Why is Slow Stitching so popular?
Part of the slow movement that began with Slow Food, Slow Stitching is an opportunity to take a step back from the increasingly fast pace of live, take a deep breath, and centre ourselves in a creative activity.
While traditional stitching crafts offer the opportunity to create beautiful things, they can be very prescriptive in how they are done. This thread, these designs, that fabric. Slow stitching offers freedom to create beautiful things that are a unique expression of your creative spirit.
So, let’s look at some of the reasons that Slow Stitching has captured the crafting imagination and become so popular.
It is easy to start
You don’t need much in the way of equipment or materials to get started in Slow Stitching. A basic sewing kit is good to have. Backing fabric, which forms the foundation of your stitching, especially if they are not part of a garment or object, can be from an old sheet or pillowcase that was heading out the door. Likewise, scraps of fabric can be gleaned from old garments or fellow crafters. When I started slow stitching, I asked a quilting friend for offcuts and scraps that she would otherwise bin. And then there are the other things you can include, that usually have nothing to do with stitching at all.
Time is Yours
The size of a slow stitching project contributes to how long it will take to complete, but by the very nature of slow stitching, you don’t always know how many stitches you will need to get to the end of that piece. When making something for the sake of the process, you can take your time, pick it up and put it down as moments are available. Take it with you to fill those moments that might otherwise be taken up by a screen. Set yourself a timeframe, or don’t. It is up to you.
It doesn’t need to be useful, but it can be
Slow stitching, in its simplest form, is just hand sewing. You could make something useful, you could decorate something you already have, you could create a picture in stitches, or just practice stitches on a piece of fabric. It can be a private activity that is just for yourself, something to display in your home, a garment that you wear, or something that you gift to someone else. I started with tags. They are small. I practiced new stitches. Some of them are pretty, and some are just the stitch. Not very useful, unless you want to turn them into gift tags. Or you could stitch the smaller panels together to make a wall hanging or a journal.
So why would I start Slow Stitching?
By slowing down the pace of life, if just for a short time, you can give yourself the gift of relaxation. If you are new to stitching, or have spent most of your time in a particular branch of the craft, you can learn something new. If you add a little structure to your project, you can create something truly unique. Combining existing ideas and materials in new ways can reintroduce a sense of play that is so easy to lose. And once you have created something beautiful and uniquely yours, there is a sense of achievement that can be sparked each time you look at your work, whether you share that with someone else or not.
Watch our first Sashiko video on YouTube
We hope that you enjoy our series on How To Slow Stitch, and that it inspires you to pick up needle and thread, and join the creative journey.
Watch the first How to Slow Stitch video - Where do I Start? on YouTube