Simple Shibori Folding Patterns for Beginners

Getting set up: fabric, dye and workspace

Shibori is simply the art of binding, folding and compressing cloth so that dye cannot reach every part of it. The folds themselves are the pattern. You do not need a studio, just a table you can wipe down, a bowl or bucket, and a little patience.

Start with a fabric that takes dye readily. Cotton calico, cotton lawn, cotton voile and old cotton sheets are all forgiving and cheap to practise on. Linen gives a lovely rustic texture; silk takes colour beautifully but is slippery to fold. Whatever you choose, wash it first in hot water with a little washing-up liquid or soda ash to remove the sizing and dressing that would otherwise block the dye.

For natural dyeing, indigo is the classic partner for shibori because it works cold and gives deep, shifting blues. Madder root, weld, onion skins, logwood and avocado stones are all good beginner dyes and give warm reds, yellows and soft greys. Remember that plant dyes need a mordant to bond to the fibre — alum for protein fibres such as silk and wool, and a tannin plus alum for cotton and linen.

Work with your fabric slightly damp. Damp cloth folds crisply and holds its shape far better than dry cloth, which springs open and lets dye creep into places you wanted to keep pale.

Accordion folds: simple stripes and grids

The accordion, or concertina fold, is the first fold I teach and often the only one people need.

• Lay the damp fabric flat and fold it back and forth like a paper fan, making pleats roughly 2–4 cm wide. Keep them as even as you can, pressing each fold with your fingers or a warm iron.
• Once the whole piece is pleated into a long strip, bind it tightly with string, elastic bands or waxed thread at intervals. Or sandwich it between two wooden blocks and clamp it with G-clamps — this is often called itajime.
• Dye as normal, then unwrap while the cloth is still damp but not dripping.

You will get soft stripes if you bind at regular intervals, a bold grid if you clamp with blocks, and chevrons if you fold the pleated strip in half before binding. The tighter the binding, the more undyed white you keep. Two or three firm wraps of string will always beat one loose one.

Triangle folds: chevrons and repeating shapes

Triangle folding gives you radiating, repeating patterns that look far more complicated than they are.

• Begin with a square or rectangle. Fold it in half diagonally to make a triangle, then keep folding the triangle in half, corner to corner, until you have a small, thick wedge.
• Bind the folded edges tightly, or peg the corners with plastic clips. Where you clamp is where the white will stay.
• For a repeating band of triangles, first accordion-fold the whole piece, then fold that strip into triangles and bind the outer points.

Because the fabric is layered so many times, you get a mirror-image pattern across the cloth — arrowheads, fans and diamond shapes. Vary the starting square size and the number of folds to change the scale. It suits cushion fronts particularly well, where a single central motif can carry the whole design.

Pole wrapping: diagonal lines with arashi

Arashi means "storm" in Japanese, and the diagonal, streaky lines it produces do look like driving rain. It is the easiest way to pattern a long scarf.

• Find a clean cylinder — a length of drainpipe, a sturdy plastic bottle or a rolling pin. Wrap the damp fabric around it on the diagonal, spiralling up the pole.
• Secure one end with tape, then wind string tightly around the whole pole, pushing the fabric into tight pleats as you go.
• When the cloth is compressed into a tight concertina along the pole, tie off the string and dye the bundle.

The angle of your wrapping sets the angle of the lines, and the spacing of the string sets how fine they are. Wrap on the bias for elegant diagonals, or straight along the grain for a softer, woodgrain effect. Unwrap only when the bundle has cooled or oxidised, and cut the string rather than pulling it, so you do not drag dye across the pale areas.

Binding tightly, dyeing and rinsing

A few habits make the difference between a crisp pattern and a muddy one.

• Bind before you wet if you are using rubber bands — they grip better on dry cloth, then wet the whole bundle.
• Pre-soak the bound bundle in cool water so the dye does not rush into dry fibres unevenly.
• Stir gently, and keep the cloth submerged. Agitation loosens bindings and blurs edges.
• Rinse gradually, starting in cool water and slowly warming it. A sudden hot rinse can set loose dye into the white areas.

For indigo, dip, lift, and let the cloth oxidise in the air for a few minutes before dipping again. Each dip deepens the blue. For plant dyes, simmer gently for an hour, then leave the bundle to cool in the pot overnight for the richest colour.

Three beginner projects to try

A narrow cotton scarf. Accordion-fold the length, bind at 5 cm intervals, and dye in madder for soft rust stripes with pale bands between.

A cushion cover panel. Triangle-fold a 45 cm square, clip the three corners, and dip twice in indigo for a bold radiating motif. Sew it up once dry and pressed.

Linen napkins. Wrap each one diagonally around a bottle, bind tightly, and dye in weld or onion skins for delicate diagonal yellow lines.

Keep notes as you go — the fold width, the number of dips, the dye bath. Shibori rewards repetition, and your second attempt is always better than your first.