First Bit of Sashiko Done!

I wasn't planning to post about the sashiko inspired project again until I was completely finished with it, but I needed the distraction today...so, here we are.

The basic idea was to practice hand-stitching and it seemed like a better use of my (very limited) free time to make something useful at the same time.  We're a paper towel-free home, so we go through lots and lots of little cleaning rags.  The ones we have now are generally all of the terrycloth variety and getting pretty ratty looking.  I hate handing something stained or torn or otherwise ugly and asking Bug to wipe his face on it.  So I figured I'd make a set of little finger wiping / spill picker-upper cloths.

I chose a couple of fat-eighths that I wasn't in love with from my stash and dug out the embroidery thread and got to work.  I'm finding that, as I work on these, I really really start to like to the fabric.

Today, I had misplaced the almost-finished orange and yellow floral so I grabbed one of the other fabrics when Bug went down for his nap.  I don't really dislike this fabric so much but it hasn't been speaking to me either, so it was fair game.

The stitching on this one is very, very simple.  I just stitched over the vertical center lines of each vine and left the rest of the fabric alone.  I'd considered accenting the darker leaves somehow, but I kind of like the simplicity of the almost-straight lines.

When I'd finished with the vines, I folded the fabric in half, pressed it and stitched it closed.  I top-stitched the edges to give it a slightly crisper shape.  I've purposefully chosen not to square up the fabrics before I stitch them.  They were all cut (before I bought them, not by me) a little wonky, so they're not stitching up completely square.  For our purposes and because that seems to fit quite well into our wonky lives, I kind of like them that way.

(I skimmed a book titled That Dorky Homemade Look, by Lisa Boyer, the other day and these evoke that feeling in me.  I think I love them because of their imperfections.  And I think buying the book is in my not-too-distant future.)

So, here's the first of the sashiko-inspired cloths.

This first picture shows the color of the fabric the best.



And here's a detail, showing the pattern of the fabric and the stitching a little better.



More on these as I finish the others.  I'm planning on four.  I think.

(PS - Bug has given this one his seal of approval.  I handed it to him and asked him what he thought and he immediately wiped his face, then wadded it up and handed it back.  Success!)