A new patch; a new pattern. For this one, I stitched the white sections as normal, and then the red was woven through that.
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A new patch; a new pattern. For this one, I stitched the white sections as normal, and then the red was woven through that.
a recent conversation with a friend rekindled my love of sashiko. I'm especially drawn the hitomezashi style, and I took the time to practice a more traditional stitching technique this time. It's rhythmic and meditative and there's a bit of magic to watching the patterns emerge.
When I finished these shorts, my hands immediately started missing sewing this way, and I've already started casting about for a new project.
Some panels potentially going towards a little four-sided drawstring bag (like the one below, though I’m gonna go for a less DIY look for the strings):
I used double thread for most of the stitching which I absolutely hate working with. The strands twist around each other and need to be constantly reset and separated which makes the entire stitching process take several times longer than normal, and I mean that literally it adds several hours to the whole process. The nice thing is you end up with bolder, straighter lines (as long as you keep the threads from tangling) but it’s a huge pain to deal with.
I wanted to do some hitomezashi patterns since all of my recent projects have been moyozashi. I actually find these much harder to work with, because each individual stitch is so important in forming the pattern there’s much less margin for error and mistakes stand out more. Not that it needs to be perfect (especially for a project like this where the panels will be bent and folded anyways), but I always try to make everything as even as possible.
I also wanted to play around with another type of sashiko called “kugurizashi”, which you can see in the bottom-right panel with the diamond. The red thread running through the yellow vertical stitches is actually woven through those stitches and remains on top of the fabric, only being stitched through to the underside at the end of each row. This isn’t my picture but you can see what I’m talking about below:
You end up with this woven basket sort of look to it which I think looks really cool, and it also has the benefit of being incredibly quick to execute. None of the books I have cover this method so hopefully I can find a good pattern library online somewhere I can practice from.
Hitomezashi stitching
I've been playing around with G'MIC. This filter is meant to mimic a kind of Sashiko stitching, but it also has a kind of science fiction pixel art feel.
🌟 Excited to share my latest project: Hitomezashi Style Sashiko Coasters! 🎨✨ I've been diving back into sashiko, the beautiful Japanese embroidery technique that combines art with tradition.
Recently, I explored creating unique coasters using the hitomezashi style, which features intricate patterns stitched on a grid. Check out my experiments with different patterns, the materials I'm using, and a couple of challenges I faced along the way! 🧵💙
Join me in this creative journey and let’s inspire each other! #Sashiko #Embroidery #TextileArt #Hitomezashi #Crafting https://shyredfox.notion.site/hitomezashi-style-sashiko-coasters
I finished embroidering my shorts! It took a few restarts, lots of tailors chalk applied meticulously with a ruler, and being shelved for about 6 months, but the hot weather lately finally inspired me to finish them.
This is sashiko style embroidery, specifically hitomezashi, even more specifically a classic persimmon flower pattern. What a fun and simple technique, with beautiful impact! Even better, by leaving some slack in the thread, and completing the pattern in separate sections, the shorts maintained their stretchiness.
Yokota Daruma thick sashiko thread on NYDJ shorts, hand embroidered by me.
Some observations on Hitomezashi stitch patterns.
A hitomezashi stitch pattern is usually a combination of columns and rows of running stitches at ninety degrees to each other. Columns and rows may start either with a stich or a space, the presence or absence of this first stitch is what determines the pattern.
If you start with a dot grid, an even number of dots in the column will result in a column starting with a visible stitch (hit), ending with a visible stitch.
If you start the column with an absent stitch (miss), the column will end with a miss.
If the pattern of hits and misses that starts the columns is symmetrical e.g. hmmhhmmh then the repetition of this at 90 degrees (anti-clock) for the rows will result in a pattern that is symmetrical quartered about the centre. See 1st image.
If the pattern of the rows hits and misses is inverted, so from above the rows would be mhhmmhhm, this results in a pattern that is the equivalent of moving all the rows one row up or down. See 2nd image
Note that the column and row arrangement of hits and misses do not have to be the same, the paragraphs above describes special cases.
In image 3 the arrangement of hit or miss in columns and rows is essentially random
The final images are to prove that I don't only draw patterns in CorelDRAW I do occasionally actually stitch them IRL. The large ones were a 20x20 cm grid and the smaller ones a 10x10 half cm grid.
This took forever. The single stitch technique is called hitomezashi, which I have done before, but nothing this complex.
You stitch it in a specific order: diagonals, horizontal lines, then vertical. The x's of the squares are basically couched by the horizontal and vertical lines, which isn't something I've seen before. The density of stitches makes it feel almost quilted, and it's very pleasing to run your fingers over.