Patching Clothes

I've been trying to get better about repairing things rather than replacing them. Sashiko, a form of embroidery originating in Japan, caught my eye a while back; I thought it would be a nice way to repair my clothing, particularly my jeans. (A quick search demonstrated I was far from alone in that thought!)

The style of sashiko I used in the first photo is called hitomezashi. It involves laying down long-running stitches over a grid drawn on the fabric. It seemed like it would be a better fit for the thick denim fabric than the other dominant style, moyōzashi, which uses much shorter running stitches.

Thick stitches in a komezashi pattern: x's on a diagonal, with stitches running vertically and horizontally between their centers, entering the fabric just a couple millimeters before those points. The pattern covers the knee area of my jeans, from seam to seam across the width of the front panel and six inches high. In the middle is a hole ringed in thick blue thread. Inside the ring, the denim switches from blue to black and the thread changes color from white to green.

I've also tried a more traditional western style; in the second photo, I used backstitches to create the outline of a mountain on a denim patch, folding over the edges of the patch and securing them with a blanket stitch, and then securing them to the fabric with a simple whip stitch using the same holes and following the same lines as the blanket stitch.

The outline of a mountain that may or may not be recognizable to someone, stitched as a single line with thick white thread onto a black denim patch. The patch is rimmed with a tidy blanket stitch in thick black thread and affixed to my blue jeans with a whip stitch that almost completely blends in with the blanket stitch.

It takes time, but it's a good way to get through some podcasts while also extending the life of your clothing in a way that may help others feel comfortable enough to do the same.

Page Created: 2024-12-04

Last Updated: 2024-12-04

Last Reviewed: 2024-12-04