Originally Posted by janeknapp
Originally Posted by 1000projects
"I am going back to a couple of posts on this subject which involved "faking it", one said you put clear thread in the bobbin and the other said you put it on top. Which one is it, or does it vary from machine to machine. TIA for you answers."
clear thread on top, decorative on the bottom, high tension on the clear thread to pull the bottom thread up.
My Viking Designer I has this stitch. The machine goes forward and backward and forward again which doubles the thread. It is sloooow. I'm not a fan of this stitch on my machine. I don't know if you can program that or if it can be done the way it is mentioned here. It does look the same on front and back.
There are many great Sashiko stitches which would be fun to do. The Babylock Sashiko machine may really do them well. It probably takes a dedicated machine to do that.
Go here to watch a video:
http://www.babylock.com/quilting/sashiko/
That said...let's just do sashiko hand quilting and enjoy it. You have to really be "into" sashiko and want to do a lot of it to pay money for a dedicated machine. However, if you have extra money laying around which is cluttering up your yard, go for it and enjoy!
I have that stitch on all my Vikings, but would never consider it a Sashiko alternative. I don't think it looks anything like Sashiko. I do use it when I want a good sturdy topstitching stitch. And I don't think it is any slower than any of the stitches that switch direction during the stitching. But I agree you have to be really INTO sashiko to be willing to spend that amount on a single purpose machine.