#hitomezashi

A new patch; a new pattern. For this one, I stitched the white sections as normal, and then the red was woven through that.

When I finished these shorts, my hands immediately started missing sewing this way, and I've already started casting about for a new project.

Some panels potentially going towards a little four-sided drawstring bag (like the one below, though I’m gonna go for a less DIY look for the strings):

I used double thread for most of the stitching which I absolutely hate working with. The strands twist around each other and need to be constantly reset and separated which makes the entire stitching process take several times longer than normal, and I mean that literally it adds several hours to the whole process. The nice thing is you end up with bolder, straighter lines (as long as you keep the threads from tangling) but it’s a huge pain to deal with.

I wanted to do some hitomezashi patterns since all of my recent projects have been moyozashi. I actually find these much harder to work with, because each individual stitch is so important in forming the pattern there’s much less margin for error and mistakes stand out more. Not that it needs to be perfect (especially for a project like this where the panels will be bent and folded anyways), but I always try to make everything as even as possible.

I also wanted to play around with another type of sashiko called “kugurizashi”, which you can see in the bottom-right panel with the diamond. The red thread running through the yellow vertical stitches is actually woven through those stitches and remains on top of the fabric, only being stitched through to the underside at the end of each row. This isn’t my picture but you can see what I’m talking about below:

Recently, I explored creating unique coasters using the hitomezashi style, which features intricate patterns stitched on a grid. Check out my experiments with different patterns, the materials I'm using, and a couple of challenges I faced along the way! 🧵💙

I finished embroidering my shorts! It took a few restarts, lots of tailors chalk applied meticulously with a ruler, and being shelved for about 6 months, but the hot weather lately finally inspired me to finish them.

This is sashiko style embroidery, specifically hitomezashi, even more specifically a classic persimmon flower pattern. What a fun and simple technique, with beautiful impact! Even better, by leaving some slack in the thread, and completing the pattern in separate sections, the shorts maintained their stretchiness.

Some observations on Hitomezashi stitch patterns.

A hitomezashi stitch pattern is usually a combination of columns and rows of running stitches at ninety degrees to each other. Columns and rows may start either with a stich or a space, the presence or absence of this first stitch is what determines the pattern.

If you start with a dot grid, an even number of dots in the column will result in a column starting with a visible stitch (hit), ending with a visible stitch.

If you start the column with an absent stitch (miss), the column will end with a miss.

If the pattern of hits and misses that starts the columns is symmetrical e.g. hmmhhmmh then the repetition of this at 90 degrees (anti-clock) for the rows will result in a pattern that is symmetrical quartered about the centre. See 1st image.

If the pattern of the rows hits and misses is inverted, so from above the rows would be mhhmmhhm, this results in a pattern that is the equivalent of moving all the rows one row up or down. See 2nd image

Note that the column and row arrangement of hits and misses do not have to be the same, the paragraphs above describes special cases.

In image 3 the arrangement of hit or miss in columns and rows is essentially random

This took forever. The single stitch technique is called hitomezashi, which I have done before, but nothing this complex.