In these turbulent times, finding a way for peaceful meditation can help soothe one’s soul. For many people, slow stitching can be that meditation. There has been a resurgence in hand-stitching over the past decade, including Kawandi, a Western Indian tradition; and English paper-piecing.
BOJAGI: The Art of Korean Textiles provides a reference for many elements of Korean textile art. The book includes a short history about the importance of bojagi, the materials and tools used, clear diagrams for the different stitches used for hand sewing, and several projects for you to try. It also includes detailed diagrams for how to tie decorative knots for some of the projects. At the end, there is a gallery of Youngmin’s delightful work, with lovely photography.
Bojagi are traditional wrapping clothes used in everyday life in Korea. The book lists the many different kinds of bojagi based on social class, special event functions, sewing technique (embroidery or pieced). I especially enjoyed the descriptions of special bojagi used for different parts of a wedding, starting with the marriage proposal.
“Jogakbo” are pieced bojagi, the word “jogak” means “small piece,” and are typically made from the scraps of garment making. The suffix “bo” refers to Bojagi. Jogakbo have many similarities to traditional American patchwork, including geometric designs such as log cabin, pinwheels using half-square triangles, and cathedral windows. It may be that Koreans invented the cathedral window quilt design, as it is documented from the Joseon Dynasty, which predates the earliest U.S. documentation of cathedral windows quilt design in 1933.
One of the appealing elements of jogakbo is the translucency of the fabrics, especially when hung as a curtain over a window, allowing the shadows of the flat-fell seams (ssamsol) to give the work more dimensionality than you would expect from a flat piece. Although the author prefers neutral colors, her interest in botanical dyes, including indigo, has expanded her range of colors. Not all of the fabrics used for bojagi are translucent, but many of Youngmin’s work use ramie (mosi in Korean), which is an open-weave fabric used in summer clothing that allows for airflow in humid weather.
The photographs of Youngmin’s exquisite work in the gallery section at the end of the book will inspire you to try your hand at this hand-sewing technique. Youngmin emphasizes that hand sewing should have a calm and meditative effect, and good wishes should be imbued into the sewing project as you stitch. It is more important to “find a rhythm with your own stitches” than to be perfect. Her work shows the range of design from planned geometric to modern and freeform abstractions with curves.
The book includes several projects to try. The two projects that I think are the easiest to try are the Flower-Shaped Pouch using two squares of fabric, a running stitch and blind stitch; and the Lotus Leaf Mat using the kkojipgi (pintuck stitch).
The author born in Korea, has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for several decades. Although she has a MFA in Fashion Design from Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul, South Korea, she did not begin making bojagi until she moved to California with her husband and child and was looking for a way to reconnect to her homeland.
Youngmin Lee has become “the” spokesperson for bojagi in North America. She has been teaching on the West Coast, and on-line, and was interviewed by Karen Brown of “Just Get It Done Quilts” (Ontario, Canada) a popular quilting podcast with over 400,000 followers.
Youngmin was included in the 2023 issue of QuiltFolk for Northern California.
It would have been useful for the book to include some QR codes to YouTube videos on Youngmin’s website to show me how to make the ssamsol (flat fell seam).
I found the YouTube on my own, not from the book.
My frustration with the book is the section on finding materials. It recommends that you shop in Korea. In one place, the author says that linen can be substituted for ramie (mosi). For those of us in the United States, I found ramie listed at Joann Fabrics, but I am not sure if this is sufficient to be used in these projects. I eventually found mosi on an Etsy shop (RimKimStudio).
So, take a deep breath, calm your mind, and start slow stitching with Korean bojagi! This book will get you started and keep you inspired to keep at it!
Youngmin Lee will be teaching at QuiltCon in Phoenix in February 2025, including the Lotus Leaf Mat which is one of the projects in the book. She will also be teaching a 4-day course in Seattle in May 2025 at Botanical Colors, but it is already sold out.
