
Sashiko – The art of telling a story
hace 3 años

What you need to know about Sashiko
Sashiko's art goes far beyond embroidery or sewing old clothes. Sashiko tells stories through touches of beauty added to old clothes and remnants of fabric that breathe new life into them.
Sashiko was first worn in Japan and was made to breathe new life into old clothes. Today, this age-old technique captivates the eyes and hearts of many people around the world. The new colored dots create new motifs and beautiful artistic decorations on old and boring fabrics.
The need to mend old clothes is less fashionable these days, however, the bold stitches made through the art of Sashiko can make a piece stand out, look sturdier, and even much prettier than it was. Before. In the Sashiko technique, the points never become invisible. The goal is to make them highly visible. Among the most commonly used are dots that resemble natural patterns, such as waves, dragonflies, or mountains. Also geometric figures, including circles or interlocking shapes, can give a more elegant touch to any garment.
Sashiko stitches require a lot of patience and imagination, but the results are always extraordinary, whether it's a pillow, jeans, blankets or a jacket.
What do you need to be ready?
To start making her first drawing, Sashiko doesn't need much. However, some tools are needed to perform this technique. If you don't feel very comfortable creating a new and original pattern, you can be guided by a pre-made template from a magazine or from the Internet, which responds to your preferences.
The Needles Used in Sashiko
One of the most important accessories in Sashiko are the needles. These Sashiko needles have very particular characteristics. These are longer needles than standard needles and have a higher resistance. They are the perfect tools for doing multiple stitches on your fabric at once, which is a great thing. Traditionally, Sashiko needles are longer than five centimeters and have a small eye, which has the function of controlling the passage of the thread through the fabric. However, it should be noted that the new Sashiko needles have a larger eye and are shorter than the old ones. But they are still longer than the 1mm needles used in standard embroidery.
Threads Used in Sashiko
The threads used in this embroidery technique also have very particular characteristics. Unlike the threads or filaments used in pattern embroidery, they are not divided into threads, so they are much stronger twisted threads, often made from cotton.
It goes without saying that you can replace the Sashiko threads with standard embroidery threads, however you will notice the difference in appearance between the two types of threads. In terms of overall appearance, Sashiko lacks shine, resulting in much stronger defined stitches compared to other embroidery threads.
The thimble choice
Not being an essential accessory in Sashiko, a traditional thimble can preserve the health of the hands and is an element that helps to push the needle through the fabric. Alternatively, a standard leather thimble or metal finger guard may work just as well.
What fabric to choose
Sashiko is the ideal embroidery technique to enhance the beauty of a mixed linen or cotton fabric. You can use the Sashiko technique on jeans and jackets, however this technique was initially used on cotton, which has the advantage that this fabric is tightly woven and therefore thicker threads fit better.
As for the colors used, you can choose the ones you like the most. Traditionally, a white thread was used in the indigo fabric, however, any color is fine, as long as the contrast between the shades is respected.
Other important tools
Threads, needles and a thimble are the proper and basic accessories to carry out a good embroidery job. However, there are other items that will also help you in this wonderful art. Of these, we refer to the following: scissors, pins, chalk and a ruler. All these materials are very important so that you can outline your Sashiko pattern before starting to embroider.
See how you can start embroidering the sashiko stitch, with this video of "ponycats":
Thanks and good job!
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