Visible Mending the Boro Way

I always feel inadequate when I try to describe Boro to my students. I teach a class called “Visible Mending the Boro Way” in which I show students how to apply patches and mend garments. I try to insert a bit of Eastern thinking before we start the actual mending part of the program. Unfortunately I am not a student of Eastern (meaning Japanese mostly) culture and I tend to fumble around trying express Eastern thought in Western words. Boro as a concept has no translated word to American English and it’s hard for me to find a way to make it understandable. 

First let me clarify one thing: Sashiko and Boro are two different things but seem to have become interchangeable in today’s western idea of handwork. Sashiko is the embroidery technique developed to repair fabric, Boro is the repaired object. It is not only fabric, but it can be ceramics, furniture, tools, etc. Boro is translated to English as “ragged.”

Now the Western world looks at a repaired object as a sign of poverty meaning the owner is too poor to afford to buy something new. Western people also look at a mended object as a sign of a frugal lifestyle or someone that is being ecological and keeping things out of landfills. In Eastern thought, a repaired object is revered in a different way, but not as an Art object. It is elevated into a different category that we western people don’t have a word to describe. Though now a days historical Boro sells for a lot of money. Go figure.

I give my students this picture as an analogy. People tend to love a garment that fits well, or keeps you warm, or maybe just has the right amount of pockets you need to hold everything without carrying a bag. This attachment moves us to repair the garment over and over again. But we Westerners want to hide the mended places. A Boro piece celebrates the mend but not as a decoration (though the mend can be decorative). Boro does not hide the mended area. See where the confusion lies? You really have to twist your head around to understand the concept.

So I ask my students to put away the Western approach to mending and not just slap a patch over a hole on worn parts of a garment, but take a side step to the Eastern approach. They are giving new life to the garment or as I say in class, you are giving new bones to the piece by patching, reinforcing, or stitching over a place that has become threadbare through your loving use of the object.

Pattie is teaching “Visible Mending the Boro Way” at the Embroidery Extravaganza on Thursday, August 8th. If you have thread bare jeans, a hole in your favorite jacket, or a worn spot in your tote bag, all these can be the springboard for creativity. Mend your garments and accessories with simple embroidery and Sashiko stitches. Learn to do inside and outside appliqué along with other darning techniques using the running stitch, buttonhole stitch, and simple Sashiko stitches. Pattie will show you how to do the running stitch and basic embroidery stitches, along with Sashiko patterns, to give your clothes new life with eye popping details. Even if you have never sewn before, this class is for you.

Use the code "EE24PATTIE" to get $20 off the event at checkout!

...

Pattie Klimek has been quilting for 15 or so years and embroidering since she stitched a sampler as a child. Based in San Francisco, she is the one of the few Traditional hand piecers and hand quilters in a sea of Art and Contemporary quilters located in the Bay Area. She finally found some like minded quilters amongst the Dorcas Hand Quilters, a group that meets once a week to hand quilt at old fashioned frames. She blesses these ladies everyday for teaching her these time honored skills and is now traveling around the Bay Area lecturing and teaching so quilters can rediscover the joys of handwork.