My first ever attempt at sashiko! Natural linen thread on denim jeans (left leg), shippo tsunagi pattern.
I thought this pattern would be a good beginner choice, but I was ambitious. I didn't care strongly about making even stitches, I just wanted to try this out.
I created the grid circle-by-circle (compass and straightedge), using a very cheap drawing compass with a pen taped to it. This turned out to be a TERRIBLE mistake:
Fabric stretches as you drag a pen over it (Euclidean construction on not-very-Euclidean surfaces, a bad idea--who knew)
As you move farther from the origin, the grid becomes more and more distorted as the errors compound
Since the pants are intact, placing rulers over seams (bumpy!) will distort measurements.
I also didn't take into consideration that at the intersections, I'd have to choose how threads would overlap. So there are some messy intersections.
But I sure learned a lot from this experience! 😅













