Little Red Riding Hood Reimagined With Intricate Embroidered Appliqué

At the begin­ning of 2017, I fea­tured the appliqué illus­tra­tions of embroi­dery artist Mika Hirasa. Since then, she’s been busy cre­at­ing more of this type of work illu­mi­nat­ing clas­sic tales. Using a vari­ety of fab­rics and embroi­dery thread, she sews col­lage inter­pre­ta­tions of Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood (and friends). “Her dream,” Mika writes, “is to live in peace with her dear friends.”

Mika has used a few tell-tale sym­bols of the icon­ic sto­ry, includ­ing the lit­tle girl and the wolf. These illus­tra­tions, how­ev­er, would­n’t be com­plete with­out the use of red. For this, Mika used “a lot of Japan­ese antique red clothes” and lay­ered dif­fer­ent col­ors, tex­tures, and pat­terns atop one anoth­er to pro­duce the intri­cate scenes.

Mika Hirasa reimagines the iconic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood as intricate appliqué illustrations.