Sashiko is a simple stitching technique from Japan. It requires a few tools to start without investing a fortune. It will provide the luxury time like meditation. What you need to start Sashiko are, a piece of fabric (or your garment), Sashiko thread, a Sashiko needle and a round dish shaped thimble. Although there is no restriction that you have to use tools for Sashiko, it is important to have good quality tools to get you rewarded
*Here is the article about my recommendation regarding tools
Sashiko requires you to invest a lot of time. We would like you to get the good result by using proper tools and supplies. In this article, I introduce what is a good needle for Sashiko.
Our Needle is available on our web store. It is a package comes with Sashiko thimble. If you use our needle, we strongly recommend using our thimble, as well.
A Good Sashiko Needle among so many choices.
There are many kinds of choices for needles in the market. Even limiting to Sashiko purpose, there are several types of Sashiko needles you can choose from. We are using the needle from a needle company with more than 100 years of its history in Japan, and specially designed for meet our standard to Sashiko stitching. Choosing our needle would be the easiest option, but here is a list of things you need to check when you pick a good Sashiko needle.
- Is needle sharp enough to stitch through several layers?
- Is needle strong enough to make many stitches? Sometimes we make more than 20 stitches at once.
- Is needle soft (flexible) enough to have many stitches at once?
- Is needle long enough to perform fast running stitch?
- Is the size of needle eye appropriate? Too small eye will damage the thread and too big eye will damage the fabric.
The size of the eye is one of the most important factors, yet not many people realize until they spend so much time in Sashiko. We recommend about 3 mm length and 1 mm width… just because it is the best suitable size for the Sashiko thread we use.
The most frequent question | the length of Sashiko Needle
One of the most frequent questions I get regarding Sashiko is the length of Sashiko needle. Because of many choices in the market, it seems like choosing “right” needle for each project matters a lot. The answer is simple. We, as Upcycle Stitches and Sashi.Co & Keiko Futatsuya, uses one size needle for every project we work on.
This size needle fits perfectly to most of people’s hand I have taught. It seems a long needle, but the length is necessary to use the Sashiko thimble appropriately.
I will introduce our Sashiko thimble in the next article. I hope we answered the concerns people have regarding Sashiko needles. If you have more questions, please feel free to leave the comment so I can follow up.