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When they finally appeared, many people thought they were unnecessary, impractical and even scandalous
Sashiko mending is a beautiful, ancient technique that originated in Japan. Sashiko stitching is the art of mending your clothes, fixing or reinforcing them through small running stitches.
These small stitches are simple yet stunning, and are not only decorative but also practical. Sashiko mending can be used to fix up clothes, either by reinforcing patched fabric or covering marks and stains.
In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to do sashiko mending with three simple items. White thread, a needle, and a patch of fabric. This technique will allow you to mend your broken items as well as give them some extra detail!
You can use whatever fabric you like. Why not use a spare fat quarter? Or raid your fabric stash for a fun scrap? You can also use whatever coloured thread you like for sashiko mending. Traditionally, white is used, but you can use whatever colour suits you, your style and your garment best.
Let’s get mending!
How to do sashiko mending
You will need:
- The garment you’re fixing
- Scrap piece of fabric bigger than the hole
- Tailor’s chalk
- Scissors
- Pins
- Needle
- Thread
Step 1
Tidying up your rip
Tidy up the ripped part of the jeans with a pair of embroidery scissors. You can also use sewing scissors for this task.
Remove any long fraying threads, creating an even tear ready for you to patch up.
Step 2
Create your patch
Cut a small piece of scrap fabric slightly larger than the tear in the jeans.
Place the fabric right side (RS) up behind the tear and keep it in place with a few pins.
If you want to learn more about creating patches, head over to our how to sew a patch tutorial.
Not a fan of patches?
You don’t have to add a patch to your clothes when doing sashiko mending. Learn how to sew a hole instead, then add your sashiko stitch on top or around your closed hole!
Step 3
How to do sashiko stitching
With the tailor’s chalk, draw tiny dots all around the tear, as shown.
Keep an even space between the dots.
Step 4
Thread the needle with embroidery thread and insert it from the inside of the jeans, coming up approximately 0.5cm (¼”) from the top of one of the dots.
Using the dots as a guideline, stitch small straight stitches to create cross shapes, as shown.
These stitches will keep the patch on the inside of the jeans in place and are known as sashiko stitches!
We go into more depth about this specific stitch in our how to do sashiko embroidery tutorial.
Step 5
Once you’ve finished adding sashiko stitches onto all of the dots, tie a knot at the end of the embroidery thread and fasten off.
Remove the pins.
Embrace the ancient art of sashiko mending
Sashiko mending is not only a beautiful, practical way of fixing your clothes. It’s also a meditative, mindful activity that helps you to appreciate your garments and give them some extra love.
Take your time and relax in the art of sashiko mending. Once you’ve got to grips with the technique, we promise you’ll want to add it to everything!
Start your sustainable fashion journey
Sashiko mending is just one form of visible mending. Head over to our how to mend clothes article to learn more tips, tricks and techniques.
