Bujin Help Please :O)

Jun, I posted this in the Bujin closing thread, but thought it would do better here. Feel free to delete my previous post from the other one if you would like.

Alright, I ordered my bujin hakama! Does anyone know how much the hakama will shrink if it is dry cleaned? I didn't have a choice to mark how I was going to clean it like you could before and now I am worried that it may shrink and end up short. I tried calling their number but no answer and their voicemail box is full...... I e-mailed them last week and never heard anything back from them. I e-mailed them again with my order number and such, but I have a feeling I won't hear back. Any ideas?

Did you order all cotton or the cotton blend? I think they only were wanting specifics on cleaning for the all cotton ones. The cotton blend ones don't shrink so much. But then again I could be remembering wrong. Hope someone can come along who knows.

I was told not to send them to a dry cleaner because they won't know how to iron the pleats correctly.

You can always request a no press on your order.

I ordered the 100% cotton hakama. Now I am all nervous..... I don't want to end up with a high water hakama! Not to mention I really needed a smedium size as the small was an inch too small and the medium would be 10 inches too big..... I am all kinds of nervous now! Eeek!

hey ash, don't your sempai also have hakama? where did they order from ? ask them their advice.

anyways, i haven't taken my all all cotton hakama (iwata) to a cleaner. there's a thread here on how to wash/soak the hakama to get rid of excess dye. i'll try to find it.

but i've always, just kept the hakama folded, filled a large basin w/lukewarm water and just hand pressed the the hakama in the water. empty and fill the basin until the water is pretty clear. i use a little ivory detergent and it seems to work well. pleats stay, then hang it to dry.

again, check w your sempai on how they deal w/their hakama.

The trick I was taught back when was to soak a new indigo hakama or keikogi in cold water with vinegar to help fix the dye -- otherwise you turn yourself and the mats smurfy blue. My current Bujin hakama doesn't seem to have this problem, but whatever. (edit: and of course, you've got to give it a gooooood rinse afterwards, or you'll smell like salad dressing!)

As for washing and pressing, I don't think dry cleaning will shrink it, but I can certainly believe that the typical dry cleaner would butcher the pleats. I just washed a well-worn all-cotton hakama in my front loader (if you don't have a front loader in your life, trust me, you need one), delicate cycle, cold water, extra rinse, normal speed spin...then took it out right away and hung it up with a skirt hanger. It was stiff like canvas when I took it out and I thought, "oboy this is never going to work," but I just gently straightened out the worst of the mess and left it to hang. A day later, just very faintly damp, I found that the pleats had pretty well re-established themselves. One of my sempai told me that it's good to fold it then, when it's just very slightly damp, but I'm going to give this a good ironing with starch -- one pleat at a time. I don't think it will be that hard. If you're someone who would find ironing a dress shirt challenging, though, you might not want to tackle this yourself -- I know that a lot of people nowadays just don't ever do any ironing, and I wouldn't choose a hakama as an intro-to-ironing project.

The yudansha in my dojo all have indigo hakama from California S&P and I think my sensei might have an indigo one from Japan. I just ordered a navy one from bujin, which I am assuming is not indigo because of the price.

Mary, I wish I had a nice front load washer and dryer. Until we can move into a house, we have to make due with what our townhouse has. If you ever see a stranger in your house doing laundry... it may just be me.

As an aside, the people in my dojo who have the cotton indigo hakamas have no pleats. They are still nice looking, but the pleats have dissapeared long ago. They just hang it up on a hook until the next class. I was debating about getting the twill just for ease of care, but I really wanted a cotton one. I am up for the challenge. I just don't want it to shrink. Is washing it in a tub going to have less shrinking then dry cleaning? I wish Bujin would just answer their phone or e-mail me back. Or, I could have been smart and put it in the directions, but their site used to be so much better about telling you what they needed to know, as opposed to how little info they have now.

Another tip for hanging it to dry: hang it up, then grab a bunch of clothespins. Adjust the pleats as best you can, then at the hemline clothespin each pleat in place and let gravity help set them.

My last hakama I ordered from bujin was 100% cotton hakama that I ordered as dry clean only. I've never soaked it and it has never shrunk from being dry cleaned. The dye seemed pretty well set and didn't bleed on the mat much. My first one was a machine wash 100% cotton order, and I believe it shrunk even after the cold water dye set dunking (which shouldn't have shrunk it). It continued to shrink, and I only use it as a last resort backup these days. My memory may be flawed, but you should be fine. If you don't soak it, it shouldn't shrink.

Thanks John and Mary. Good tips to keep in mind. I got an e-mail today saying my hakama is being processed! Yippee!

Still haven't gotten an e-mail saying my hakama has been shipped. Boohoo..... more waiting.

I only just got the email that mine has shipped on Saturday. Ordered something like 3 weeks ago. So apparently processing is a bit slow. No doubt things are pretty hectic at BuJin right now.

So you ordered yours before that madness. I was hoping since they had numbers attached to the hakama, that they might have had a bunch premade and just adjusted the length since you can't customize them anymore. Glad yours is on the way!

If it helps any, I ordered on the 2nd (a day after finding out they were closing) and got a shipping notice from them yesterday. (Yay!)

Thanks. I ordered mine on the 7th.

Looked back at my records. I put my order in late at night on Feb 27th they received the order March 1st I got the processing notice march 13th and ship notice on March 13th. Package arrived today.

I did add to my order a few days later when the posted some more stuff so that could have slowed mine down by a bit as I had let them know I would be adding to it if they had what I was looking for.

I ordered mine on March 6th, and got a note yesterday from Bu Jin:

"Please accept my apologies but it looks like we no longer have the Cotton Navy Aiki Extended Women's Hakama available. I have removed it from your order and refunded your credit card for the cost of the hakama and a portion of the shipping costs.

We are hoping to get the other hakama out to you in the next few days.

Sorry for the inconvenience."

I won't be needing them for several years, so I don't mind waiting a few days. I'm sure they are slogging through an avalanche of orders, but it does seem that they are taking care of business. I had also ordered a laptop bag and two dogi jackets earlier (but after the announcement), and those already arrived about a week ago.

I ordered mine on the 7th and got a processing notice on the 9th. Haven't heard anything yet. I hope they aren't out of mine! Linda, are you going to try to get the hakama in black instead or a different weight? If you do end up getting the aiki type, you will have to let me know what you think. I got the traditional because no one in my dojo has the aiki version. I wonder how they are out if they had numbers assigned to the stock that was supposedly on hand..... hmm...

BuJin has been out of hackima for several days or more now. The added more Dogi today I hear through their Facebook page. They announced today that on line ordering will end sometime early next week.

Just grabbed the last lap top bag myself after a lot of back and forth trying to decide whether to grab one for use as a dogi bag.

Ashleigh I got he aiki coshita as well and was not sure how I would like it since I am accustomed to the traditional. Tried it on last night and found it to be very comfortable. I'll train in it tonight and see how things go but I think I'll like it just fine.

I must admit to not liking the feel of the new un-broken-in fabric. I am so accustomed to my well worn old used one that is soft and supple. Any tips for breaking in fabric and making it not so stiff?

Hey Ashley - I am hoping they have another black one, but no biggie if they don't. I had already also ordered a black cotton one, and a black twill (?) one. I figure (should I ever eventually make it to Shodan, oh, some time in my mid-50s), that I could use the blue one for everyday training, beat the heck out of it, and keep the black ones for special occasions, seminars, etc. So (I hope - crossing my fingers that they have them) I'll have a black cotton one for daily use, and the twill one to keep decent looking.

By the way, I ordered some DVDs and a book just minutes after they posted on Facebook that those were available today, and I've already received shipping confirmation.

The Book of Five Rings
Remembering Terry Dobson (DVD)
Irimi, Za, Buki, Koshi (Set of 4 DVDs)

I'm pretty much set for life now. :-) No more shopping. Really. LOL

I am getting paranoid that I won't get my hakama. They have all been taken down from their website and I haven't heard from them as to whether it is going to be shipped or that I just won't get one. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't be much longer before I get a shipping notice!

Hope you get it ok. I got the notice today that my final order shipped this morning.

I think the Hackama take longer if they have to hem them to length... just a guess.

Oh and I realized I spelled your name wrong in my last post, Ashley. Sorry about that. I should have looked back for the proper spelling before I hit enter.

I ordered a hakama on the 8th and it still says processing, too.

I just got my shipment notification! WHOOT! Now I just have to hope it fits me properly since I can't return it! ::does happy dance:: Any of you get shipment notifications?

I got my shipment notification, too, yay!