Embroider, Mend and Sew:Creative storytelling through textile art

Master the art of storytelling through stitch and create your own deeply personal embroidered treasures, with innovative multidisciplinary artist Aitor Saraiba.

Using treasured fabrics and personal memories interwoven with embroidery, mending and natural dyeing, discover 12 contemporary projects designed to unlock your creativity.

In this sumptuous, inspiring guide, Aitor Saraiba invites makers of all skill levels to transform fabrics and threads into deeply personal, meaningful objects. Drawing on his childhood in La Mancha, where sewing was a vital thread in the fabric of community life, Aitor combines the philosophy of zero waste with contemporary design.

This book is a toolkit for self-expression, designed to help you slow down, look inwards and craft unique and deeply meaningful items. Discover:

• 12 stunning creative textile projects: follow step-by-step instructions to create scapulars, framed appliqué pieces, textile books and snippet rolls; for truly personal home décor, create warm, inviting pieces like mini throws, scatter cushions and a whimsical heart pincushion.
• Guidance on sustainable mending: embrace the beauty of repair. Learn the Japanese art of Boro to help you customize existing clothes, and turn ‘wear and tear’ into artistic expression.
• Natural dyeing made simple: a complete, approachable guide to creating your own dye palette using logwood, tea, onion and iron.
• Includes essential resources: featuring a curated guide to sewing materials and Aitor’s favorite stitches, plus full-scale templates.

Embroider, Mend and Sew strips away the illusion of ‘perfect’ crafting, encouraging you to use whatever is at hand to create something beautiful and meaningful.

This book is a translation from the best-selling Spanish title, Cose, zurce y borda. | Aitor Saraiba lives and works in a stone cabin in the valleys of Cantabria, northern Spain. He has been working in drawing, textile art and ceramics for two decades, and his work has been exhibited all over the world, from Los Angeles to Tokyo, including Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, Africa and several cities in Spain.
His textile work explores different traditional techniques and brings them into his own unique world. He has revived traditional wool-working processes with his flock of sheep, in the mountains where he lives, uses natural dyes with silver, and employs all manner of darning and mending techniques to create stunning, unique artworks.
In Embroider, Mend, and Sew, Aitor explores his textile process, wherein personal history and creativity intertwine.