kind of a combination Hina Matsuri and Chelsea Flower Show!
I also succeeded at making more "correct" garments this time. Most of the "guides" to dressing in junihitoe show an "antique" version of the the outfit, from the Heian period, but most of the photos that I wanted to copy show women in (relatively) modern Edo period style and it took me a long time to catch on to this fact. The most obvious difference between the two styles is that layers of uchigi (what we would call "kimono") in the Heian style cross or lap over each other in the front near the waist and then are sequentially pulled open and backwards below the waist while in the Edo style there is very little over lap - just the wide collar/lapel (having seen no instruction for how this style is put on, I'm still not sure what keeps the Edo style "closed" but at least I now understand why I was confused between the images in my "how to" books and the photos of "modern" junihitoe that I wanted to copy!)
Here is a photo from the most extensive "how to" book that I own, by Ms. Chieko Kato. The "empress" here is dressed in the Heian style.
So .... this means I've finally completed a project that I've had in mind quite a long time .... really all the way back to my childhood when I looked at pictures of Japanese dolls and wished and wished for a Hina doll display of my own!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvksRcYW6oQ This is a link to an interesting video about Japanese dolls. In several spots they discuss what it can mean to people if dolls are felt to have souls, and include footage of sending "old" dolls (it looks like mostly Hina Matsuri dolls) adrift in small boats, instead of just throwing them away (or selling them on eBay?) Oh dear!!!! Kind of like doll assisted suicide!! I hope this won't happen to my dolls when I've shuffled off this mortal coil. R.