Stitch Your Way round the World - Japanese Sashiko

Our second to last Stitch Your Way Around the World was a visit to Japan through sashiko stitching. Sashiko literally means “little stab” and is a form of decorative reinforcement stitching (or functional embroidery) from Japan. Traditionally it was used to reinforce points of wear, or to repair worn places or tears with patches.

Today, this running stitch technique is often used for purely decorative purposes in quilting and embroidery. The white cotton thread on the traditional indigo blue cloth gives sashiko its distinctive appearance, though decorative items sometimes use red thread. Contemporarily, many stitchers use Sashiko designs on all colours of cloth and use many colours of thread.

The best dressed library
card in Calgary.

Mostly due to the time element of our sessions we opted to purchase pre printed sashiko fabric and stitched a small pouch to use with a credit card, or in our case, the Calgary Public Library Card.

Preprinted Sashiko fabric.

We purchased the fabric online through Shibori Dragon.  The fabric is meant to be stitched with the printed side as the front and then the lines are washed away, however, we were rebels to the technique and stitched with the printed side up. This was a good decision as it saved a step.

Stitching.

Small box wrap.

Stitching.

Single bottle wrap.

As an aside, I brought along a small
collection of my Furoshiki (wrapping cloths) and showed participants how to tie a large furoshiki into a carry bag and several other wraps. While centuries old in use in Japan, furoshiki are now the new “eco friendly” wrapping alternative.

Stay tuned for our final stop on our Stitch Your Way Around the World journey.