#stitching

DIRT documents: [# 5]

Drift stitching is a repair method where zip ties, wires, or clips are used to hold cracked parts together after an accident.

The technique became popular in drifting and motorsports because damaged bumpers could be repaired quickly without replacing the entire panel. Small holes are drilled along the crack so the material can be stitched back together and reinforced.

Over time, the repair style spread beyond racing and became common in DIY car culture. People have also used this method on motorcycles and anything in need of a temporary fix that doesn’t immediately hurt the wallet.

I bought a sashiko kit at the fiber arts festival and just completed it! Top is the "front", bottom two images are the back before and after washing off the preprinted pattern/instructions.

Sashiko is beautiful as an art form and very useful as a method of mending clothing but what really fascinated me is the stitching technique you use on work like this, where both pieces of fabric are thin and flexible.

they are finally complete, my index finger has grown a callous from hand sewing so solid that if I where to poke someone they would think I threw a rock at them, I fear it will never return to normal, I may start to consider a thimble. I HATE thimble's. I don't understand them, I fear them.

anyway, again the process of taking photos was a nightmare, I had the genius idea of just filming myself posing in the trousers and them trying to grab freeze frames of the video, HOWEVER it terns out if you are constantly moving the freeze-frames will in fact show that movement... so please be gentle withe the photo quality lol.

also I ended up hand sewing a red cotton lining into the pants to protect the embroidery backing.

parchment stitching

pages from a cistercian breviary, produced in the cistercian nunnery lichtenthal abbey, c. 1450-1500

Over the last two days I stitched a little sampler of various lines, but for fun I made it look like grass instead of a more traditional sampler. I really like the end result, it feels very painterly for some reason. I used 10 different colours, some variegated, some solid, a few different weights and materials (cotton, silk, wool). The stitches, from left to right at the bottom of the piece:

1. Backstitch

2. Double laced running stitch

3. French knots

4. Stem stitch

5. Running stitch

6. Alternating stem stitch

7. Couching

8. Hungarian heavy chain stitch (not sure if this is the actual English name, I found it in my Dutch stitch bible, which states that it is a Hungarian variation on the heavy chain stitch)

9. Heavy chain stitch

10. Laced back stitch

11. Chain stitch

12. Triple back stitch (once again, translated from my stitch bible, no idea about the actual English name)

13. Whipped back stitch

14. Satin stitch (without an underlying outline/padding)

15. Coral stitch

16. 'Open backstitch' I don't know if this stitch has an official name, probably, but it is just a backstitch where there is a small gap between the stitches. It has a more pronounced texture than running stitch, and doesn't make the fabric wavy as easily as a running stitch.

17. Bullion knots

18. Split stitch

19. Laced running stitch