Choosing fabric for kinusaiga

The short answer

Use thin, tightly woven, non-stretch fabric, and above all 100 % cotton quilting fabric. Scraps are enough. Keep thick or textured fabrics (felt, velvet, corduroy) for a few accent pieces, and leave knits, fleece and loose weaves out entirely.

Why it matters: every groove has to take two layers of fabric, one from each side, folded down into a slit about 1/8 in (3 mm) deep. Thin fabric folds into it neatly and stays put. Thick fabric fills the groove, bunches, and pushes its neighbour out.

Quilting cotton: the best all-rounder

Quilting cotton is the plain-weave 100 % cotton sold by the yard in quilt shops and fabric stores. It is close to ideal for kinusaiga:

• Thin, so two layers fit in one groove.
• Tightly woven, so the cut edges barely fray while you push them around.
• It holds a crease. Once tucked, it stays tucked, and the surface stays smooth and taut.
• No stretch along the straight grain, so shapes don't distort.
• Endless colours and prints, and most quilters already have a stash.

Cotton shirting, cotton lawn and poplin work just as well, and are even thinner, which helps on patterns with lots of small pieces. Polyester-cotton blends are fine too, though they hold a crease a little less well.

Fat quarters, charm packs and scraps

Kinusaiga uses small pieces, so you never need fabric off the bolt. The pre-cuts sold for quilting are perfect:

• Fat quarter (about 18 x 22 in, 46 x 56 cm): more than enough for any one colour on an 8 x 8 in board, including a full background. One fat quarter will serve several pictures.
• Fat eighth (about 9 x 22 in): still enough for a large piece on an 8 in board.
• Charm squares (5 x 5 in, 12.7 cm): ideal for medium and small pieces. A pack gives you dozens of coordinated fabrics, which makes choosing colours easy.
• Mini charms (2 1/2 in) and jelly roll strips (2 1/2 in wide): perfect for small details, stripes and thin pieces.
• Your scrap bin: the real kinusaiga fabric store. A piece the size of your palm covers most shapes.

Prints, solids, batiks and hand-dyes

Solids give the cleanest, most graphic look and make the lines of the design stand out. Small-scale prints (tiny florals, dots, blenders, tone-on-tone) read as texture from a distance and add life without breaking up the shape. They are the quilter's secret weapon for kinusaiga.

Large prints are trickier: a big motif gets chopped by the shape and you may only see a random slice of it. Use them on big pieces, or fussy cut them: place a template over the fabric so a chosen flower or motif lands exactly in the middle of the piece.

Batiks are usually more tightly woven than standard quilting cotton, so they fray even less, and their mottled colour is wonderful for skies, water, foliage and sunsets. Hand-dyed and ombre fabrics do the same job: cut a sky piece so the colour shifts from top to bottom, and the picture gains depth for free. They are the obvious choice for landscape patterns.

With directional prints (stripes, plaids, wood grain, text), decide which way the pattern should run before you cut, and keep it consistent between neighbouring pieces.

Silk and kimono silk

Kinusaiga means "silk colour picture", and traditional pieces in Japan are made with silk, often from old kimonos. Silk is thin and lustrous, so it tucks into very fine grooves and catches the light beautifully. It also has real drawbacks for a beginner:

• It is slippery, so it slides out of place while you tuck. An adhesive sheet on the board solves most of this.
• It frays quickly at cut edges. Cut margins a little wider and trim just before the last tuck.
• It is thin and sometimes translucent: the pink or blue of the foam can show through pale silk. Use an adhesive sheet or a layer of white cotton underneath.

Kimono silks vary a lot. Smooth habotai-like silks are the thinnest; crepe (chirimen) has a pebbly texture that grips better and hides small imperfections. Try silk once you are comfortable with cotton, ideally on a Japanese-themed pattern.

Linen, velvet, corduroy and felt

Textured fabrics are lovely as accents: one or two pieces where texture means something, in a picture made mostly of cotton.

For all thick fabrics: cut the grooves around them a little deeper, up to 1/4 in (6 mm), trim the margin narrow (1/8 in, 3 mm) before the final tuck, and try not to put two thick fabrics in the same groove. Next to a thin cotton neighbour, they fit fine.

Fabrics to avoid

• Knits and jersey (T-shirts, leggings): they stretch and curl as you push them, so shapes distort and edges roll out of the grooves.
• Fleece and minky: thick, stretchy and spongy. They fill the groove on their own.
• Very loose weaves (burlap, gauze, loose linen, open-weave sweater fabric): threads pull out and the piece unravels in the groove.
• Very thick fabrics (heavy denim, canvas, upholstery fabric, coat wool): they don't fold into a 1/8 in groove.
• Sheer fabrics (organza, chiffon): they show the board through, and they slide.
• Vinyl, faux leather, sequins: they won't fold cleanly and can tear the foam.

Washing, ironing and starch

Pre-washing is optional. A kinusaiga is never washed, so shrinkage and colours that bleed are not a concern. Unwashed quilting cotton still has its factory finish, which makes it slightly crisper and less likely to fray: many makers prefer it.

Ironing is not optional. Creases and fold lines are very visible once fabric is stretched over the foam. Press every piece before you cut it. For silk and very thin or floppy fabrics, a light spray of starch or starch alternative makes them crisper, easier to cut accurately, and easier to tuck.

How much fabric you need

Each piece needs its shape plus about 1/4 in (6 mm) on every side for the tuck. On an 8 x 8 in (20 x 20 cm) board, the biggest possible piece is the whole board: about 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. In practice:

• Backgrounds and skies: usually half the board or less, so a piece of about 8 1/2 x 5 in. A fat eighth or fat quarter covers it.
• Main shapes (a bauble, a fox, a hill): a charm square or a palm-sized scrap.
• Details (eyes, windows, stripes): fingertip-sized scraps.

Every free pattern on this site comes with a colour guide that lists each fabric and which pieces use it, so you can pull everything from your stash before you start.

Choosing colours that read

The groove draws a fine dark line between every two pieces, but that line is not enough on its own. What makes a shape stand out is value contrast: how light or dark one fabric is compared to its neighbour. Hue (red, green, blue) matters much less than you think.

• Give touching pieces different values. A mid-red bauble on a mid-green tree disappears; a light gold one on a dark green tree jumps out.
• Same fabric, touching pieces = one shape. If two neighbours use the same fabric, they merge visually and only the groove separates them. That is perfect for a sky split into sections, and confusing for a fox's ear against its head.
• Keep the background quiet: a solid or a small-scale blender, darker or lighter than everything in front of it.
• Use the colour guide as a starting point, then swap for what you own, keeping the light and dark balance the same.

Upcycling clothes and kimono scraps

Kinusaiga began with silk from old kimonos, and reusing fabric is still part of its spirit. Good sources:

• Cotton shirts and blouses: thin, tightly woven, often in good stripes and checks. Excellent.
• Summer dresses and skirts in cotton, rayon or lawn: lovely small prints.
• Silk ties and scarves: rich colours, but slippery and sometimes cut on the bias, so they stretch a little.
• Light chambray and thin jeans: great for skies and water. Heavy denim is too thick.
• Kimono and obi scraps, sold in bundles by vintage sellers online. Obi brocade is thick: keep it for large pieces.
• Baby clothes and T-shirts for memory pieces: iron lightweight fusible interfacing on the back first to stop the stretch.

A picture made from a grandmother's dresses or a child's first shirts is one of the most meaningful things you can make with this craft. Pick a simple pattern with big shapes so each fabric is easy to recognise. New to the craft? Start with the step-by-step guide.