A Patched Length of Hand Woven Cotton: Hand Spun Yarns

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
56" x 13", 142 cm x 33 cm

This is a length of wide woven striped indigo dyed cotton that has been faded to beautiful soft tones. The design of the striped pattern adds to the visual interest of this length.

But what really makes this something to see is the artful arrangement of patches on the length, six in all, each of which is in artistic contrast to the base cloth.

Most notable is the grey patch in the center: with its rounded shape we can only guess that it was taken directly from a deconstructed garment of some sort and applied directly to this piece. Each of the patches on the length is hand stitched to it.

As is often the case with old textiles this length is lightly starched--and another detail to mention is that the striped length is hand woven from beautiful hand spun cotton yarns.

Just beautiful!