Tulips

The modern Japanese sashiko pattern tulips チューリップ means, surprisesurprise: "tulips."

The pattern is made up of straight vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines. There are moyōzashi versions that go by the same name, but this one is categorized into hitomezashi.

Meaning of the sashiko pattern tulips

Like many modern patterns, tulips is completely free of any culture-induced meanings.

But many stitchers attribute the meaning of the flower to the pattern. In this case the pattern means "caring" or "charity."

Stitching directions for the sashiko pattern tulips in 12 steps

If you want to draw the tulip sashiko pattern yourself, I recommend the following supplies:

1. Washitape
2. a long ruler with a grid on it
3. heat-erasable pens
4. a piece of fabric
5. a cutting mat
6. the tulip sashiko pattern as a visual aid (you can download the pattern at the bottom of the page)

Feel free to check my recommended products for transferring the pattern.

Step 1

Tape the fabric to your cutting mat. If you don't have any tape, you can use weights to pin the fabric in place.

If you have a cutting mat, try to align the fabric to the grid, it will help you get straight lines.

Step 2

Draw the outline of your pattern, if possible use a lighter color for these lines.

Step 3

Draw dots on your outline to help keep your lines straight.

Step 4

Draw the horizontal lines of your pattern. It doesn't matter in which sequence, go for what's easiest for you.

Step 5

Fill in the horizontal lines. It's easier if you turn your cutting mat by 90 degrees.

Step 6

You can fill in the remaining horizontal lines, but they are not really necessary, as the vertical lines already tell you where the stitches will go.

So instead, we fill in diagonal lines. To not get confused, I do this in a different color.

These lines tell me exactly where the tip of the tulip ends. You can see in the top right corner of the photo below where the diagonal lines of the tulip starts and ends.

If you want more support, you can fill in these lines, but if you use a palm thimble, your lines should end up being straight anyway.

Step 7

If you use different colors for the petals and the leaves, start by filling in either the vertical or the horizontal lines for the leaves.

Step 8

Fill in the other direction next.

Step 9

Next, fill in the diagonal lines of the leaves.

If you want to keep the left side neat and you are using two layers, hand the thread over to the next stitch between the two layers.

That get you to this point:

Step 10

In this step, fill in the horizontal or vertical stitches of the petals.

Step 11

Fill in the other direction next.

Step 12

Fill in the diagonal petal stitches next. Here, too, I recommend you hand over the thread in between the two layers.

You finished the Tulip pattern! Hooray!!

If you stitch this pattern, I'd be thrilled if I could see and maybe share your result. Tag me with #stitchesontherun or send me an email: stitchesontherun at gmail.com!

One tulip on my pattern is different. Have you noticed?