New website!

Koyuki Design has moved to new premises! Please visit me at www.koyukidesign.com
I look forward to seeing you there!
Yuki

Denim, denim, denim

I love using denim with my products, so here is another denim bag I have recently made. "Maru Bag", I will call this one. "Maru" means "round" in Japanese, and this is a round and soft bag. It looks quite simple from outside, but you have to look at the inside lining. You might be able to see a little bit from this photo, but it has a gorgeous red kimono lining. If you love red fabric, I am sure you will like this fabric!

Another denim product is my apron. Here is a new one with navy blue denim with a cute kimono pocket.

New bags for Autumn

When I made these bags, the theme was Autumn. Little subdued colours were chosen, as quickly Melbourne is becoming cooler each morning with thick fogs covering the valley. We wake up and often think it is snowing outside!

The bag below has a thin strip made by "Tsumugi silk" at the left side of the feature panel which gave a real uplift to this gentle purple kimono fabric. These bags are for sale in the shop!

Can you tell what is cooking in this pot? Some yummy sweets with honey comb?
No. This is my latest batch of soap. My friends and I used to regularly catch up to make soap, but one of my friends is away currently, so we haven't been making it for a while. After I started to make this batch, I realised that I didn't have certain ingredients, so had to alter the recipe. This is very rich and moisturising soap with sweet almond oil, rose hip oil, bees wax, etc...

They are cut into blocks and now being air dried in my daughter's bedroom. Her room smells absolutely exquisite with the essential oils of lavender, rose geranium, rosemary and pink grapefruit. I also worked out how to use macro setting with my camera. Finally...

Things I have been making these days

I have been busy these days as now I have a studio! It's only 3 minutes away from home too. It is upstairs of a new shop, Oku Den. My sewing machine, over-locker, fabric, threads, etc... have moved out of my house. It is so nice to have a big space and a big table to cut fabric , and designing and sewing what I like to make is just fantastic. I have met a wonderful person, Oku, who gives me constant encouragement. After the bags and aprons are made, they move into beautiful shop space downstairs. How fortunate am I to find this opportunity!

I love making these shoulder bags. It is so much fun to match kimono fabrics with this beautiful denim. Luckily these shoulder bags recently found their new permanent home, so I am really happy.

And with the small off-cuts, I have been making small coin/lipstick pouches.

These are all small left-over pieces of kimono fabrics. I have boxes full of them and again, it is a lot of fun finding the right combination.

I have been working diligently these days, so I gave myself a reward by accepting an invitation to a craft weekend last weekend. Sewjourn is in picturesque Lancefield, only 1 hour away from Melbourne. Meeting such beautiful fun loving women who all have passion for being creative was really inspirational. I had a chance to make clothes for myself and my daughter - here is one of them... she loves modeling for the camera!

Tibetan Apron

Recently I made a shoulder bag for my friend who wanted to use her favourite piece of fabric as a feature panel. This colouful piece of fabric comes from a Tibetan apron. It is a strong fabric and those stripy colours are really gorgeous. The apron had three strips sewn together and I was thinking about the Tibetan woman who might have weaved this piece as I un-stitched them. I wondered what kind of apron she was wearing.

I found out later that traditionally, these aprons are worn by married women. It is really interesting to see how each culture has its unique way to distinguish woman's married status!

Fond memory

Here is my kids cleansing their hands and mouth before entering into the Shrine site.

Stunning view of ski mountain. It looks almost like a painting.

My daughter loves green tea now after learning tea ceremony. Here she is wearing an old kimono that I used to wear when I was a child.

Back into life

I was back home in Japan for almost 2 months. My children never seen that much snow in their lives, and yes, they did love snow ball fighting and skiing! I loved being able to relax at my old home with my mum's home cooking. Now I am back in Australia, I am trying to create something beautiful in the kitchen as well. I have tried bread making and also have been working on how to make kids' lunch box more exciting and nutritious. Hard work! Kids are back to school and so their friendship with school friends have come back to where they were at before we left for Japan. My daughter was invited to her friend's birthday party recently, so I wanted to make something for her. Here I made using strong linen/cotton fabric with feature patchwork using my kimono cut-outs. It was such a fun to match colours thinking about this little girl's gorgeous eyes. I used a wooden button recycled from Japan.