Sashiko (“little stabs”) began in the farming and fishing villages of northern Japan, where women stitched layers of worn indigo cotton together with white thread, to make them warmer and last longer. The running stitches drew waves, leaves, shells and stars. Pick a pattern, and watch it being stitched, one line at a time, the way it is done by hand.
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Pattern
Stitches
Cloth
* Thread used for a 40 cm (16 in) square of cloth, front and back.
Stitching by hand
The cloth is first marked with chalk, then stitched one family of lines at a time: all the horizontal lines, then all the diagonals, and so on, loading several stitches on the long needle before pulling the thread through. Stitches are a little longer on the front than the gaps where the thread runs under the cloth, about five to seven of them per inch.
Corners and crossings
A good sashiko corner always has a stitch going right into it, so the shape stays sharp. Here, the stitches are fitted to every straight run of a line, so each run starts and ends with a full stitch. At the turns, a small loop of slack is left on the back so the cloth doesn't pucker when it is washed.