I love boro stitching. I love the feel of pulling thread through cloth.  I love the 'rule-less-ness' of it, and the minimalism of it.

I love picking bits of cloth for their colours and textures and then stitching them together until I have a new big piece of fabric. 

Scrap fabrics, a needle, some thread, that's it. 

 

By rule-less-ness I mean there is no 'right' stitch length, no how-many or how-much or what-kind. (It's not a rule that the pieces must be stitched well enough to stay together, it just won't be boro or anything at all if they don't! :-D ) Stitching small pieces to a light backing fabric helps with this.

You can stitch in straight even spaced rows using the basic Sashiko (or running) stitch if you feel like it.

You can follow patterns in the fabric if you want. You can use +'s and X's and   >>> or #### or any combination of stitches as randomly as a doodle on paper.

You can stitch a lot or a little, turn raw fabric edges under or leave them raw. You can pre-plan your layout and colours, or not. Your boro, your preference!

Boro uses up the scraps of fabrics that you can't bear to throw away.

Boro stitching is often used for mending still usable clothing and house hold textiles,

and larger Boro fabrics can be used like whole cloth to cut and sew.

Or made large enough, they can become boro quilts.

For the curious among you, here is the back of this. I have used largish pieces of scrap fabrics to stitch the small pieces onto (and then stitched those together to get the size I want) and I haven't worried about how the back looks because I will cover it with a backing fabric.

 I hope you always enjoy your project making!

Kind regards,

Susan