Pattern/Technique: Coffee Sashiko Fukin Club by SASHIKO.LAB
Modifications: I used the Daruma gridded hanafukin cloth, which required a slight mod to stitch at the midpoint of each cross to get the correct number of stitches. (Kazue covers this in detail in the course materials.)
Materials:
Daruma or Olympus hanafukin cloth
Sashiko needle (I purchased mine from Upcycle Stitches and really liked using it)
Spring Murazome Natural Dye Thread from Upcycle Stitches in Uneven Green Dark Shade
New skills: kuguri-sashi
Lessons/Notes:
This course combined two methods of sashiko: hitomezashi, where you make a single stitch from point to point on your grid (in this case I used a 5mm grid so each stitch length is 5mm); and kuguri-sashi, a technique where you then weave through your earlier stitches.
When doing kuguri-sashi you should use the back/eye of the needle to weave the thread through the stitches so that you don’t catch the cloth with the sharp end of the needle.
I trimmed all the ends of my sashiko thread as I went, but what you’re actually supposed to do is trim after washing the finished hanafukin (I think because it’s essentially blocking the finished cloth, which may loosen the fabric/threads).
For the border, I opted to hand sew a border around the edge of the mat (approx 1/8” in from the edge) to catch the raw edges of the fabric that had been folded under. I used sewing thread (Guterman) held double in a navy that matched the background cloth.
I love how the variegation in the hand dyed indigo/gardenia sashiko thread looks across the woven pattern, giving it motion and depth. While photographing it, I realized it reminded me of the shimmering Northern Lights. (I have 2 vivid memories of the aurora: coming home from a school event on a cold winter night, getting out of my car and seeing a quarter of the sky shimmering just to the right of the big dipper; and sitting at a campfire with my grandma during the summer.) It wasn’t my goal with this project, but I think my subconscious was connecting to home & the past in some way as I stitched.
What I'd do differently: On my next hanafukin, I’d like to try and align the raw/folded edges of my cloth so that the border section is a bit more balanced across the length/width of the cloth. I’ll also probably machine sew the raw edges together with right sides facing, then turn the right sides out to hide the raw seam instead of trying to fold the edges under and hand baste.
Care: Machine wash cold (though I actually hand washed mine to prevent the natural dye from bleeding), dry flat
