To finish the back of my jacket, I needed to decide what pattern to stitch on the remaining back panel. I wanted it to have a similar look to the panel on the other side.

I drew another grid to help me with the design; it is a 2cm grid, again drawn with a Frixion pen. I used an egg cup to make the semi circular shapes.

The initial long oval shape I drew can be done in a portrait or landscape orientation, and it can be left like this if using a smaller grid, for example 1cm, and a smaller item to aid with drawing semi circles. I repeated the design in the opposite direction with the egg cup, and now it looks completely different.

The design has a tessellating feel to it, and I think it does look very effective; hopefully you can see this in the stitched pattern. I have taken the design up to the back yoke to match the other side. I have added some further stitching to the earlier patterns I made on the back yoke – two further circles stitched along with a pattern development on the completed circles.

Both side panels together, showing the different patterns achieved with a grid and a pen!

Extra stitching, and another couple of circles to the back yoke.

Again, I have used a variety of embroidery floss to stitch the design, and I feel that both sides compliment each other very well. Some of these patterns do look complicated to sew, but are really just a wavy line, and stitched on the diagonal. The tricky bit is where the lines meet, or cross over.

The inside of the stitched area is not too untidy, so I will leave it for now while I think about it for a little longer. I may add some lining to the yoke area especially, and I will probably sew that to the seams.

I will probably add more stitching to the jacket as time goes on, mainly to the front yokes, but I feel that it is fine for now, and time to look towards something else.

I am really glad that I made the decision to do some stitching on this jacket. I am having second thoughts about whether I should have used just one colour to stitch, but this is not classic sashiko, it is just some decorative stitching in the style of sashiko. I wear it out too.

My photos have turned out a little better I think? They look ok on here as I am typing this, and inserting them into the text, but what they will look like when posted is another story. Probably huge again. Pale denim with some stitching on does not make for good photography I feel. One photo looks a little blurred as I am writing this, but that may possibly be due to the remnants of the ‘seasonal cold’ that I have had for the last 2 weeks, but I am gradually recovering.