BUAISOU - Sewing Thread Box
Indigo is inseparable from Japanese culture. Known as Japan Blue, it colours the archipelago — in every doorway, on everyday clothing, woven into the fabric of daily life.
BUAISOU are among the most respected names in indigo today. Founded in 2012 and based in Tokushima — the historic birthplace of Japanese indigo and still its undisputed world capital — they are a rare collective who do everything themselves: cultivating and harvesting the indigo plant, fermenting it into dye, and doing all the dyeing and making on site at their farm. Farm to cloth, in the most literal sense.
Their dye process uses jigoku date — literally 'making hell' — a traditional technique using sukumo indigo leaves that is one of the most complex natural dye processes in existence. It produces a depth and darkness of blue that is unique to Japan, and unreplicable elsewhere.
The dyeing itself has a quiet magic to it. Fabric or thread is dipped and redipped into the vat, then lifted into the air — emerging first as a strange yellowish-green before, as oxygen hits it, gradually deepening into that characteristic rich, saturated blue.
The sewing gift box includes:
- 2 × 100m cards of 100% cotton thread, woven by Daruma and hand-dyed by BUAISOU
- Two indigo depths: light and dark blue
- Suitable for sashiko, boro, embroidery, and detailed hand stitching
- Includes a BUAISOU fabric swatch - There are usually two pieces and one will measure, roughly, 20 x 8cm and the second around 18 x 4cm.
- Colour may vary slightly between dye batches
- Hand wash separately in lukewarm water for the first 2–3 washes to minimise colour bleed
- The blue will deepen and evolve with use — that's the nature of indigo
Recommended needle size: 7-9 for finer fabrics. 4-6 for thicker fabrics