Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art

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You don’t know what you might make, other than some type of textile fabric art. Your finished piece might be a textile collage, a piece of embroidery, a journal cover – or it might be something totally unexpected that blurs the lines between what exactly it is – that’s okay! You Can Embrace Your Imperfections This is another slow stitch project perfect for a journal cover – this one is colorful with lots of wonky crazy stitches! Recently I’ve fallen in love with a new creative practice called slow stitching, and it fits so well with journal making I decided to start a whole new category here on Artjournalist just for textile arts.

I suggest that you continue this first piece with simple running stitch, before adding in other stitches. This means that you’ll learn the quietness of the doing, rather than worrying about how to do other stitches. I know that once you start on this piece you’ll be looking for all the fabrics and threads to use. Kitchen Towels - A kitchen towel requires the bare minimum of materials to make. It's also the perfect medium to showcase your embroidery. Add embellishments or leave it plain: the choice is yours. In Japan ‘Boro’means ‘rags’ or ‘tattered cloth’ which is patched and often held together with simple runningstitches called Sashiko.One of the joys of slow stitching is that you don't have to begin with any specific sort of project in mind. Neither are you confined to any particular medium. You could knit, crochet, embroider, quilt, or even combine them all together. When we sit with our slow stitching we are able to connect head, hands and heart to mend ourselves in this world. To create a thread of connection between others doing similar things, or consider people around the world who have been doing hand stitch work for centuries. The history of our fabrics, the fabric of our lives becomes more tangible to more we sit with our slow stitching.

But if you've spent a lifetime working with set rules and towards specific goals, going into a task without any end in mind can be daunting. Slow stitch is a branch of the Slow Movement, which advocates a return to pre-industrial techniques and gradual processes that provide quality and personal value to objects. It is about slowing down and creating from a sustainable balance; about reusing; about doing things as well as possible and not as fast as possible; about savoring time, not counting it. I’ve even been able to do a couple of slow stitching projects in bed. I set up a couple of bins, one with fabric and one with sewing supplies like needles and thread – and I can stitch away happily and easily clean up when I’m done. For me, the art of slow stitching is all about just intuitively letting the creative process flow…I don’t worry about following a pattern, or having perfectly cut pieces, I even let raw unfinished edges hang loose. When you make a quilt the usual way, you need to plan meticulously. You're working towards a defined outcome and more often than not, you'll be using a particular motif or theme.

If you haven't yet heard about slow stitching, then you're about to. After spending the past couple of years building up a quiet following, slow stitching is set to go mainstream. This is where I have to come in and say while I LOVE sewing…I am just not very talented at it. I can sew a straight stitch, and that’s about it! {Sometimes my stitching isn’t even straight!} But that’s what is great about slow stitching – if you love the process that’s enough to enjoy it! You don’t need a lot of fancy supplies to get started – you can use some old fabric scraps or if you don’t have any fabric yet, a lot of shops sell fat quarters super cheap which is a great way to build a stash. Another nice advantage of slow stitching is it’s portable and well suited for travel, especially if you’re sewing by hand. You can bring an English paper piecing project almost anywhere, and you can certainly embroider with minimal supplies in tow. Does that sound familiar to my philosophy on what is art journaling? Of course it does…no wonder I love slow stitching so much! Example of a Slow Stitch Journal Cover

I define slow stitching as a mindful needlework process that focuses on intention and the joy brought from creating – not so much the final result of the piece itself. Feel free to pour yourself a cup of tea, light some candles or diffuse your favorite essential oils to set the space for mindful stitching. You don’t have to have the perfect setup or even a studio – the important thing is you are comfortable and can be intentional in the stitching process.

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I’ve been able to successfully set up slow stitching on my couch in the living room and in my bed, even if the bed isn’t the most ideal place to work! Your creation can be kept on you all the time as it is very portable and taken out to use when otherwise you might have turned to electronic devices which can make you anxious – so slow sew on the train, the plane, at the doctors, whenever and wherever you want. Slow stitching lets you put your inner critic on mute. You're not working towards a particular end goal. Whatever you end up with doesn't matter. Providing you enjoy the process of creating, you've achieved what you set out to do. You Can do it Anywhere

One of the things I love about slow stitching is it doesn’t have to be any specific sort of project or even a specific medium. You could quilt, embroider, knit, crochet – or perhaps even combine a bit of all your favorite needlework and textile arts. Step 1: Gratitude for Supplies & Materials As the interest in slow stitching has grown, so have the number of books on the subject. If you want to find out more about the joys of slow stitching, the following books come highly recommended. Claire Wellesley-Smith: Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile ArtMy adventures in sewing other projects have not been so enjoyable. I’ve tried quilting several times over the past years. Cutting exact measurements, precision and those darn scant 1/4″ seams are all things you’ll never have to worry about again when you embrace slow stitching, which is why I think I like it so much! Slow Stitching is an emerging technique which is influenced by an era when we wish to recycle/upcycle old fabrics and learn how to enjoy theprocessas much, if not more than, the outcome. I like to think of slow stitching as the “art journal” of the sewing world – it’s a great place to practice, explore, and experiment with different ideas and learn new techniques.