Workshop: Sashiko with mai ide

Join artist mai ide, a visual artist based in Portland, OR, for a relaxing day of Sashiko stitching — not just to learn a technique, but to explore cultural significance. This workshop invites you into the world of traditional Japanese mending, where each stitch carries stories of sustainability, resilience, and healing. This is more than a craft workshop — it’s a space to reflect, connect, and embrace vulnerability. As we mend fabric, we also mend ourselves, contributing to the holistic well-being of our planet and our communities. A mindful workshop exploring Japanese mending as cultural practice and emotional repair. We will make a coaster or patch, learn one of traditional Sashiko patterns, and reclaim a slow, meditative hour of care for yourself and the planet. GO down to the book!

Materials Provided:

• cotton thread
• vintage Japanese rough plain woven cotton fabric
• needle
• Shashiko needle
• paper
• ruler
• scissors
• erasable ink
• fabric marker or tailor’s chalk

Participants are also encouraged to bring their own clothes to be repaired to enhance the personal themes of the workshop.

About Sashiko:

Sashiko (刺し子) is a traditional Japanese embroidery and stitching dating back to the Edo period (1615 –1868). It was first developed among working-class people, farmers, and fishermen to mend their daily clothes and clothing. Through Sashiko, they could make garments stronger, more durable, and last longer. They kept mending in this way and passed techniques down from generation to generation. As such, Sashiko is one of the oldest traditional Japanese upcycling techniques. Artist Mai Ide finds a confluence between mending fabric and repairing emotional intimacy, loneliness, and fragility. Her workshop is a space for participants to eliminate lingering trauma and reframe our society for deeper emotional communal bonds and authentic humanity which we have forgotten.

About the Instructor:

mai ide is an artist from Tokyo, now based in Portland, OR. Her multidisciplinary art investigates her own cultural intersectionality and deep ambivalence as an immigrant, mother, and woman. As a non-native speaker of English, ide’s practice is expressing discomfort of being classified or perceived by society as an “other” or “forever foreigner” in the U.S. ide's use of salvaged fabric and Sashiko stitches conveys their simultaneous vulnerability, fragility, and ferocity under a constrained, violent, and volatile society. ide holds a BFA in Art Practice from Portland State University (OR) and an MFA in Visual Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, as well as degrees in sewing, pattern making, and textile design in Japan, where she worked for twelve years as a material designer. Their previous exhibitions and performances include the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Kyoto in Japan, and Jordan Schnitzer Museum in Oregon.

Learn more:

This workshop is brought to you through collaboration with the Japanese Cultural Center.

This project is partially supported by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.

The International Museum of SurgicalScience acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.

Also check out other Workshops in Chicago, Arts events in Chicago, Exhibitions in Chicago.