At some point my eldest daughter bought some denim shorts for cheap at the charity shop. She wanted to try something with them which apparently involved making a hole. It didn't work out how she'd hoped, perhaps because it was a stretch fabric, and she went to throw them away. Me being me, I hung onto them for future use of the fabric, because they weren't very worn and the fabric was still in good condition. Then recently, a friend sent me an article on sashiko for visible mending. I immediately got excited, went to hunt through my box of old jeans to give it a go and came across those shorts. I knew they wouldn't fit my eldest any more and even if they did, she probably wouldn't like the visible mending style, so I got my youngest to try them on for size and they fit. She was in need of some new shorts, so that was a bonus!
Sashiko is a simplistic embroidery technique which uses a running stitch. It's a much faster hand stitching method than some of the more complex embroidery, but can achieve some quite striking patterns. It was commonly used, years ago, by the poorer Japanese to mend clothes, often multiple times. Today it's also used for decorative purposes.
I didn't want to start with something too complex, but I wanted something a little more interesting than basic. I decided on a grid pattern with crosses in a different colour. Ideally I'd have liked a different shade of denim for the patch, but because the fabric was stretch I felt it better to use a stretch patch and the only stretch denim I had was a matching shade. I pinned the patch in place behind the main hole, making sure it would also include a smaller hole above it. No point in tacking it in place, because that's what the sashiko stitching would do anyway.
The instructions on sashiko say to mark a grid out, but I thought I'd be okay doing it by eye with such a simple pattern. I quickly realised that I'd at least need to mark some lines for spacing.
As the pattern progressed I ran into a couple of problems. The first was that the elasticated threads going across kept pulling the hole in tight and making it awkward to keep the patch in place. So I cut the bulk of the threads out. The second problem was my overconfidence that I could do this by rack of eye. As the pattern progressed, small misjudgments earlier on became larger problems and by the time I was approaching the bottom I realised that if I continued, then the grid was going to look completely off.
There was no way I was going to unpick the lot, so I decided to stop the grid there and add a different embellishment to finish it off. The great thing about this is that it's a fun look, so it doesn't have to be perfect.
Starting the crosses
Almost there...
...and it's done!
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I love this idea. It looks great and I believe that I could do it as well. Thanks for sharing.
It's surprisingly effective looking for how simple it is. I'd just recommended drawing out the pattern you want to follow first.
I've never thought of this, never in a million years. It's classy.
Yes, me too! Yet when you see it, you wonder why you never thought of it.
This is amazing!!! I got a magazine for my birthday some days ago and it has the topic „sashiko“ I love this deep blue and white or the soft beige hues they use, but I still think it is far more complicated than you say 😂😂😂 YOur trousers mending turned out so beautiful and even if youthful your lines are not perfect, I find your design amazing. I especially love the crosses you stitched into the gaps where the white lines meet.
As I am a very impatient person, I hardly can imagine how you worked through this.
Love it.
In comparison to other embroidery, it is fairly simple, but it's still rather time consuming. I do it when I'm waiting for my daughter at gymnastics or watching tv. It likely took hours, but I enjoy keeping my hands busy and am at a bit of a loss once it's finished. I'm now about to start on my fourth pair of jeans.
I too like the soft, natural hues, but I also like that you can use brights and contrasts too.
Ooo just the other day, I remembered I had a Sashiko template cloth which I bought from Daiso some years back and was thinking to try it and poof, here you are, presenting your lovely Sashiko! It is so smart to use it to mend the hole of the jeans with it and the pattern looks amazing! I liked how you added the slanted lines at the bottom which makes it look like tassles and the crosses. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing @minismallholding!
Oh, exciting! I hope you'll share how you go with it.
I'm just drawing out a grid on another pair of jeans for a new sashiko pattern. It will be a little more complex, and I might do some additional alterations to them as well. They are a bit on the short side, so I'm thinking of adding some length and maybe making the straight leg, instead of boot cut.
Wow! This is so amazing! I have a lot of ripped pants that have been stocked in the closet for as long as I can remember. I don't have the heart to throw them away. But I can't think of a way to mend them as beautiful as this. I am so gonna try this! 😍😍😍
You sound like me. I find it so hard to throw any old clothes out, especially if I really liked them. I've just finished another pair of jeans that used to be favourites, but I thought were too full of holes to save. I'm looking forward to wearing them again.