Kantha is a running stitch that holds layers of cloth together. It is also the name of the cloth that stitch makes. A running stitch is the plainest stitch there is: the needle goes in and out along a straight line.
The word
Scholars link the word to Sanskrit.
The Textile Research Centre in Leiden compares it with Sanskrit kanthā. That word means “rag, patched garment” (TRC Leiden).
Wikipedia notes that it may come from Sanskrit kontha, “rags”, in the view of the scholar Niaz Zaman (Wikipedia).
Where it comes from
Kantha is an embroidery craft of Bangladesh and eastern India. Wikipedia places it “particularly in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Odisha” (Wikipedia).
The earliest mention noted on Wikipedia is in the Chaitanya Charitamrita. It is by Krishnadasa Kaviraja. It dates from the late 16th century (Wikipedia, Nakshi kantha).
Thrift turned into craft
Kantha began with reuse. Asian Textile Studies says it started by “recycling items of old cotton clothing such as saris, lungis and dhotis” (Asian Textile Studies).
A sari is a long cloth that women in South Asia wrap around the body. A lungi and a dhoti are cloths wrapped around the waist.
It used a base of between five and seven layers of old cloth (same source).
The Victoria and Albert Museum describes household textiles “traditionally made out of old and worn out garments”. It says the layers were “quilted together in simple running stich”. It adds that the thread came from the borders of the old garments (V&A).
The Philadelphia Museum of Art says kanthas “embody thrift, labor, and imagination” (Philadelphia Museum).
Nakshi kantha
Nakshi kantha is the embroidered kind.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art describes nakshi kanthas. It calls them “made on layers of soft, white, repurposed fabric”. It also calls them “often covered with rows of parallel white running stitches”.
Wikipedia adds that a standard-sized kantha needed “at least three to six sarees” (Wikipedia, Nakshi kantha).
Kantha, appliqué and patchwork
They are different crafts.
- Kantha is a running stitch through layers of cloth. A textile reference says makers create kanthas “by embroidering the layers of cloth together, not stitching, patching or appliqueing them” (Asian Textile Studies).
- Appliqué sews cut pieces of cloth onto a larger base cloth (Wikipedia: Appliqué). It relies on a background fabric (Measure by the Yard).
- Patchwork sews small pieces of cloth together, edge to edge, to make a larger piece (Donna’s Quilt Studio).
Kantha is not appliqué. Appliqué sews cut shapes onto a base cloth. Kantha sews through layers of cloth with a running stitch.
The crafts do meet. Wikipedia says “the earliest form of kantha was probably the patchwork kantha” (Wikipedia, Nakshi kantha). The stitch is still the running stitch.
Kantha and quilting
Quilting stitches layers together. Kantha is one way of doing it.
Wikipedia says women in Bengal typically use old saris and cloth. They “layer them with kantha stitching to make a light blanket” (Wikipedia).
Kantha saris
The word is often met on a saree, a long cloth that women in South Asia wrap around the body. This post is about the stitch and the cloth it makes. A Kantha panel is not a saree.
How to sew a running stitch
- Thread a needle and knot the end.
- Push the needle down through the cloth, then bring it up a short way along a straight line.
- Repeat, and make the stitches even.
- Let the thread lie flat. Pulling it tight puckers the cloth.
- Make the stitches short. Long stitches snag.
Kantha at Kantha
A Kantha panel shares two things with the tradition. It uses the running stitch. It also uses cloth that already existed.
It differs in construction. A traditional kantha has layers of old cloth stitched together, but a Kantha panel has 35 squares of cloth. Makers cut each square 6 × 6 cm, and each shows 4 × 4 cm.
The squares lie on a backing cloth, and rows of running stitch hold them. It is not a nakshi kantha. It follows the way appliqué works, with cloth on a ground cloth, and kantha’s stitch holds it.
Kantha the studio is free. Open it to try a pattern on a Sample box of real cloth, or read how Kantha works.
Makers in Fort Kochi stitch panels from tailors’ offcuts, as a case study of a stitching club shows. The manifesto says why.
For the patterns, read 11 Kantha patterns for 35 squares of cloth.