Oversized hakama

[GothMelancolia]

Ok...maybe this is a dumb question...
Here’s my problem. I bought a nice new 100% cotton hakama and I have a few problems with it.
First it’s oversized. I don’t know what measurements the guy from the online store read but I definitely don’t need a 28 sized hakama (more like a 26). And here is my question. This thing looks like a ball dress on me. Even if I would cut it the right size it would still look funny.
Is this normal?
I did wash it so it would shrink and it didn’t, not even an inch, yayks.
Should I cut it or find somebody who could wear it like this (a guy definitely because it’s too huge -long and large)
:down:

[b8amack]

I had the same problem with one. Even if you get the legs hemmed up the wazoo, the side slits will still be way too long, particularly if you go commando. And everyone goes commando. Did you wash in hot water?

[GothMelancolia]

I don’t go commando :p…ever…

No, I didn’t washed it with hot water, I was afraid my bath-tub might stay blue forever and ever if I did.:eek:

[b8amack]

There's that too. But only hot water will shrink it. Personally, I think you'll just have to bite the bullet and buy a new hakama; it's what I did. You might be able to get it altered top and bottom, but I doubt that'd either leave you with a desirable result or save you any cash if it did.

[Martch]

Next time you buy a hakama hold it against you with the koshita in the small of your back and check it's above your heels. Do this before you cut the tacking thread. Most places will be happy to exchange them provided that thread is intact, but once it's cut it's too late.

[Fonsz]

As mentioned by our correspondent from S. Korea you should wash it in hot water. If you have settled the dye then throw it in the wash machine hot program. It will shrink about 2 sizes. My first hakama was also too large but after a wash it was the right size. Take care for the pleats direct after the washing. Pin the folds together with the things one uses to hang clothes to dry. When it's dry then you're all set to go.
Remember to settle the dye first otherwise all the clothes in the laundry will be turning blue for a while.
But as you said before you're a Goth. Don't you have a black hakama?:confused:

[GothMelancolia]

But as you said before you're a Goth. Don't you have a black hakama?:confused:

No, I had the impresion that black hakama is only for iaido. Besides, my sensei said blue hakama I got blue hakama (i like blue also by the way). Thanks for the tip, I'll try and see how it goes. ;)

[GothMelancolia]

Remember to settle the dye first otherwise all the clothes in the laundry will be turning blue for a while.


Sorry for the dubble post but how did you settle de dye ? I know there were a couple of posts before but as usual the search option works... oh well :down:

[ReKru]

First it’s oversized. I don’t know what measurements the guy from the online store read but I definitely don’t need a 28 sized hakama (more like a 26). And here is my question. This thing looks like a ball dress on me. Even if I would cut it the right size it would still look funny.

Is this normal?


Hakama do look 'funny'. Just because the experienced guys wear them with dignity so they don't look totally ridiculous and some (weird) people even consider them 'cool', they're still plenty 'funny'.
(until you get so used to seeing your dojo-mates and yourself in those things that pants start to look funny in your eyes :D )

But better a ball dress than a garbage bag, I'd say.

Personally I think girls with a feminine figure (like my significant other - who's also constantly complaining her black iai hakama makes her look 'big') look better in a larger hakama that is hemmed to fit in lenght.

Unless it's a special 'girl cut' design (which accounts for the hip-waist different) a wider cut keeps the pleats nicer than a too tight cut where the pleats draw all over the place.

The legs're just flowing around anyway (hiding the motion of your feet, as they should), so they don't need to be carrot-jeans tight.



how did you settle de dye ?


(a bucket full of) Hot water, with salt (bout 200g) and vinegar (1 bottle) mix (some like only salt or only vinegar - I use both for best result - I think the salt does the actual 'settling', while the vinegar softens the thread).

[jjcruiser]

I had the same problem with one. Even if you get the legs hemmed up the wazoo, the side slits will still be way too long, particularly if you go commando. And everyone goes commando. Did you wash in hot water?

There was a poll about this a while ago and at least a couple threads, the gist of which seemed to be that some do and some do not.

Personally I would never go commando and I have the distinct happiness of never having noticed anyone else going commando either.

Back on topic: I doubt washing in hot water is going to save her two sizes off on her hakama. If I were the OP I would chalk it up to the "cost of doing business," try to sell it to someone else, and buy a new one in the proper size.

[Tort-Speed]

Sorry, "go commando" means...like when you go flying when pushed or fall over sideways or backwards?

[b8amack]

Go commando means nothing comes between you and your hakama.

[GothMelancolia]

Personally I would never go commando


Agree,

Well I'll try the hot water formula and if it doesn't work I'm sure there are lots of guys who would fit in this monster-hakama. For now I'm sticking to my old tetron (I think it's the right word) hakama till I'll decide what to do next.

[Tort-Speed]

To b8amack - meaning wearing nada between one's hakama and skin and/or the hakama goes in all directions so leaving little to the imagination? Man this is
hardah than the shodan paper-test vocab!

[b8amack]

The former.

[LarsCW]

If you have a dryer you could put your hakama in for part of the program. The only risk you have doing this might be that it only shrinks in a certain way.

For example that the width would shrink more then the length or the other way around. So it would be really important to check atleast every 10 to 15 min.

I've done it with my hakama which is #8000 weave and it shrunk to a perfect size so no hemming needed.

[GothMelancolia]

hmmm, i don't have a dryer, but i'm going to experiment on my hakama this weekend. I'll let you all know about the rezults

[Django]

... Methinks my mom washed mine in warm water by accident. I swear it's a few inches shorter than it originally was. ): And I kinda killed the pleats by accident.

So yes, warm water should work?

[LarsCW]

I bought my hakama at ebogu and they come with seamed pleats. The nice thing about that is that you never lose your pleats.

I iron my hakama smooth and after that I iron back the pleats.

I always use cold wash, max 40C on my coton hakama. When you use a warmer program you can't controll the amount of shrink as the washing machine can't be opened in between programs. That way you could lose inches in length or width.

Most of the times a hakama looks wider on females because they tend to have wider hips. Please keep that in mind when trying to shrink it

[GothMelancolia]

The shrinking hakama project

Well I found the time and energy to try the methods you guys thought me so here are the results:

The procedure

Kendo noob arms herself with a bottle of vinegar and some kitchen salt and lots of patience.

Measure the hakama (for scientific purposes of course)

Take the hakama you season it with salt and vinegar (my poor noose has seen better days) and you live it inside the bath tube for about 30 minutes in cold water.

After 30 minutes you take the hakama and (be careful not to make yourself too blue) put it inside the washing machine.

Set the washing machine to a short program with hot water and some detergent (in order to get rid of the vinegar smell)

Wait and watch from time to time at the water your washing machine gets out (hm it’s ok… there’s a lot of that indigo dye) :(

Take out the hakama (and have palpitations why you’re at it for fear of loosing the pleats and the dye). :eek:
Set your pulse right and notice that the pleats are ok and the hakama it’s still indigo-blue (siuffff) :D
Put the hakama to dry taking extra care for the pleats (it was last night so there’s no danger of letting it on direct sunlight). Here I used some of the stuff you guys suggested like clothes peg (I think it’s the right expression-the things we use for hanging our clothes to dry) to get the pleats fixed in its place

Measure the hakama after it’s dry


The results

Well after all this I learned some valuable lessons

1. cotton hakama can be washed inside a washing machine without loosing the pleats (as long you’re extra-careful with the pleats and the drying process)
2. vinegar smell disappears if you machine wash the hakama afterwards ( it rather smelled nice this morning)
3. indigo dye it’s not so sensitive
4. indigo dye stains everything starting with the bathtub, your skin …
5. I have to buy some salt when returning home
6. all ends well when you finish with a little shrinking session for yourself (a nice, hot bath)

And finally ….
My hakama did shrink with about 2 cm :p

[Fonsz]

I hate to say this but ......................I told you so!!!
Has it shrunk enough to a better fit?

[GothMelancolia]

I hate to say this but ......................I told you so!!!
Has it shrunk enough to a better fit?


NO way you're enjoying this,
Nop it's still a ball dress :(

[Fonsz]

Give it another go. My first cotton hakama was the right size but too long. After a few times machine washing it didn't shrink anymore and it was the right length. I can't recall about the width though. I trust that it's still deep blue and hasn't faded?

[GothMelancolia]

Well it's still blue I don't see any fading, I'll give it another try, and next thing is the scissors or I’m goint to buy a new one (the proper length this time)

[MikeW]

An alternative to using a dryer is after it has been washed again but is still wet use a hair dryer on it on a fairly warm setting. You can selectively dry the 'pants' portion that covers the legs but not the waist portion so the waist won't shrink too much. Cotton shrinks more during warm drying than during warm washing. It will take a bit of time however to dry it this way.

[b8amack]

You could try ironing while it's wet... That's gotta shrink it!

[1prettygirl]

...next thing is the scissors or I’m goint to buy a new one (the proper length this time)

Instead of cutting the material why don't you try to fold them up and stitch them? That's what I did and mine look mighty fine. To me that is :D

[Neil Gendzwill]

You can get a tailor to hem them for much cheaper than buying a new one.

[LarsCW]

Give it another go. My first cotton hakama was the right size but too long. After a few times machine washing it didn't shrink anymore and it was the right length. I can't recall about the width though. I trust that it's still deep blue and hasn't faded?

I had the same problem then I put my hakama in the dryer for short periods at the time. As the program was running just stop and check the length and it's a perfect way to shorten without having to hem it.

If it doesn't get shorter then make sure it's not shrinking in the width.

[GothMelancolia]

Considering that everyone around here keeps encouraging me, I’m not going to give up the fight. After all it’s just a fighting skirt :D it’s not going to defeat meeee.


An alternative to using a dryer is after it has been washed again but is still wet use a hair dryer on it on a fairly warm setting. You can selectively dry the 'pants' portion that covers the legs but not the waist portion so the waist won't shrink too much. Cotton shrinks more during warm drying than during warm washing. It will take a bit of time however to dry it this way.


About this method, well I don’t think I have enough patience to try it.



Instead of cutting the material why don't you try to fold them up and stitch them? That's what I did and mine look mighty fine. To me that is :D

Well, at first I did that (you should have seen the tailor’s face when I shown it to her) but it was to much material involved and it was quite heavy, now I think it would work better since I’ve lost in length some centimeters). Plus it was quite funny looking, very stiff. Lots of stiffness was lost during the treatment I applied.

Actually I noticed that the shrinking was both in length and in width (witch is a god thing because it was really large). Funny thou, right now I have the slight impression that some of the pleats are longer then the others, guess the shrinking didn’t go the same for all the material.

I haven’t ironned it yet, I just applied the shrinking method again and left the thing to dry during daylight (away from direct sunlight but still at high temp).


You can get a tailor to hem them for much cheaper than buying a new one.


I noticed that :( , well for now I’m not giving up until this gets wearable, buying a new one it’s not an option. (On the other hand don’t this guys know it’s an economic crisis out there-gosh).

In conclusions, I applied the same treatment again, I think this time it shrinked less but still it did.
This time I can notice some fading in the material so I’m going to stop for now. Next it’s ironing and a short visit to the tailor.

On a more positive side I can see my toes from underneath it now. ;)

Thank you all for helping me in this experiment. I’ve got very good advice here and I’m going to follow it, and most of all I’m not going to give up

(ok you Fighting Skirt the war is on… you might have won a battle but you didn’t win the war :rambo:)

[absenteekendoka]

Sorry, "go commando" means...like when you go flying when pushed or fall over sideways or backwards?

.....It's all about the unfurnished basement. :cool2:

[GothMelancolia]

Just got the hakama back from the tailor and it finally fits perfectly.
Yupppe

I'm so happy about this ....and it looks pretty cool to.

So as a conclusion

Shrinking by hot water treatment about 3 cm in length and I don't know how much in width
Shrinking by going to the tailor-about the same only no decrease in width involved

the result: Now that in has decreased in width as well it fits OK, the colour though shows signs of fading but nothing to bad

Thank you guys for all the advice I would have given up on it without you guys :D !!!!

[Tura]

Just wondering... If you get it to shrink that much, what happens to the backplate? What is it made of anyway?

[GothMelancolia]

Just wondering... If you get it to shrink that much, what happens to the backplate? What is it made of anyway?

iIt looks fine to me, it didn’t break, or anything like that.
Actually I have no clue from what is made of :confused2
I think it’s from multiple layers of material so it should be ok

[TheCorgiWoman]

Maybe someone can answer the question of length. I am 5'6" but the hakama originally came to my toes because it is a 26 I thought on the sizing chart I bought the equivalent of size 5 uniform. I hemmed it up an inch already. Where should the hem fall across the foot or above? I hemmed this in June after a near embarassing facer in front of everyone. Is there a different recommended length between Iaido and kendo or something in the middle?
I need help hopefully before Saturday March 26.

[krys]

All Japan Kendo Federation video I [1/3] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHqVfoBQ7fs) - 03:21.

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/8554/hakama.jpg