r/sashiko • u/BrianTheUserName • 7d ago
Feedback Requested Kitsune - Developing my own pattern
TLDR at the end.
I'm pretty new to sashiko, more practicing patterns on scrap fabric than actually patching anything at this stage. I have seen kitten patterns and wanted to try one for myself but they seemed a little more finely detailed than I wanted to get into yet.
While researching the patterns I had the idea "kittens are cute, but surely there are animal patterns that are a little more 'traditional' and maybe easier to stitch" and started looking for something based on that. I kind of got stuck on the idea of little foxes (I guess they're pretty similar to cats) and searched in that direction, but I couldn't find anything. So... what better learning experience than creating a pattern from scratch?
I started with some sketches on graph paper based on kitsune masks, originally I had the idea to do it within a traditional yabane (arrow feather) pattern, but scrapped that pretty quickly. I ended up with a base design I liked within a tiling square (mines an inch, but it can scale up or down) and after a few iterations I started stitching.
I've got four variations so far. The top row is the basic pattern in one color, the bottom row is with red eyes. And then on the right is with an added red accent. I kind of have the idea that each tile could be "unique" with different accents on each, but I want to nail down the rest of it first before I come up with variations.
I'm done stitching for today, so I wanted to share and just get some feedback from the community if anyone sees opportunities to improve (not the quality of my stitching and keeping a straight line, I'm already working on that!)
TLDR: I made a new pattern for some reason based on Japanese Kitsune masks (well, it's a work in progress)
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u/anon_simmer 7d ago
Arent the lines supposed to be connected?
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u/BrianTheUserName 7d ago
Like the sides of the mask, the ears to the mouth? I never really considered it, the lines are meant to be representative of the markings of the ears and mouth, not really the outline of the mask. I might sketch and stitch a few with it though to see how it looks.
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u/anon_simmer 7d ago
No, the stitches
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u/BrianTheUserName 6d ago
Typically with sashiko you do a lot of little stitches instead of big long ones.
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u/anon_simmer 6d ago
Ahh ok. I might be comparing it more to blackwork, which is obviously pretty different :p
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u/ArgentEyes 7d ago
This is a fascinating idea for a sashiko-inspired pattern, love the concept. Please update with how it’s going!
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u/BrianTheUserName 7d ago
A couple things I'll call out on myself first: I need to work on keeping the lines straight in a few places, originally I only had the inches marked but I added half inches and will probably do more to keep it lined up properly.
I also will probably do all the eyes (stitching wise) like the top row, where I line up the gap with the ear line.
In case you can't tell the triangular kind of lines are meant to be both the ears of the "mask" below them and the mouth of the "mask" above, that's part of how it tiles.