Birthday sashiko!

It was my birthday....I was going to say 'recently', but actually over a month ago now (I've obviously not being paying attention).  I got lots of lovely pressies, but I have to say the one I was second-most looking forward to was my new sashiko kit!

Yay!

(My most looked-forward-to-present I got early and was this lovely hoody of loveliness, which it is currently too hot to wear, which makes me sad).

I've been intrigued by sashiko for a while and even attempted to have a go without really knowing what it was about, but then I saw the article on it in Seamwork and had to have a go at doing it properly.  It's an old form of Japanese peasant embroidery which was used specifically to patch and strengthen work clothes. It was used as a form of boro patchwork which translates as something along the lines of "too good to waste", where any cloth that could be used was used, in multiple layers, to make stronger and warmer clothes.  What I find quite interesting is the traditional colour scheme - Japan had very strict sumptuary laws and one of the very few colours the peasants were allowed was indigo.  I get the impression this was because it grew everywhere and they would have had trouble stopping them, but I love the idea that a dye that, certainly in Europe, was pretty rare, was what was left for the poorest peasants in Japan.

figurine of a fisherman wearing a traditional sashiko embroidered jacket

The reason sashiko appealed to me is, oddly, not because it's Japanese.  I mean I like Japanese things and have been known to get interested in things just because they are Japanese (though I would like to think I've grown out of that a bit by now), but what actually appealed to me was the simplicity of colour and design.  I love the look of embroidery, but I find it extremely hard to find other peoples designs that fit what I want and I'm terrible at designing for myself (Vic is the one who's picture artistic, I'm more 3D artistic) whether that's an actual lack of skill or lack of confidence makes little difference.  Also I'm notoriously impatient and embroidery can take an awfully long time...

Sashiko brilliantly solves a number of these issues for me.  There is a whole book of traditional and newer designs to choose from, but they're all simple running stitch and the length of time it takes is primarily dictated by how dense you want the pattern.  They're all pretty abstract so I can pick what flows with the garment, rather than a picture to stamp on somewhere.  Even the colours are simplified: these days you can get lots of colours of thread (which I am totally going to experiment with), but plain white to patch a pair of jeans is nice and simple and authentic with minimal decisions.

Speaking of jeans:

one side of this is not like the other...

These jeans fit brilliantly, but are wearing through all over the place so I decided a while ago to make them my sashiko jeans and just keep patching them wherever they broke.  Can you tell which patch I did before I got the kit versus after I got the kit? Yeah...so the darker blue side I may just have known what I was doing just a little bit more.  I've already re-done the other patch you can see here and one knee which started out like this:

not bad...

Has already had to be patched again.  I've got the other knee and where my phone has rubbed through the pocket to do before I can call them done - at least for the time being.  I'm sure they will be worn enough that they'll need even more patching eventually.  I can't wait till they look like more patch than original jeans.