Japanese embroidery - A very ceremonial embroidery

Japanese embroidery and its brilliant creations

Japanese embroidery is a very creative embroidery art. Some of the most famous civilizations for creating beautiful and brilliant embroidery are the Japanese and the British. Both civilizations used the art of embroidery to adorn ceremonial clothing and decorative items to decorate the home. While the Japanese are best known for their playful kimonos, the British are famous for their hand-embroidered fabric furniture panels.

ancient embroideries

Unfortunately for collectors, much of the embroidery work of the past has been lost to time and decay. Silk embroidery threads and fabrics are very prone to damage not only from insects, but also from the effects of light. Today it is highly unlikely to find Japanese embroideries made before the mid-XNUMXth century. Examples from before this period only exist in museums and churches that have been commissioned to restore and preserve them to this day.

In Japanese embroidery, you can learn plum petal rounding, a sewing stitch that beautifully shows the edge between the petals, and stitches to handle flat lines well.

Sashiko - Japanese embroidery

The word sashiko means "little stuffed dots." This quilting technique has been used since the Asuka era in the XNUMXth century to repair or reinforce the work clothes of people in different regions of Japan.

The Japanese embroidery "sashiko" comes from the creative capacity existing in a humble and austere environment. It was in the Tohoku area of ​​Japan where this type of embroidery was most developed. Cotton could not be grown in this cold region, so any piece of cloth was highly prized.

The motifs used in sashiko

Sashiko uses a wide variety of embroidery motifs. Most are geometric or plant motifs and are closely linked to the history of Japan and its traditions. This traditional embroidery, initially represented by small dots of white thread on indigo canvas, today allows weavers great artistic freedom. In the past it was made with white thread, but nowadays it is possible to work with thread with more modern colors and patterns.

How to embroider...

In this creative video of The beautiful and simple things of Marisol, see how you can learn to make a Japanese embroidery pattern:

Japanese sashiko embroidery can be embroidered on cotton or linen dyed indigo, but with a little creativity you can also use other types of fabrics such as wool, silk or felt to your liking.

This embroidery technique is created from a basic pattern as a guide, generally in the form of squares or triangles, and the pattern to be embroidered is drawn on them. The stitch that is used is the basting stitch, the thread goes up and down. The length of each stitch is approximately 2 or 3 mm. Did you like this technique? You want to try?