Susutake (煤竹) means Smoked Bamboo. Smoked bamboo is a warm brown to black range of colour that bamboo turns when being exposure to smoke over many years. The black warp and brown weft combined with the open weave and the slub texture to create a similar colour.
This is my first choice for visible mending especially for jeans and work shirts. It is durable, machine washable, and has a slightly coarse country-cloth texture that goes well with denim.
The slightly coarse woven texture and complex colour also make this fabric a good choice for cottage-style decor, bags, and relaxed shirts.
Further, if you like the look of country cloth style Sashiko stitching, this is the fabric to choose! Try stitching it with the Olympus 20 meter sashiko threads, then wash your sashiko stitched fabric and enjoy how it gets more beautiful as the fabric and thread fibres bond together. This interaction between the fabric and stitching thread is what makes a sashiko stitched project into an evolving piece of textile art, growing more beautiful over time.
Three traditional weaving techniques combine to create it's distinctive appearance:
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Slub cotton is a cotton fabric made from intentionally uneven yarns containing thicker sections called slubs. These irregularities create a textured, breathable fabric with a natural, relaxed appearance.
- Yarn-dyed fabrics have their yarn dyed before it is woven into cloth. This produces richer colour and better colourfastness.
- Shot cotton fabrics have the warp made of one colour yarn, and the weft from a second colour. The result can range from subtle to surprising, depending on the tightness of the weave and the contrast between the warp and weft colours.
In this fabric these techniques combine to produce this medium-weight woven cotton with complex colour and the texture and appearance of a vintage country cloth.
Note: In the first washing slight shrinkage may occur, and the surface texture will develop a little more. I have included photos to show this fabric unwashed, washed, then sashiko stitched and washed again. The pieces were dried in regular heat in the dryer between washings.
Ordering Fabric from the Bolt
Fabric is 44" wide, sold in 10-inch increments.
- Quantity 1 = 10" × 44"
- Quantity 2 = 20" × 44"
- Quantity 3 = 30" × 44"
- Quantity 4 = 40" × 44"
Multiple quantities will be cut as one continuous length.
