Zagu (bowing mat) was completed a week ago or so. \o/ (that's me with my arms up in celebration fyi).

I decided to do it by hand and follow the Study of the Okesa, Nyoho-e Buddha's Robe book from Tomoe Katagiri. This, in tandem with my teacher, Taigu Turlur's blog have been incalculable help. Anywhootle it was very painless and best off all I learned a very valuable lesson and here is the long way to it: (Scroll down to the short version below if you'd like its okay... I understand)

I bought many metres of black and white material as a very very kind coworker offered to make a back up kimono and koromo for me. I already have a set coming from A very very patient Buddha on this path named Yuko Conniff of Great patience Zen stitchery in L.A and She agreed to sew a winter and summer koromo (Gets cold up here ya know) and a kimono, which should be arriving any day (hehe I swear no more emails, for now :D). that said... I know me and anything meant to stay clean and white or just clean...
So I snipped off a the white part i need for making the Zagu from the material i was purchasing and while waiting to be rung in a kind sales person tried to up-sell me some supplies... I thought meh I'm good...until she said... "do you need thread?, Gutermann is on sale...blah blah... I blanked out while thinking about thread. I did... so off I went and whilst there I found it:

THE ANSWER TO EVERY PROBLEM I EVER ENCOUNTERED
...or the answer to my thread problem....
100metres of heavy duty thread!! this stuff looks like manly rope for pixies or something... AWESOME SAUCE!!!

Got it home... cut my stuff marked measured and ironed. Threaded the new thread into a slightly larger needle as the eye on my ol' trusty was too small. Started sewing and omg ... no matter how long I made the strand it didn't knot up when drawing it through...fast slow. Not that it didn't start too..it just never fully did I could easily right it with a flick of the needle. Not only that the stitches were clean and tight as a slight variance on the stitch was hidden by the the thickness of this thread!!
I brought this up with my good friend Fugen who said...with a smirk i might add "Ya, I already knew that". Added bonus is its heaver and can stand up better to wear and tear... sheeesh wish i would have learned his 1 Rakusu, 2 Kesas and my sanity ago :D

Short version:
Heavier thread saves time and looks good and of course last longer.

anywho here is a bad picture of the Zagu:

The Zagu looks a bit wonky in the photo but its just perspective, the folds and some wrinkles ...seriously...and a bit of wonkiness too I'm sure :). Start to finish including measuring ...this took 8~ 9 hours by hand. Thank you to all of you whom have stitches in this Zagu and the Kesas!!

Shukke Tokudo is less than a week away and though its a ceremony recognizing what already is... I feel honored and a bit nervous...and humbled. Many amazing folk in this life life...some amazingly helpful caring and kind, some amazingly difficult, trying and down right irritating tones in between...all of them teaching me regularly some very important lessons.
To all my teachers, all Buddhas, Thank you. I vow to keep listening and learning from you all.

smack me up side the head if I'm not ;)

Gassho

Aitken Roshi, June 19th, 1917 - August 5th, 2010

For those who haven not yet read or heard, August 5th, Robert Aitken Roshi passed away.

Endless thanks for your teachings.

My deepest sympathy to his family and friends who may suffer with this loss may they find peace.

If any one reads this here please pass on your heart-felt sentiments and kind words of support for his family and friends Here, on his blog.

Deep bows

Kesa again

Here are some "slightly" better pics of the kesa finished up.
I had to remove the daiza from the BOTTOM of the kesa once and switch their respective places once too (after having them fully stitched on of course :)).

Helpful tip- sew with what ever comes, but get your sleep.

Interestingly (to me) this fly in near the front right tie,
and I have been sitting together the last couple of days
and its fitting it dropped in for the pic here.

Finished!
Well, never really finished, but its all together and Im now sewing my Zagu (bowing cloth).Had some ups and downs in the stitches (and they show of course!) and learned plenty in doing so.
Sleep is important, PSTD can be stitched through, impatiences will cause you alot of grief requiring waaaay more patience to complete the task at hand (Daizas kicked my butt a couple of times as I had to remove them and put them on the top :D).
I had intended to keep things up to date as I went but I ended up focusing on the tasks I already had in preparation for the upcoming Shukke Tokudo ceremony. With just over 2 weeks until the the ceremony I have to say I'm glad to find the time to write up a little bit here. I noticed a heck of alot of spam piling up in the comments of my last post some 4 months ago (oops!) so here's a new spot folks, go nuts! :)

Here are some pics through the process to completion:

first two sets together

close up of the stitching this time around

the kagami before marking it up



completed kesa shot with my cell phone (sorry for the quality)

Ill take a new shot of the finished one with the better camera soon.
Anywho thanks for reading I will be updating more often and not always about sewing.

Gassho

Just an all around fool!

April be damned I'm a fool 24/7! Anywho I fell for the idea I could build a panel and after a bunch of sewing... I turned up still just short of enough for a complete and last panel. I spent 3 hours carefully fixing 2 pieces to the large in a Dr. Frankenstein manner. So i dug in to my bag of scraps found a big not chunk...same material wrong colour etc..sticks out like a sore thumb. There. Perfect!

Sewing Time!

May mean some pictures soon as promised earlier on (ooh exciting :D LOL)


Gassho

Close doesn't count...

Nearing the end of cutting (yes... I took my sweet old time cutting very, very slowly and carefully) I could see the end insight last night. I resisted the urge to just start hacking away using another bit as a template.

I stared at the remaining bit of material left to be divvied up among some panels, and after some head scratching I realized there was no way I could get the last panel, in its entirety, out of this last large hunk. How close... my last panel to cut needed to be 36cm wide by 54.5cm...I had... 33cm x 56cm left! lol So close yet So far!! Outcomes again not what I expected or wanted - Ha! but definitely what I needed.

I luckily kept all but slivers of fabric and im going to patchwork my last panel.

Next up its measure, measure again and one more time for good measure - mark and iron.

Sewing will come eventually :)
maybe ill have a pic or two for the next post of some stitches as promised earlier on! (ooooh the suspense! ;D)

Thanks for reading...makes a good sedative.

Gassho

progress...

7 tan, 3 ties, 2 Daiza and 4 Joro cut. lots more to cut. not really worrying about the cuts so much, nor the sewing to come. Sons' first birthday on Thursday is paramount, cutting will probably resume Friday night, a good night! Heh never thought my definition of a good Friday night would ever include being spent sewing...now thats progress!

Time to Cut the Crap!

After much stalling, second guessing and procrastination I finally committed my self to starting kesa #2. This time I decided go with new material after seeking some always helpful advice. (Thank you Taigu!!!)

Now the material had sat for a good 3 weeks with only being washed and ironed out. I debated on cutting it up for some zafu and zabuton but after much mental chatter I decided the material just a tad on the light side for sitting on (lol more stalling?).

I decided then to start the kesa and stop dilly-dallying. So then came the first marks and cutting.... I really never worried like this with the first kesa. I now realized just how important to the end result the first steps were.

I put down the scissors and picked up some books to verify my measure was infact correct (*stalling*) and lo and behold they were the same as before. The new material is supposed to be treated just like rags... So in much the same way i decided to "Cut the Crap" (the material and the stalling) and just get on with it!

And so I did. Carefully. Slowly. Deliberately checking each and every cut down with the scissor.
Throwing caution to the wind (lol) I very carefully cut my first two bits, marked them and set them aside.

Tonight, 2 more bits!

This time around rather than showing the progress in the bigger picture, I will be showing the stitches up close and personal! (gulp)!