Seigaiha on Save Our Oceans

I had this beautiful fat quarter of Natural History Museum fabric, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. It was only after stencilling on a wave pattern that I noticed the link in the subject matter between the sashiko stitching and the print. The further I worked down the fabric, the more I left gaps for the animals to ‘swim’ through the waves.

At the moment, I’m planning on mounting it on a board to display, but that may change in the future. The markings are heat erasable, and made using a stencil.

I plan to improve my draughtsmanship and become less reliant on stencils.

Fabric fat quarter
Sashiko stencil
Heat-erasable pen
Long sashiko needle
Indigo sashiko cotton

Order of work:

Selection of fabric and stencil pattern
Marking up with erasable marker
Choosing indigo cotton for stitching
Stitching, with more spacing for animals near the bottom (reflects how little we know about the ocean depths)

Next: consider whether to pink or seam edges, iron to smooth out fabric and remove markings, attach to board and/or frame behind glass.