Flower Circle – Hitta-gake

The first time I used hitta-gake (tie die effect) was on Suehiro. I used white silk to stitch the best foundation I had done so far and when I realised what I would do to that foundation I nearly cried. As it turned out, I enjoyed stitching hitta-gake and was reasonable pleased with my first attempt.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

I next used hitta-gake on the Shibori Samurai on Flutterbies. That time I was not so pleased with my foundation layer but I felt that the hitta-gake was executed better. On both of these designs the hitta-gake has a white foundation on a white ground fabric. I have always thought that it might be more effective on a dark background.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

Hitta-gake features a lot in Kusano-san’s designs. Sometimes she uses the stitched version and sometimes she appliqués kanoko shibori fabric onto her ground fabric. I decided to fill the two outline flowers with hitta-gake as homage to Flower Circle’s designer.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

I began with a flat white silk foundation using 2 strands to ensure good coverage of the ground fabric.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

For the hitta-gake I choose a silk that matched the ground fabric as closely as possible. I wanted the finished effect to give the impression that kanoko shibori had been died into the fabric.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

The JEC use two stitches in the centre of each lattice to represent the dot that is characteristic of kanoko. Kusano-san does this in a few different ways but she very often uses a sagara-nui (Japanese round knot) for the dot and I choose to do mine that way. I am still a bit hit and miss with sagara-nui but I think I am getting better and this gave me a fair amount of practice at them.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching