Wabi Sabi Hot Water Bottle Cover and Book Review

My lovely friend Karen Lewis has produced this beautiful book, Wabi Sabi Sewing, and I am delighted to be one of the stops on her ‘book hop’ today.

The book, which is published by Sew and So, came out in August and I have been really enjoying exploring all the projects and finding out about Wabi Sabi.

Wabi Sabi is the Japanese ethos of finding the beauty in the ordinary, repairing rather than discarding and appreciating simple things and imperfections. This all makes for a relaxed and organic type of sewing which is perfect for Karen’s aesthetic style.

There are so many gorgeous projects in the book, from quilts to laundry bags.  Each of them seems to be very well considered and full of warmth and heart. There is plenty of meditative hand stitching including sashiko, applique, hand quilting and visible mending. The projects are all well explained with clear and visually pleasing illustrations, and fabulous styling. The whole book is a little oasis of calm and beauty.

It was really hard to pick a project for the book hop as I wanted to make so many! In the end I went for the ‘Heirloom Hugs’ hot water bottle cover.

I chose slightly brighter colours than in Karen’s original (which won’t surprise anyone!),   These are Kona Wasabi and Nectarine.  The front panel is a really striking design with tiny half square triangles.

I used Aurifil 12wt thread in a golden colour (5022) for the hand quilting, most of which I did in Sweden when I was away teaching recently.

Karen has her own Wabi Sabi Sewing Aurifil thread collection to go alongside this book, it contains a mixture of 50wt, 28wt, 12wt cotton and 12wt wool and the shades are a perfect accompaniment.  We have these in stock in our store online and in Edinburgh.

 

For the front I stitched close together lines and for the back I chose some random lines making a sort of plaid pattern.

I wouldn’t say I was a perfectionist at all but I do like very neat hand stitching and to try and make all my hand quilting stitches the same size.

But as this was wabi sabi I gave myself permisssion not to try so hard and to hand quilt in a very relaxed fashion.  Taking the pressure off myself definitely made stitching this a more meditative experience and it was perfect for my rest periods between teaching in Sweden.

I made my own ribbon tie (as Karen did in the book) using a Malka Dubrowsky fabric and I used some of Karen’s gorgeous Blueberry Park for the lining.

And then of course I couldn’t find our hot water bottle for photography!! So inside this is one of my Aurifil thread boxes!

This is such a beautiful piece, with so much character, that I think I will treat it to a new hot water bottle. I can’t wait to snuggle down with this now that ‘winter is coming’ 🙂

Sew and So have very kindly supplied a copy of Wabi Sabi Sewing for me to giveaway and I’ve added a little kit with all the fabric, thread and needles that you will need to make your own wabi sabi hot water bottle cover.  Head over to my instagram feed to enter!

And while you are there check out all the other stops on the book hop – there are so many inspirational makes! Go to Karen’s feed as she is sharing the ‘stop’ every day, and then head here to buy your own copy of Wabi Sabi Sewing!