A Love Story in Hitomezashi

Can you decode this love story written in stitches?

This white crop top tells a romantic story between One and Zero in a Hitomezashi stitch pattern.

On a dotted canvas, One tiptoed to Zero and said “I want to make patterns with you.” Zero gasped and cried out, “You complete me!”

The story is a 88-character micro-fiction written to fit a dotted grid. The binary stitch pattern technique I used is called Hitomezashi, a variation of the Japanese Sashiko stitches, which can be translated into ones and zeroes. I wanted the resulting pattern to resemble the ‘matrix’ aesthetic.

Materials: Upcycled white crop top, screen printed dot grid, neon green embroidery DMC floss (E990).