A Stitch in Time

I'm teaching a workshop next month that focuses on the contemplative pleasures of "slow stitching". It's a way of honouring thousands of years of hand sewing, stitching, repairing, embroidering, and embellishing. Many of those women, and sometimes men, did not have the luxury of doing it for pleasure. They either had to patch, repair, and make do with clothing worn year after year, recycling or adjusting clothes for their growing children, or hire themselves out to spend countless hours of work making fine apparel for the very rich. Often considered women's work or domestic skills, the craft and beauty of it has often been overlooked.

A French dress from the 1770's. The sewing machine wasn't invented until 1851.

In a very rushed world, bombarded with audio and visual stimuli, it is very soothing to just sit and feel the texture of cloth beneath your fingers, to savor creating patiently and seeing pattern and texture emerging, to appreciate the history of a garment or piece of fabric and to give it new life and new beauty.

My focus for the workshop will be on the simple running stitch (and a few others), especially as used in Boro and Kantha techniques.

Boro: a repair technique from Japan.

https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/how-traditional-boro-clothes-mending/

Late 19th century kimono.

Kantha: a repair and repurposing technique from India

Kantha cloth, gently worn and repurposed.

https://www.shopdignify.com/pages/what-is-kantha

Here are some examples of each, little projects that I created for the workshop but that are slowly developing and growing. Each row of stitching gradually embeds the layers of fabric into each other, adding weight and strength, as well as integrating a variety of disparate pieces into a cohesive whole.

 This traditional hexagon flower was also pieced together by hand before being embedded into a background fabric. I might turn it into a tote bag. With enough dense stitching it should be able to hold a few groceries.

Silk, linen, and cotton fabrics, plus tulle net and a crocheted flower.

The beauty of this technique is that it is as simple and as basic as it can get. Needle, thread, some scraps of cloth, and your own hands. It can go anywhere. In an age of technology where a $5000 sewing machine can do all your work for you (it can do embroidery by pushing a button while you leave the room to get a cup of coffee) there is something satisfying for the soul in making something entirely by hand.

That doesn't mean it can't be combined with machine work. I have often combined both hand and machine stitching in one piece just to get a variety of of textures, lines, and details, and, frankly, it does speed those big projects on to the finish line.

My Heart Skipped a Beat

Almost finished. Some final quilting and binding to get it ready for a show this summer.

Another piece for a show coming up about the colour Red (detail)

  My sources and inspiration are these two books , and also the work of Mandy Patullo, Cas Holmes, and Jude Hill.

http://threadandthrift.blogspot.com/

http://casholmes.blogspot.com/

http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/