Stitching Away at the Zero and Zen Jacket

It’s school holidays here, and sashiko stitching has begun in earnest on the grey jacket I’m making for Zero and Zen.

There’s still time to register for Zero and Zen. It’s a course I’m co-presenting with artist Kate Ward, where you’ll make your own minimal/zero waste jacket and add sashiko stitching for a beautiful and unique garment. The course costs US$147 and consists of step-by-step modules you can watch right away, and three zoom sessions with myself, Kate and everyone. As a special bonus, you get access to Kate’s sashiko stitch video library until the end of the year, worth over $500.

The first of these zoom sessions is this Friday (for North America)/Saturday (for Down Under), so if you’re thinking about joining, you’ll want to register before then.

So, I’m making a jacket to sew-a-long with everyone else, and I’ve had a good head start 🙂 The jacket is the hooded version of the very popular modular jacket from A Year of Zero Waste Sewing, which I’ve cut knee length.

This project has had a few false starts.

Originally the plan was to cut it from a pale pink wool blanket bought at an op shop years ago (Sue Stoney actually made one from a very similar blanket). I was going to do brown sashiko stitching, and line it with a beige-y pink spotty fabric. I was even organised enough to order some brown sashiko thread (in 100m skeins, for artistic freedom).

I went to cut the jacket from the blanket, and ran into problems. The blanket was only single bed size, and a hood obviously takes up more fabric than a collar, and the bald, hard reality was that there simply wasn’t enough fabric. There were other issues too:

So after messing around and wasting much time and energy, the blanket got abandoned and I remembered a bolt of grey wool flannel we had in the house. It’s about the feel and weight of school blazer fabric. I bought it years ago at a garage sale run by the Scouts – I could hardly get my money out quickly enough!!!

I dug out the grey and there was plenty to cut a long-line jacket. But what about the sashiko thread I’d ordered?! Brown wouldn’t do on grey. I phoned the thread place in a mild panic, and they were so helpful. The order had been packed but not sent, so I added some other colours that might go with grey (in 100m skeins, for artistic freedom).

For lining, I used a richly patterned cotton sateen from Spotlight, however there wasn’t enough for sleeves. No matter, I cut sleeve linings from turquoise satin.

The thread arrived, and I had a pleasant time umming and aahhing over what to do for the stitching.

The pattern I’m stitching is called Ganzezashi (sea urchin). I’ve never done it before, but Kate’s tutorial was very easy to follow.

I’m going quite conservative, and putting the stitching in a deep band around the hem, and maybe (?) around the wrists.

To be continued in the coming weeks….