Summer is the time I break out the maker side projects, and often they are textile-related. Last year I made t-shirt yarn and braided rugs, and this year I’m improving my hand stitching. On the weekend I started with repairing a hole in a pair of Boris’ shorts using a piece of fabric and a straight stitch. I love how it turned out. The sugar skull fabric is the same one I used to make him a laptop case for Christmas.

Making the patch was a good warm up for getting back into Sashiko stitching, and it led me to finally get started on a project I’ve had in mind for months. I kept putting off starting it because I felt intimidated, but now I am OBSESSED!

I have this plain black skirt I bought more than fifteen years ago at a second-hand store in Halifax. I thought it would be interesting to embellish it with stitching. I am making up the design as I go along, working with various sized circles and red thread.

It’s going well so far, but I have a lot of work ahead of me because I want to embellish the entire bottom edge. I can hardly wait to finish and wear this! I have a feeling many more pieces of clothing are going to end up with decorative sashiko stitches.