Susan Briscoe is a familiar name to many sashiko stitchers here in the West, and rightfully so. The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook: Patterns, Projects and Inspirations (2005) is a book I would suggest anyone getting started with sashiko would benefit from having in their library. The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook starts the reader off with a colorful…
Tag: sewing
Sashiko & Shibori Sari
Here is another textile from Tansu Design; a fabulous 19th or early 20th century stitched and dyed sari from India. I wish I’d had more time to ask questions and a better camera on me when I was in the gallery, but this was the best I could do with my iPhone before running out the…
A little sashiko video selection
Poking around YouTube today, I found these videos featuring sashiko. Each one is only a few minutes long, and helpful if you are just starting out, or want to see how others hold needle, thread and cloth. Despite finding very particular directions in every Japanese and English how-to book on sashiko, I’ve found that each…
October news
The weather is cooler, leaves are starting to turn, and I’m still catching up with all the photos I have to edit of new stock, vintage fabrics, and more kimono than you could shake a stick at (but why would you?). To keep things moving as we turn towards Autumn–and Halloween!–I’m offering free shipping on…
Book reviews: Sashiko books in English part II
Continued from yesterday’s post, here are four more excellent sashiko books in English. Once again, these are listed by publication date. Quick summary statements are underlined. Click on the title links to purchase. Japanese Country Quilting: Sashiko patterns and projects for beginners by Karen Kim Matsunaga. Kodansha, 1990. 96 pages. An excellent all-in-one sashiko reference,…
Book reviews: Sashiko books in English part I
I’m going to take this in stages as there are so many books to choose from! Some of the more recent books that I will review tomorrow include those by Sylvia and Kitty Pippen, authors and textile artists who are comfortable taking sashiko and developing it into more than just the typical white-thread-on-indigo look that…
Book reviews: Japanese sashiko craft books
Japanese craft books, you gotta love ’em. The bright, clear photos presented in an easy to understand step by step format and abundant diagrams. Never mind if you can’t read Japanese, the visuals alone will get you through the process. Also known as “mooks,” a hybrid of magazine and book, these tend to be smallish…
Clearance sale on fabric yardage
Please do me a kindness and snap up these fabrics before new ones arrive as I’ll have no place to put them! These are out of print bolts from Kona Bay, In The Beginning and Marcus Brothers, all with Asian/Japanese themed prints. Beautiful stuff, just yearning to be put to creative use. As it is…
get ’em while they’re here
First, some not-so-good news: I put in a call yesterday to reorder some of my best selling fabric bolts from Alexander Henry, only to hear that the bolts I want are no longer available. Despite being good sellers, some bolts just don’t have quite enough demand for reprints, which means the warehouse won’t restock them…
The Old Girl, part III
“How the dickens do you thread this thing?” That was our first challenge after establishing that yes indeed, she ran just fine. A search on the Singer site provided a free pdf download of the instructions we needed for our vintage 15- (“fifteen straight”) machine, and with a bit of tinkering, we sorted it out….
The Old Girl, part II
It took a bit of wrangling, but we managed to slide her into the back seat of my car and take her home. She looks like a portable Featherweight, but she is most definitely attached to that table with its spindly legs. Once in the house, I gave her a good look. I checked the…
The Old Girl, part I
She’s a gem, my old girl. My son and I found this beauty one afternoon while driving through our Central Oregon neighborhood looking for garage sales. I was seeking a small table for the kitchen telephone. Spotting a likely subject in a yard three blocks from our house, we stopped to take a look. Lo…
A love for both the common fiber and the extraordinary textile @KimonoMomo 