Fix your clothes with sashiko mending

Spruce up your wardrobe with sashiko stitches! Learn all about the ancient art of sashiko mending and embrace slow living.

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Phoebe Burt

Published: July 5, 2023 at 7:56 am

Sashiko mending is a beautiful, ancient technique that originated in Japan. Sashiko stitching is the art of mending your clothes, fixing or reinforcing them through small running stitches.

These small stitches are simple yet stunning and are not only decorative but practical too. Sashiko mending can be used to fix up clothes, either by reinforcing patched fabric or covering marks and stains.

In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to do sashiko mending with three simple items. White thread, a needle, and a patch of fabric. This technique will allow you to mend your broken items as well as giving them some extra detail!

You can use whatever fabric you like. Why not use a spare fat quarter? Or raid your fabric stash for a fun scrap? You can also use whatever coloured thread you like for sashiko mending. Traditionally white is used but you can use whatever colour suits you, your style and your garment best.

Let’s get mending!

How to do sashiko mending

You will need:

  • The garment you're fixing
  • Scrap piece of fabric bigger than your hole/tear
  • Tailors chalk
  • Scissors
  • Pins
  • Thread
  • Needle

Step 1

Tidying up your rip

How to do sashiko mending – Step 1

Tidy up the ripped part of the jeans with a pair of embroidery scissors. You can also use sewing scissors for this task.

Remove any long fraying threads, creating an even tear ready for you to patch up.

Step 2

Create your patch

How to do sashiko mending Step 2

Cut a small piece of scrap fabric in a slightly larger size than the tear in the jeans.

Place the fabric right side (RS) up behind the tear and keep it in place with a few pins.

If you want to learn more about creating patches head over to our how to sew a patch tutorial.

 

Not a fan of patches?

You don’t have to add a patch to your clothes when sashiko mending. Learn how to sew a hole instead then add your sashiko stitch on top or around your closed hole!

 

Step 3

How to do sashiko stitching

How to do sashiko mending Step 3

With the tailor’s chalk, draw tiny dots all around the tear, as shown.

Keep an even space between the dots.

Step 4

How to do sashiko mending – Step 4

Thread the needle with embroidery thread and insert it from the inside of the jeans, coming up approximately 0.5cm (¼") from the top of one of the dots.

Using the dots as a guideline, stitch small straight stitches to create cross shapes, as shown.

These stitches will keep the patch on the inside of the jeans in place and are known as sashiko stitches!

We go into more depth about this specific stitch in our how to do sashiko embroidery tutorial.

Step 5

How to do sashiko mending

Once you’ve finished adding sashiko stitches on to all of the dots, tie a knot at the end of the embroidery thread and fasten off.

Remove the pins.

Embrace the ancient art of sashiko mending

Sashiko mending is not only a beautiful, practical way of fixing your clothes. It’s also a meditative, mindful activity that helps you to appreciate your garments and give them some extra love.

Take your time and relax in the art of sashiko mending. Once you’ve got to grips with the technique we promise you’ll want to add it to everything!

Start your sustainable fashion journey with Gathered

Sashiko mending is just one form of visible mending.

Head over to our how to mend clothes article to learn more tips, tricks and techniques.

visible mending

Phoebe Burt

SEO and Communities Editor, Gathered

Phoebe has worked for Gathered, and our sister magazine Mollie Makes, for 3 years. She manages our Arts & Crafts section and specialises in social media and content strategy. She has a background in all things marketing, a flair for Pinterest and a knack for finding the next big craft trend. Previously she worked as Digital Campaign Executive for Fat Media. You may recognise her name from Mollie Makes Social Media magazine, where she shared her expertise and top tips on becoming social media savvy. She has two passions in life - craft (specifically embroidery) and music. She's written for online music publications including Bristol in Stereo, Culture or Trash and Festival Mag so if you're looking for a new band recommendation she's the one to ask.
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