. The pattern matching of the Star Wars fabric or the Darth Vader fabric was not easy to do. I had to be really wasteful with it and I almost used up all the fabric that I have purchased and I couldn't make it completely work. I would have had to buy like 10 cm more. But now you won't be able to tell so it's gonna be fine. And now I'm pinning together the two layers after ironing the seam allowance flat. Not on the jersey fabric, the stretch fabric though because you can iron this one. So it's gonna be really interesting how we're gonna move on in this journey. And then we're gonna get back to the sewing machine and we're gonna sew these two long strips of fabric together. And it's all sewn together! This is how it looks now. You can see the two sides. They're connected on the bottom. We'll see if this is gonna be the bottom or the top edge. But right now it's one edge and I think it looks really good. I was a tiny bit afraid that the stretch fabric actually would stretch out and wrinkle up but that's not your issue. That's my issue with this fabric. I would just recommend when you do this for the first time use simple cotton fabric because it's gonna be way easier to work with and yeah. Also the seams here on the black fabric are really visible as I have feared. I actually thought to put it on diagonal so it looks a tiny bit more purposeful in case that seam ends up on the front. But I noticed that I won't be able to kind of figure this out to make this a one day video. So I kept it straight and I was thinking about probably putting some embellishment on it. But first I want to tie it and see if the seam actually shows up on the front. If it doesn't show up, no one cares. You don't know how many obis I have in my closet that are antique and secondhand and have really weird seams somewhere. We're gonna do probably a video on that one day. Anyway what we're gonna do now is we're gonna put in interfacing. And what you can get for this is of course... Where did I put my interfacing? Ah I thought I put it here to show you. Interfacing. There should be a roll of interfacing somewhere in this room and it's not. Where's my interfacing? It's gone. I don't know. So you can use the normal iron-on interfacing you can find in a normal sewing supply store. But interfacing should not be pieced together. You need one long strip. And you can go to a sewing supply store and buy a long strip and then cut this. And you can make more than one obi out of it. I just don't like the cutting part of it. So I usually use an actual obi interfacing which is called obishin in Japanese. I always have a bunch here. This is my stock of obi interfacing. This is the brand that I usually get. Because it's cheap it's only 1000 yen which is about 10 dollar or 10 euro. And the cool thing it is actually already in the width of an obi which is very cool. But it is way too long. This is 4.7 meter. So this is used for Nagoya obi. That's why it's this long. And I would just have to cut it down. I have a second one here. Let's just see how long that is. So I probably don't have to cut this one. It's a different brand. No it's also. It's 4.7 meter. It's okay. So I'm gonna cut this one here into 4.20 meter. Because I've decided to make the obi 4.20 meter. And because this is not an iron-on interfacing. It's just interfacing. I have this iron-on tape. It works like a double-sided tape for, I can talk, for sewing. So you can just iron this on. It's called melt fuse in English here. I usually use this to make this one here iron-on-able. Just on the edges. On the two edges. Not on the ends. I'm gonna keep the ends as they are. And I'm gonna iron it on. So first of all, I have to iron the center seam here. I will have to iron it flat. You usually want to iron it flat. I'm not gonna do this with this fabric. Because again, I can iron this one here. So I'm just gonna fold it over to one side. And only iron the cotton fabric. I aligned the obi-shin on one side of the pattern. So it would be straight on the Darth Vader pattern. And I just ironed this straight on. And then I sewed always to the other side. To get the air out of the fabric to the other side. And also secure the obi-shin onto the other side. So last part I have to do is, as you can see here. I have way too much fabric peeking out on both sides. Because my fabric is wider than my obi-shin actually is. So what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna take some scissors. And I'm gonna cut along the obi-shin. And cut away this excess fabric. Let's get started. And now we're gonna turn this. And we're gonna fold the obi-shin or like the obi in half. And there are three ways now to sew this together. You have variation A. Which means you leave open the two ends. And you just sew the one side together. Then you turn it inside out. And then you blind stitch the ends in place. Variation B is going to be. You sew one end. Sew the edge to approximately the center. Leave about 10-20 cm there open. And then you sew from there again. The edge down to the end. And also the end. And then you turn it through the opening you have left open in the middle. And you're gonna blind stitch down those 10-20 cm opening. You have left in the middle of the obi. And then last but not least. You have sewing first the ends. And then you're gonna blind stitch it all the way. Which is by the way the most traditional way to sew an obi. We're not gonna do this. Especially not with this fabric. Because this fabric is better machine sewn. But seriously it's actually getting quite late today. And we're running out of daylight. And I'm getting a headache. Because it's really hot in this room. And as I said no AC here. So I probably will not finish this off today. Okay so that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna rest today. And we're gonna finish this off another day. So see you. So I told you there are a few ways to actually sew this down. And I decided to sew it down in a hybrid. So I could actually show you how it's gonna look like. In at least two ways. I've already turned it inside out and ironed it. And this is the side that I just kept open. I kept the end open so I could just pull it through. And with this pattern what is really good here is because this is a check pattern. You really want to have straight seams everywhere. I could now just tuck the seam allowance in into here. And make sure that this is really nicely aligning with the pattern. And now we'll have to sew this down by hand. I'm gonna blind stitch it on the inside. So I don't have a seam on the top. If you don't mind a seam you could also sew it down by machine. But I'm not a fan of stitching, seam stitching. Because in kimono you're actually always supposed to hide your seams. The other side. This is the side I machine finished. Turn it inside out. Because I kept an opening here in the center of the obi. You can see I kept a good 20 centimeter opening here. So I could easily turn this through. And I tuck the seam allowance in and I will have to blind stitch it. But what you can also can see it's not really straight here. It's not really following the pattern. I did a really really crappy job when sewing this obviously. So I will probably open this up and redo this. So this is gonna be really really straight and nice. But that is gonna be it. That's what I'm gonna do now. And then it's finally time for the reveal. And that is the hanhaba obi. I think it turned out really great. Right now the obi is still very stiff to tie. No worries. That is absolutely normal. It's gonna get a tiny bit softer the more you're actually wearing and tying it. I have tried a few ways to actually tie it. And I gave it a tiny twist on the front. So you could see the back of the fabric, the actual black of it. That's one of my favorite tips and tricks when you only wear a hanhaba obi and a kimono. To give it a tiny bit more accent or interest on the front. And when you think that's already it, there's an encore. As one does, I was shopping in the Tokyo garment district. And I found this fabric in an outlet fabric store. And it is polyester and it has some stiffness to it. And when I saw it, I was kind of like, oh my gosh, this is the perfect heko obi. So I thought in this video we're going to make a tiny encore. And actually sew the easiest obi you can make. And that's a heko obi. Heko obi don't have any interfacing. They're basically just very long scarves that are used as obi. And they exist in various textiles. I have, of course, polyester heko obi. I have silk heko obi. And I also have cotton heko obi. And there are also rameen heko obi out there. They also have all quite a different texture. You have quite stiff heko obi like this fabric here is. But they're also super soft heko obi that barely hold a shape. You can see, you can basically turn any fabric into a heko obi. With this fabric especially, I was actually hoping, because it's not this wide as you can see, I was actually hoping I could just use it as it is, as a heko obi. Won't work. It's way too wide. So I brought one of my favorite heko obi. I actually wore this one in the beginning of this video, by the way. I measured this heko obi and found out that this is a 30 and a half centimeter wide. So I figured I'm gonna give me about a 30 to 31 centimeter width on my new heko obi, because there's gonna be a seam allowance. And I found out when I measured it that a tiny bit more than 31 centimeter, one of the dots, row of dots is gonna end. So I cut along this end of the row to cut this fabric. By the way, cutting along pattern or motifs on your fabric is the best way to make your sewing project actual straight. And I'm gonna hem down the edges with a rolled hem foot. Come on, how easy is that? While I'm sewing this down, let's talk about the length of an heko obi. Again, the length is actually up to you, but I recommend you keep it between 3 meter 80 and 4 meter 50. Most heko obi that are made for adult women nowadays have the length of 4 meter 50, because we have a trend of really, really big and fluffy obi musubi right now. And you can't recreate them when you have an obi shorter than 4 meter 50. So I personally, this time, chose to make the heko obi 4 meter 50. Yes, so nice, look at this. Perfect rolled hem. Okay, and now to the ends here. And as you could see at the ends, I decided to do a regular rolled hem, not a really narrow one. I just folded the fabric in and sewed over it. And here is the finished obi. I think it looks really good. It took me an hour to finish this off. And now I really want to tie this and show you. So let's go. The heko obi turned out super cute too. I mean, it's just a perfect fabric. I have fun for it. And I think this shows how easy actually it is to make an obi. And the harder part is, I think, actually how to tie it. So feel free to check out my tutorials of how to work with different obi. Of course, this is not my only and last tutorial that's gonna come. So no worries. We're gonna tackle other obi too. Until then, I wish you a lot of fun with trying to make your own obi. When you have made one, please make pictures, upload them on Instagram and tag me so I can see them, like them and hopefully also share it. Anyway, I really hope you like this video. If you did, leave me a thumb up or a comment down below or share this video with your friends. That would really help me out a lot. And if you're new here and you want to learn more about kimono from a professional kimono teacher, feel free to subscribe. I would be really happy to have you here and I talk to you in my next kimono adventure. Bye!