Sashiko Madness

I got the pattern for this Japanese envelope bag from Quilting School by Ann Poe. The craziest thing is instead of tracing the Sashiko pattern on the fabric like regular people, I decided to use this impossible method of sprinkling powder through graph paper which had holes in intervals. Ah, what happens when the powder gets blown away? That didn't occur to me until it was too late. I chose a light purple 100% cotton hand quilting thread (very expensive). Yes, you got it right.I hand quilted.

Here's a close-up of my hand quilting


I hand quilted and I hand quilted and I hand quilted. It took me a long time but I finally finished it.

Not bad huh?

Can't Get Enough of Sashiko

Heh heh. I made another bag from the same book Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe. You know what the Jacksons used to sing, "Don't stop till you get enough." or in my case, till my hand aches/cramps/gets arthritis.



This bag turned out rather ethnic looking which was not my intended effect but I was rather delighted by it. This one I'm keeping for myself.

Shall we Sashiko?

I have long been fascinated by Sashiko, a timeless art form which incorporates my favourite stitch, the running stitch into gorgeous patterns. I found this book The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook by Susan Briscoe at the library and decided to give Sashiko a go. I instantly took a liking to a particular rule of Sashiko which is you push the fabric into the needle to make stitches instead of stabbing. I've always preferred to use both my hands in needlework as I don't like to overwork my right hand. But what about the fabric and the needle? I couldn't imagine walking into Spotlight and asking for Sashiko fabric, thread and needles. The sales staff would probably go, "Sa What ah? Needles over there." So, no. I did not go to Spotlight. But I went to Art Friend and was shocked to find Sashiko needles.



Sashiko needles aren't ordinary needles. At least not the ones I got. They were the only ones available. They are like fangs. They are giant needles. There was no way I would be able to use any of my fragile fabric. So sadly, I had to use my ordinary needles.

Keeping in tradition with Sashiko, I used the darkest blue fabric I owned. For the cord, I used cord bought at a hardware store's closing down sale. The embroidery is done in white cotton perle. (Nope, still can't find Sashiko thread anywhere. This is Singapore after all.)



My girl loves the bag. She asked me to make one for her.