Zabuton

One of those Hawai'i quirks: sitting on the floor. When I lived in the Midwest, my housemate negotiated a couch on loan, and the cat spent more time sitting on it than I did. I sat in front of the couch and used the coffeetable as a work table. I managed to adjust to the shoes in the house thing (to the point where a sister yells at me for not taking my shoes off quickly enough in her house), but the sitting on the floor thing is a habit I can't seem to break, and throws off many of my friends in the continental US who wonder what is so wrong with their furniture that I sit on the floor (hey, only in the living room, I don't do that in the kitchen or dining room!). It's the same thing in my sisters house, which has a lovely slate tile floor which is not that comfy, so they have what could be politely called a floor pillow, or more casually, "the *ss pillow". Unfortunately, it is merely a regular pillow thrown on the floor. Zabuton, however, are Japanese pillows made for people who sit on the floor. In the US, these are popular with people who practice yoga and seated meditation.

I did a swap with Karen of The Absent Knitter - 3 packs of Sublime Stitching embroidery patterns for a zabuton cover. I know they are simple to sew, but I have a real talent for taking the simplest of sewing patterns and winding up spending more time with my seam ripper than with my sewing machine.

I <3 this fabric!

Karen felt odd about sending me an unfinished zabuton, but I'd asked her to do that so she wouldn't have to pay too much in postage. I stuffed it with polyfill, blindstitched the opening shut, and then showed it to my mother. She couldn't help herself - she directed me to get her thimble, a needle, and sewing thread in a color that would match the fabric (Karen, she didn't *say* anything about the color choices...but got that look on her face when I chose a pale blue sewing thread...). She then stitched the "x" in the center, used the needle to pull the stuffing into the corners and then tacked them down and made little tassels. I took it over to my sisters house, took a couple of pictures of it, went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, and when I came back, the zabuton was pinned down firmly by a butt. The sitter did get up at one point, which is when I took this picture:

still life with empty tea cup and cereal bowl - there's a haiku in here somewhere, but I'm not going to find it

I would have run it through the dryer to get the wrinkles out before I took the photo, but the sitter would not have stood for that (hah!).

I have been informed that at least 2 more zabuton are required, and should be in shades of blue to go with the curtains. I'll get around to it eventually. Of course, I'm thinking about knitting or crocheting one. In stripes, maybe.

Traditional zabuton are filled with cotton batting, which I can get at the fabric store for $9/yard. I already had a $4 bag of polyfill, so that's what I went with. Traditional zabuton are also firm and thin by American tastes (a nation that highly values stoicism is not going to give you fluffy pillows - have you seen the *wooden* headrests used by geisha so that their elaborate hairdos won't get messed up while they sleep?). As I implied above, the color choices that Karen made are, shall we say, very Western. I love the colors and the fabric pattern, personally, but that probably has a lot to do with my being so...American.

Comments

[*karen]

I love the touches your mom made. It looks like a proper zabuton now. As for the fabric choice, well, I was going for a contrast between East and West. I can't seem to find cotton batting at the shops here--that would have been awesome. I too like to sit on the floor. I end up using chairs as little tables which causes my boyfriend no end of concern.

[keohinani]

don't worry; i was going to make one with flannel fabric i found at walmart. it has sheep on it.
that one's pretty!
and i sit on the floor a lot, too. i got a lot of flack in college for it. i think you make better use of the coffee table that way.

[cecily]

That is swanky fabric! Very nice!

I'm a floor sitter too. And when I sit on a couch or chair I tend to sit like I'm on the floor anyway. As a result buying a table to sit and eat at has yet to be a priority... oh well.

[Jodi]

very nice. congrats!

[kathi]

my pc is on one of those japanese fold up tables thus the need to sit for hours on my *ss. my mom has fancy ones around the house, but i like the fabric used on yours. i'm going to have to make myself a westernized zabuton!

[AkamaiKnitter]

Oh I love zabutons! What a great tarde you made for it.