Saturday, August 8, 2009

Korean Pojagi

Korean pojagi is a style of patchwork. It is not layered with batting and backing and quilted as American quilts are (although my American version was, and it was featured today on One Pretty Thing!). There are some great pictures of authentic pojagi online, but I've never found instructional materials in English. Please comment if you know of any.


I saw some amazing pojagi in Seoul this past March. Gorgeous stuff! It was very expensive though, so I didn't bring any home with me. What I can't figure out is how the seams are finished. They are often made of stiff linen and appear almost transluscent when hung in windows. From the back there are no raw edges. Here's a picture I took of some pojagi in a store window in Insadong in Seoul. I love the limited color palette and the use of solids only.

7 comments:

Leisel said...

Love your quilt on flickr! Amazing!

Victoria van der Laan said...

This is so cool. I love learning about traditional textile crafts from around the world and I have never heard of this one. I want to know more about it, too!

It also remind me of the quilts of Gee's Bend, which I absolutely love.

I saw this on One Pretty Thing and check out your blog--your work is beautiful!

Kimberly said...

Gorgeous example. Is it possible they use a flat felled seam to attach the squares? That would not leave any raw seams and would look pretty clean.
This is a picture of a flat felled seam:
http://katrowberd.elizabethangeek.com/projects/2003-lydia-linen/sml_flatfell2.jpg

And here are instructions ton how to do it:
http://www.backpacking.net/makegear/tarptent3/flatfelled.html

I haven't seen a Pojagi up close so I cannot say for sure, but that might be one way to do it.

teaginny said...

Thanks for the kind comments!!
That's a great suggestion Kimberly. It looks like, from that illustration, that you would see stitching on the front of the piece though, and with pojagi, you don't see any stitching on the front.

Michele said...

Wow, how interesting.

I found the following site - it's not in English but, as usual, the diagrams for instructions are so fabulous you really don't need it.

There are numerous techniques demonstrated, all with different results (as far as how the stitching shows up). I recognize some from having taken apart countless kimonos. All I can say is it's certainly secure stitching - and a b!tch to take out.

Here are some links-

http://pojagi.jp/html/TEC/technic01.html

http://pojagi.jp/html/TEC/technic02.html

(and on until technic07)

Best regards,
-Michele

teaginny said...

Michele, great link. Thank you! I wonder if I can figure them out just by the diagrams. I'll have to try them out.
Thank you so much!!

Isa said...

Hi
I found this explanation:
http://mairuru.blogspot.com/2008/03/french-seam.html

That they are made with french seams, in this way you hide the raw edges in the seam. I love your version of the pojagi quilt