![]() Other typical embroidered items of the dowry were pillow covers or decorative items for the household. The only exception was an embroidered handkerchief what was usually prepared by the future wife for the groom. Menswear, however, never really carried the same traditional embroidery. "These dresses have become family treasures as they tell the story of the women in the family." "When the woman got divorced or became a widow, motifs in darker colors were added and, over time, this dress depicted her personal life story," Masri said. Each alteration was complemented by cross-stitching. Then, when the woman got pregnant, the same dress was temporarily altered with fabric patches on the sides, and later cut around the chest during the period of breast feeding. Image: Courtesy of Zain Masriįor example, when a woman got married, her main, and often only, dress was embroidered with a red thread. "In the Palestinian culture, embroidery was always used as a story-telling technique," Masri said, adding that "according to the embroidery and the color of the thread, you could tell exactly where a woman is from, if she is single, married, if she has children, is divorced or if she is a widow." Zain Masri's grandmother in Jordan wears the traditional dress with her life story embroidered. This was recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, who put the art of Palestinian embroidery on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021. While cross-stitching on dresses and fabrics has a long tradition throughout the Middle East, with the earliest findings dating back to ancient Egypt, Palestinian embroidery carries additional significance. Palestinian embroidery: 'Intangible cultural heritage' Her breakdown of statistics show that already more than 1,000 people access the patterns every day, and the community is growing. Meanwhile, around 1,000 such patterns are available for download on her database, which has been slowly growing since October 2021 and was only officially launched this summer. "I've spent thousands of hours digitalizing motifs stich by stitch," she said, adding that this makes them printable for manual cross-stitching and downloadable for machine embroidery. Since none of the existing digitization software options were accurate enough to decipher the stitches automatically, Masri started to break down motifs manually on digital grids. Only, creating such a database turned out to be much more time-consuming than expected. Typical examples are palm trees, jagged patterns in different colours or patterns that resemble tiles on the Noble Sanctuary or Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem. "There should be a place for digitalized, printable and freely available patterns as this is cultural heritage," Masri thought and wondered why she should be waiting for someone to launch such a database.Īnd so, some 24 years after her grandmother introduced her to Tatreez, which is the Arabic term for this traditional type of Middle Eastern needle work, Masri started Tirazain, the first digital embroidery database of traditional Palestinian cross-stitching patterns including the information on their origin and aesthetic features. Masri quickly realized, however, that a shortage of high-resolution patterns was one of the main challenges for the global embroidery community. ![]() "I joined online embroidery communities for inspiration while spending lots of time at home," she said. Masri, who works in marketing in Dubai, reconnected with her family tradition of cross-stitching Palestinian patterns during the pandemic. "For years, it remained my favorite holiday activity at my grandmother's place in Jordan," the 31-year-old told DW. Some even sparkle.Zain Masri still remembers the vibrant feeling of completing her first cross-stitched motif at the age of 7. Embroidery floss comes in a variety of colors and sheens.Be careful not to buy embroidery thread, since this is designed to be used with a machine.There are many types but generally of the thinner threads, the only impact is on the final look (whether it comes out shiny or more matte in finish). Don’t worry too much about the type of embroidery floss you buy.The more bold the design, the thicker the floss should be. The more detailed the project, the thinner the floss should be. You’ll also want to adjust the weight (thread count) of the floss to the level of detail you’re trying to create.However, for small test projects and learning exercises, it can be perfectly useful and more economical. These are ill suited to embroidery because the thread is much lower quality and the color can bleed. ![]() First things first, for serious projects make sure you’re getting embroidery floss and not “craft thread” or similar looking products.
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