Kantha Stitched Patches

Kantha is an Indian style of stitching which fuses fabrics together. It can be used for mending or decorating fabrics. Here we are using the stitching style to make denim patches that can then be used to mend, or up-cycle your clothes.

These are the instructions included with our Kantha Stitching Patch Kit (available from THE SHOP). You could recreate the kit contents from items that you alrady have, and use this article as a guide to getting started. If you wish to purchase one of our kits as a gift for a friend, or for yourself, please follow the menu to our shop and we will be delighted to send one to you.

Contents:

• Denim fabric to use as backing

• Small pieces of fabric

• Embroidery thread

• Needles

You will also need:

• Scissors

• Sewing pins

• Stick of glue

This kit will guide you through making one large or several small kantha-stitched patches which you can use to mend garments, as embellishments for clothing or accessories or put in a frame and display around your home.  There is no right or wrong way to make your patch(es) and the important thing is to have some fun.

Useful information

All our fabrics, threads and embellishments have been rescued from local charity shops and the Gloucestershire Resource Centre and Scrapstore: (http://www.grcltd.org/scrapstore.html).  Nothing has been bought new.  All fabrics have been laundered in an unscented, non-bio washing liquid and pressed.

Your kit contains two skeins of six-strand embroidery floss which can be split to provide any combination of strands for stitching.  For embroidery, it is customary to use two strands, but for mending the choice is yours. The only constraint is that the thicker the thread, the harder you may find it to pull the needle through the two layers of fabric, so you may find it easier to stick to three or four strands.  Alternatively, you could invest in some needle-pullers to help get the needle through the fabric.

When cutting thread for sewing, try to cut a length no longer than the distance from your elbow to fingertip.  Anything longer and you will find it starts to knot and tangle, which can be terribly frustrating.

Don’t immediately throw away your fabric offcuts or thread snippings.  Larger pieces of fabric can be used to make boro or kantha style patches while small pieces and threads can be used for stuffing toys/pincushions etc.  By saving your snippings, you’re keeping them out of landfill and preventing dyes from leeching into the ground water.

Making a patch:

Decide whether you would rather make one piece or cut up the denim fabric to make several smaller patches.

If you want to cut up the denim, do that first.

Next, look through your smaller fabric scraps and decide if you want to use coordinating, contrasting or clashing colour combinations.  Use scissors to cut strips or shapes from the scraps; perhaps you want to make a feature of a particular design, or maybe you’d prefer a more eclectic mix of prints.

Once you half a dozen or so pieces, lay out the denim fabric, right side facing up, and start laying the fabric pieces over it in an overlapping design.  This is your chance to have a really good play with different combinations of shapes, colours, and textures.  Try to leave a margin of around 1cm around the edge of the fabric, like a frame (this will give you space to stitch on the patch later).

When you are happy with the way your patch looks, you can pin the scraps in place, or use a small dab of glue to hold each scrap down.  Remember to pin or stick down the bottom pieces down first before attaching those that overlie them.

Now it’s time to start stitching.

Thread your needle and tie a knot at the end of the thread.  Bring your needle up from the back of the denim fabric close to the corner of the first fabric scrap on the top right-hand side of the patch (or top left if you are left-handed) and pull the thread through the denim and the fabric.  Work a straight(ish) row of running stitch from right to left across the top of the patch.  The stitches do not need to be particularly even, but you do need to make sure that they go through each fabric scrap to hold it in place.

At the end of the row try to bring your needle down in the top corner of the last scrap (you may have to adjust your stitch length to make this work) and pull the thread through. Run your thumb and forefinger along the line of stitching to even it out and ensure there are no puckers.

Bring your needle up and through both denim and fabric scrap about 0.5cm directly below the last stitch and stitch another line of running stitch parallel to the line above.  Try to match each stitch from the row above, but there’s no need to be too exact – this is meant to be a fun creative exercise, and no one is going to check closely.

Continue stitch parallel rows of running stitch down the patch until you reach the bottom of the scrap arrangement at one of the bottom corners. Bring your needle through to the reverse of the patch, tie off, weave any long ends in and snip off any excess.

Congratulations! You have now made a totally unique stitched patch.  Sit back and admire your handiwork.

Options

Instead of working so that all the stitches align like a tower of books, you could offset each row of stitching so that the line of stitches below corresponds with the gaps between stitches in the row above, like bricks in a wall.