Craft / May 9, 2026 / 1 min read
Kantha: Stitching Cloth Back Together
The running stitch that holds our patchwork stoles and totes together was a thrift technique long before it was a decorative one.
Kantha began as repair. Worn cotton saris and dhotis were layered, and a simple running stitch was worked across the whole surface to bind them into something warm enough to sleep under. The stitch was structural. The pattern it left was a by-product.
We use it the same way. In the Kantha Patchwork Stole, squares of reclaimed cotton are pieced edge to edge and then quilted across with running stitch in a contrast thread — which is what stops a pieced cloth from pulling itself apart at the seams the first time it is wrapped twice around a neck.
In the totes, the same stitch does heavier work. Raw-edge patches are laid over a canvas base and top-stitched down in rows. The edges fray for the first few weeks, then stop, because the stitching has caught the weave.
Nothing about this is fast. A stole takes days of stitching and the arrangement of the patches is decided piece by piece, so no two ever match. We have stopped describing that as a limitation in our product copy, because it is the reason people buy them.
The texture deepens with use. The frayed edges soften, the thread beds in, and the cloth ends up looking more like itself the longer it is carried.
Written in the studio, Ahmedabad
