A Zokin or Dust Rag: Wedge-Shaped Cotton Patch
mid twentieth century
10 1/4" x 13 1/4", 26 cm x 33.5 cm
A zokin is a traditional Japanese dust cloth or cleaning rag; it is usually made from old pieces of cloth and it is usually layered and stitched for durability.
Along with diapers, zokin are among the traditional household textiles that represent the end of the line where the re-purposing or recycling of cloth is concerned.
This zokin is several layers thick and is made of pieces of dark colored old cotton cloth. It is sashiko stitched in loosely executed, vertically oriented parallel lines. The white stitches over the pieced cotton base is beautiful--as is the wedge-shaped cotton patch on one of the two sides of this zokin.
A wonderful boro zokin with a very good old cotton cloth and great mending.