Sashiko is slow work

Sashiko is very simple. Originally it was for practical use. Hundreds of years ago, Japanese women were mending cotton and linen fabric with cotton thread after their family went to sleep. I imagine it would have been a very quiet time, and may have been cold. They were running stitches whilst thinking about their busy day, their family and maybe their own dreams which would never come true. There was no TV or even radio.They just looked at the point of a needle and created a lot of beautiful patterns. Sashiko was born from those wonderful women’s hands.

Sashiko stitches don’t have to be even. If you have a chance to look at pictures in Japanese Sashiko books, you can see uneven stitches in sample pictures. It is handwork. We are not a machine. There are even some Sashiko groups who are doing Sashiko by free hand without any draft on fabric.

However it is the true to feel soothing when you see even stitches. Sashiko could be like meditation.

Sashiko is slow work. It doesn’t have to be finished quickly. Some book says a couple hours would be good a time. Enjoying watching patterns appear little by little is one of the joy of Sashiko.