Hello Sewing Friends!
Today I am happy to bring you some new additions to our collection of FABRICS FROM INDIA.
New notables include PARVATI, ZOYA and SATYA, a trio of fine-grained, hand-dyed, small-batch, indigo Indian cottons featuring exquisite floral designs. JAYA is a structural Indian cotton featuring a stunning large-scale ikat design in muted blues and purples. SITARA is a lightly textured Indian cotton featuring an elegant ikat design in classic blue and white.
You will also find a quartet of exquisite hand-embroidered Indian cottons and a veritable bouquet of beautiful botanical prints on artisan Indian cotton. Our collection of FABRICS FROM INDIA also features the last of our kantha shawls, throws and quilts.
India and cotton go back a long way—all the way back to the very beginning of cotton cultivation on the continent over 7,000 years ago. The cotton handloom trade in India is one of the world’s most enduring textile traditions. Its looms have run continuously for five thousand years. In 400 BCE, the Greek historian, Herodotus wrote in his book Historia: “In India, there are plants that produce sheep’s wool.” Pliny the Elder gave it the name “cotton” after the fruit, mala cotonea that grew in Crete. Before cotton, Europeans wore wool and flax.
As cotton threatened the wool and flax trade in Europe it was successively banned. The Romans were the first to ban cotton followed over a millennia later by the British, French and others. The French would impose heavy fines on those found wearing the fabric. Despite the bans India maintained its cotton monopoly for over 2,000 years. Still today some of the most exquisite, exceptional cottons on earth hail from India.
Happy Sewing!
