Shibori Circles

How to Stitch shibori Circles 

Last week, I hosted an Indigo Shibori Small Group Private Lesson at my home studio in Los Angeles. We had a fabulous group of guests, all with a serious affinity for textiles. At the workshop, I got a few questions about how to create stitched resist patterns, so I thought I would share a few with you today. 

When I first started working with Shibori, I worked to master 3 Basic Shibori techniques: Arashi, Itajime, and Kumo shibori. I mainly focus on those techniques at the workshops! Although, I get a lot of interest in the stitched pieces too. Later in my textile practice, I dove into Shibori stitch resist, such as mokume (wood grain) shibori.

To begin, I folded my fabric in half, although this would certainly work with the fabric open too. With the fabric folded in half, you get a symmetry to the piece. Then, I mark where I will be stitching. It is up to you, how far apart you space the curves. 

Later, you stitch along the lines as shown below. Stitching evenly produces, a uniform pleat whereas stitching at random creates some wavering and variation. When, you look at my final piece, you can probably tell where I have stitched evenly and where I let the stitching be more random. Next, you gather or pull up your stitches to form a pleat. 

Many of the stitched techniques, I learned by reading online while others, I learned from the book Stitched Shibori by Jane Calendar. 

Below, you can see my circle piece has a symmetric quality due to the fabric being folded prior to the stitching. I masked the edges of the piece off with plastic wrap to prevent them from being dyed. This piece was on cotton linen and I created it custom for a client in another state. 

We used Framebridge to have it float framed and shipped directly the the client. I am looking forward to seeing this beauty up on the wall!  

I will host one additional Shibori Small Group Private lesson this year and one large group indigo and madder dyeing session in November. Details for both events are coming soon! 

Please make sure to join my mailing list if you would like to be notified about all future events. 

To continue learning about the art of Shibori, you might enjoy these additional posts. 

• Shibori Textile Design Basics 
• 3 Simple Shibori Techniques
• Shibori and Indigo Resource Guide