Fabric for Sashiko

You don’t need special fabric for Sashiko. You can use any fabric if you can run stitches. Cotton, Linen, Felt etc. However if you would like to do some traditional Sashiko, Here are some suggestions.

Japanese “MOMEN” cotton is very popular to do Sashiko. It is soft and lightweight 100% cotton. The weave is more open than normal cotton for Western style quilting. MOMEN cotton is often doubled up especially when you make Japanese style Sashiko tea towels to give the fabric a quilting touch. Sashiko was originally for practical use so MOMEN is very good for that. Normally MOMEN is about 30 cm wide because it is for making KIMONO.

Since MOMEN is hard to get in Australia, 100% cotton or Cotton / Linen is the most suitable. It is better to have plain weave to stitch by hand. Heavyweight fabric could be hard to run stitches. I have tried fine 100% linen to Sashiko before, but it was very difficult to draw draft lines with chalk paper. But I would like to try it again someday.

There are some ready-to-stitch Sashiko fabric. It is already printed with Sashiko patterns. Drawing draft lines is not always an easy job so it is good to just enjoy stitching. It is also good for beginners to practice Sashiko. I often use these ready-to-stitch Sashiko MOMEN kits to make Japanese tea towels. You can buy the kits to make coasters, placemats, hand bags etc.

There is another ready-to-stitch Sashiko fabric from a famous Japanese craft brand Olympus. It is 110 cm wide cotton fabric with printed Sashiko patterns. This medium-weight plain weave cotton is very handy to make any craft projects.

The printed patterns are washable when Sashiko is finished. So please be careful not to pre-wash before you do Sashiko.

It is said that Sashiko “normally” is stitched with white thread on indigo fabric. I agree that it looks very Japanese and of course it is beautiful. I think it would be fun to be more playful with colours. My favourite combination for Japanese Sashiko tea towels is red thread on white MOMEN cotton which is very traditional but I also like using colourful thread these days.