Short history of Krzczonow embroidery

Hello all, today i will talk about the 'mystery stitch' of Krzczonow. For the remainder of the costume, see my last two postings. The cut of the shirt for both men and women is the same, with shoulder insets, 'przyramki' in Polish sewn above the body pieces. For a schematic see my first Krzczonow posting. The older shirts were embroidered on the collar and cuffs, and as you can see from this old photograph, often on the shoulder przyramki. Later on, the shirts began to be embroidered around the front opening as well.

The embroidery consists of linear designs, travelling around the cuff, across the przyramki, down the front,

and on the collars, the design runs across both ends, and then lengthwise along the back edge. So that the whole thing looks like this old shirt.

You can clearly see the cut of the shirt in this image. The only real difference between the mens and women's shirts was that the collar is bigger on the woman's, almost like a sailor type collar. Today,  you will also see the embroidery on the mens shirt extending lower down the front, because the men often wear the kaftan, which is open in front. The woman's kaftan is never worn open, and the gorset only shows the upper part of the front of the shirt. Here are two recent examples.

Woman's shirt

Man's shirt.

You can see the typical color palette of this region, black, red, yellow with some green. These pieces are done in the modern style, with  cross-stitch. There seems to be a general tendency for many embroidery traditions to migrate to cross-stitch from older techniques, because it is easier. I find this regrettable, many local traditions and unique expressions get lost this way. At least in this region they have developed a style of cross-stitching that is unique and recognizeably of their own tradition. See this photo of a woman doing crafts.

What happens very often is that they start cross-stitching roses, and then go to satin stich roses, [and always blue ones, for some reason] so that they completely lose their own particular tradition. I have seen this in my research from many places around the world,some specific regions of  Mexico, Holland and Albania come to mind. Krzconow has so far escaped this, although i did find this one photo. Some of my Polish books have said that at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a fashion in Malopolska of embroidering in 'Rus'ky' style. [read Rusinsky, e.g. Ukrainian style]

Originally, however cross-stitch was not used. the oldest information we have is from the 18th century, when the woman's costume was made of unbleached linen,with a finely pleated skirt and apron. The collar however was the same shape, and embroidered with the same layout in white cotton, like this.

A little later on, some red, and then some black was added, as in this photo

Ok, i see back stitch, i see buttonhole stitch around the edges, i see wavy lines and zigzags made from chain stitch, i see lazy daisy flowers, i see counted satin stitch filling in small areas, but i could not figure out how those wider lines were done. Janusz Swiezy and Aleksander Blachowski said that they were rows of herringbone stitches, although Blachowski does not dwell on the techniques. Here is a drawing by Swiezy of some of the embroidery motifs

a

You can see the stitches well represented, the 'mystery' stitch is part of the grouping in the lower right corner. Not a convincing representation. It is not herringbone. This explanation was also picked up by Elzbieta Piskorz, as shown here.

This is from a later period, when more colors had been added to the embroidery tradition. Very attractive. These are the same colors which are still used in the cross stitch tradition. Lets take a closer look.

Very pretty, but that is NOT herringbone. Notice that some cross-stitches are part of the overall design.

Kazimierz Pietkiewicz says that this stitch is a combination of a braiding stitch, 'Janina' edged by two rows of backstitch. Hmm, yeah that's what it would look like, but i don't think that is right.

Jadwiga Turska puts a couple of drawings of this type of embroidery in her book, but does not adress the identity of this stitch directly. You can see her drawing them in this image here below, the wider horizontal lines.

I saw the same stitch in a Bulgarian book. I said, that's it! But it gave no explanation of how to do it.

Then i found this description in a general book of folk embroidery by Margaret Ohms. "Turkmen stitch. This stitch resembles a closed feather stitch...forms a characteristic ridge on either side of the crossed filling."

Turkmen Stich? Turkmen?

So i took a look at a piece of Turkmen embroidery that I have, and sure enough, look at this.

It's the same stitch! The composition and design are very different, but it's recognizably the same technique. Ted Zed suggested that it could have been brought to Poland by Tatars. Well, its possible, but i doubt it. In actuality, this is a variation of the chain stitch, sometimes called closed double chain stitch, in which a wide chain stitch is executed alternately to right and left. Chain stitch is very old, and while it is typical of the Tatars and Central Asian Peoples, it is also widespread in Europe, from Horodok in Ukraine to the Smocks of England. So there is no need to go seeking a foreign origin of this technique. So i am convinced that i have solved this little mystery. I was very surprised that no-one seemed to have noticed this before. But i do embroidery myself, and i always look at a new design with the idea 'would i want to do that?, do i know how to do that?' Here is Margaret Ohm's depiction of how to do this stitch. Notice how the beginning leaves a characteristic gap, at the top in this diagram.

And here we see the same gap, at the bottom of the stitching

So i had to try for myself, here is what i made, a little rough, but i am not practiced at this technique.

I will get better, and i am now convinced that i could make a Krzczonow shirt. This is somewhat magnified, by the way.

So i will leave you with two images of a collar from the heyday of this type of stitching, a black and white photograph that shows details of the stitching, and a color drawing that shows the colors. I like the way that rickrack is used to imitate tatting. 

  If there is anyone out there who does not do embroidery, i hope you did not find this too tedious.

Thank you for reading, and tune in again. I believe we are done with  the Krzczonow costume. I expect all of you to be able to go out and make one now.

Go and be creative.

And hello to mr. Calabash.

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals.

Roman K.
Rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:

Margaret Ohms, 'Ethnic Embroidery', London, 1989

Stanislaw Gadomski, 'Stroj Ludowy w Polsce', Warsaw, no year given

Janusz Swiezy, 'Stroj Krzczonowski', from the series 'Atlas Polskich Strojow Ludowych', Poznan, 1952

Aleksander Blachowski, 'Hafty Polskie Szycie', Lublin, 2004

Elzbieta Piskorz, 'Wzory Polskich Haftow Ludowych', Warsaw, no year given

Jadwiga Turska, 'Polish Folk Embroidery', Warsaw, 1997

Jackowski & Jarnuszkiewiczowa, 'Sztuka Ludu Polskiego', Warsaw, 1967

Rossitsa Choukanova, 'Bulgarian National Embroidery, vol 1' [volume 2 seems to never have been published, alas!] Sofia 1957

Krzczonow Kaftan

Hello all, Welcome again to Krzczonow, Lublin Province, Poland. I thought that the original posting was starting to run long, so i decided to split it. This posting will cover one garment only, the Kaftan. For the rest of the Krzczonow costume, please refer to my previous posting. I will be writing a posting on the historical development of Krzczonow embroidery in my next posting. Kaftan is a rather generic word meaning some sort of overgarment, usually a long one. In Krzczonow, and some other parts of Poland, kaftan specifically refers to a short jacket. I will talk about the men's kaftan, and two closely related types of the women's kaftan as well. The woman here on the right is a young married woman wearing the slightly older form of the kaftan. The kaftan is of a  solid material, usually wool, with ribbons sewn on the front parallel to the opening, each of which turns at a right angle and continues around the waist. The colorful ribbons alternate with strips of plain cloth covered with decorative topstitching.

The following two photos also show the old style woman's kaftan.

The ribbons are often of different colors, but the main colors used are black, red, yellow and green.

here is a drawing of an old kaftan, showing details of the ornamentation.

And this is a schematic of the cut of the woman's kaftan. Notice that the cuff is a separate piece, there is no collar, also there is no peplum, the garment ends at the waist, and it buttons down the front.

Next, Here is a photo of a modern version of the man's kaftan. These two are students at the Jagiellonian University of Poland who participate in their dance group, Slowianki.

The man's kaftan was sewn of wool, in either black, burgundy or red, lined, like the woman's kaftan in linen or cotton. The cuffs, also like in the woman's kaftan are sewn on separately, Here is the cut of the man's kaftan.

Two wide strips of black or dark cloth are then sewn to the front edges of the kaftan. Each has one, two or three rows of diamond-shaped openings cut into them, which are called 'okienki', [little windows] under the openings are sewn pieces of plain colored red, green and yellow ribbon, each of which shows through one of the openings, in a form of reverse applique. These wide strips are then secured with topstitching in a contrasting color, which binds the edges and also adds a decorative effect. In one form of the kaftan, the outer edges are cut in a toothed or saw-edged design, and rows of colored ribbon are sewn underneath the edges, which are also topstitched as in this drawing. All this is repeated on the cuffs. In the photo above, you see a variant of this which is common today, in which the edges of the wide strip of cloth 'z okienkamy' are cut straight and edged with a short brush fringe, to give contrast to the edges.

Following are a couple of other photos of old kaftany.

The front top corner of the kaftan is folded back and tacked into place to form a small lapel. This is ornamented either with embroidery, or appliqued ribbon, around the edges and in a little square.

Then a rounded collar is sewn on to the back, also edged and ornamented with stripes of narrow ribbon. Here is a closeup of the collar in the black and white photo above.

There seems to be some variation in the back of the garment. Some people, like the group Slowianki, sew an additional similar strip around the waist in the same manner, the ends of which are under the strips sewn on to the front., like this.

This would seem to be consistent with the drawing above. However, examination of the two photographs might lead one to conclude that there is no such strip, but rather three patch pockets sewn on to the front of the kaftan decorated in the same manner, with reverse applique, ribbons and topstitching. If you consult the video of the dance group 'Mazowsze', you will see that they sewed separate patches on the back of the kaftan rather than one long continuous strip. I don't know if there is a 'correct' way. I suspect there were always variations. I have provided links to dance videos of both Mazowsze and Slowianki at the end of this posting.

The man's costume is completed with a belt worn over the shirt and under the kaftan, either made in the same reverse applique method, like this:

or made of velvet with gold trim and sequins sewn on, like this.

Somewhat later, the women's kaftany were also made 'z okienkamy', with ornamentation in this same reverse applique and topstitching method. A full, gathered peplum was added to these kaftany. The peplum was ornamented with rows of ribbon in the same way as the skirt and the apron. Here is one artist's depiction of this type of kaftan.

Here are two photos showing the front and the back of a woman's kaftan 'z okienkamy'.

And finally, here is a closeup of possibly the same kaftan drawn by the textile artist Jadwiga Turska. The round red objects are the buttons.

Thank you very much for reading.

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment, lol.

As always, i encourage you to use these ideas to create something. Help these beautiful ideas and items live again in a creation of your own.

And as always, i welcome any requests for research, as well as any commissions to make, research or embroider costumes or other textiles.

Roman K.

Mazowsze dance video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ypug6wCC1c

Slowianki dance video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LDsXsk30BI&feature=related

And here is a link to a company in Krakow called Perfekt, who make and sell Polish [and some other] Folk Costumes for stage groups and others. They are quite good for stage costumes, although not the equivalent of having one made in the village, which would be very difficult.

.http://www.perfekt.krakow.pl/stroje/lublin



Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals.

Roman K.
Rkozakand@aol.com

Source Materials:

Jadwiga Turska, 'Polish Folk Embroidery', Warsaw, 1997

Janusz Swiezy, 'Stroj Krzczonowski' from the series Atlas Polskich Strojow Ludowych, Poznan, 1952

Elzbieta Krolikowska, 'Polski Stroj Ludowe' [The Polish Folk Dress] sic, Warsaw, 2000

Majka and Hunt, 'Polish Folk Costumes', Halifax, 1991

Stanislaw Gadowski, 'Stroj Ludowe w Polsce', Warsaw, no year shown

Aleksander Blachowski, 'Hafty Polskie Szycie', Lublin 2004

Kazimierz Pietkiewixcz, 'Haft i Zdobienie Stroju Ludowego', Warsaw, 1955



Krzczonow Costume

Hello all, I'm dedicating this posting and the following to my friends Karen M. and Ted Zed. Today i will be venturing into the world of Polish Costume. I will be talking about the costume from the region around the town of Krzczonow, marked in red in this map.

For the sake of those of you who may be unfamiliar with Polish orthography, Krz is pronounced 'ksh', like a bus door opening, czo is pronounced  'cho' as in chocolate, and ow is pronounced 'oof' like someone punched you in the stomach. So Krzczonow is pronounced 'Ksh-cho-noof', except that you only get one syllable for each vowel, so try to pronounce Kshcho as one syllable. This is often called the Lublin Costume as it is the best known costume from Lublin Province. It is not from the city of Lublin.

I have a couple of personal ties to this costume. In college I was a dancer with the Oakland University Slavic Folk Ensemble, and in my time we had a Polish Choreographer teach us a Polish Set. We made these costumes. This costume is a good one for an amateur group, as it is relatively well known, colorful, attractive, and easily made from materials that you can go out and buy, as opposed to say the Zakopane or Lowicz costumes which are beautiful, but require specific sorts of cloth that is not easy for people outside Poland to obtain. Also i have been long fascinated in figuring out how the particular embroidery is done, but that is a topic for the next posting.

Here are a couple of images to help you get acquainted with this costume.

In this last photo, the woman on the right is wearing the 18th century costume which i will not be covering in this posting. The woman's costume is based on the chemise, although it is  not as prominent as it is in many eastern European costumes. The cut is identical to womens shirts in western Ukraine, with two separate body sections for front and back, an 'inset' przyramek in Polish, sewn on top of the body pieces, the opening then gathered into the collar, which in this case is a sort of wide 'sailor collar', and sleeves sewn perpendicularly. Here is the cut of the woman's chemise and other costume pieces.

The chemise is embroidered on the cuffs, collar, shoulder pieces, and sometimes around the front opening with particular Kzczonow embroidery, later replaced by cross stitch.

The Skirt is sewn of store bought wool, in 'quiet colors', a quick glance at the various images indicates a wide range of colors. There is usually a band of velvet or other dark cloth on the bottom hem, a short 'brush fringe' on the hem itself, it is very full and rather long, coming to the top of the low, typically Polish lace-up boots.

In the center of the skirt are sewn several different bands of ribbon of different colors, widths and designs, 

usually forming a palindromic effect, with a particularly wide and patterned ribbon forming a center, and symmetrically placed ribbons of other colors above and below. There seems to be a minimum of three to five ribbons, although many more are often used. 

The apron is unique, in that it is basically a short version of the skirt, gathered into a waistband and wrapping completely around the body. It is also sewn with several ribbons, and is usually edges with lace.

again, a couple of images to give you a good idea.

 

The bodice is the typical Polish lace up type, known as a gorsetka. The cut is shown on the bottom right of the diagram above that shows the cut of the chemise. It has lappets around the bottom, very typical for Malopolska, and it is decorated with rows of ribbons sewn on vertically to either side of the front, and around the bottom edge just above the lappets. The lappets are edged with ribbon. The gorsetka itself is made of a dark quiet color, like black or burgundy. Here are a couple of examples.

Of course, several necklaces would be worn to complet the costume. For unmarried girls, the hair was worn in braids which were wrapped around the back of the head. A headress in the shape of a horseshoe was worn on the back of the head, covered with artificial flowers, and with ribbons falling down behind. At her wedding, this would be replaced by a full cap of artificial flowers, with beads and ribbons around the edge, as seen in the colored photo above. Here is a photo showing the hair arrangement.

In cooler weather women would often wear a short jacket, the kaftanik instead. This was also considered to be appropriate for women 'of a certain age'. This custom was widespread in Poland and elsewhere. I am running long, so i will devote a separate posting to the mens and womens kaftan.

The Mens costume is based on a shirt which has a cut identical to the womens, except the collar is smaller, and the shirt itself is shorter. It is worn outside the pants. It has embroidery like the womens, but with no or less extensive embroidery on the shoulder. Here is a diagram of the cut. The pants were linen in summer, but for cooler weather or special occasions they were made of black or other dark material.

Often there was a vest worn with the costume, either black or white with buttons and pocket patches of the opposite color, as seen in this old photograph.

Over this was worn a long heavy overcoat, as seen in some of the images.  But what has come to be worn most often is a jacket, called the kaftan as it is the most unique to this costume. The cut is shown above, It was decorated with rows of ribbons down the front and around the waist, with bands of black cloth overstitched and with reverse applique.Again, I will have to take a seperate posting to talk about this. I will close with this photo of a wedding group.

Thank you all for reading. If you have any requests for research, or comissons to make costumes or embroidery, please let me know.

Thank you,

Roman K.

Here are a couple of links to  sites showing more of this and other Polish costumes.

This is the famous Polish Song and Dance Ensemble Mazowsze, perfoming their Lublin Suite, featuring this costume.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ypug6wCC1c

Here is a link to the Folk Dance Ensemble 'Slowianki', of the Jagiellonian University in Poland website, showing some very good photos of this costume and others. I would like very much to be able to see them perform, oh well. Click on the images to enlarge

http://www.slowianki.uj.edu.pl/galeria.php?send=1&gal=16&id=stala

Here is one of their photos, just to give you an idea.

OK, i found a video of Slowianki doing dances from this region; they are pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LDsXsk30BI&feature=related

And here is a link to a company in Krakow called Perfekt, who make and sell Polish [and some other] Folk Costumes for stage groups and others. They are quite good for stage costumes, although not the equivalent of having one made in the village, which would be very difficult.

.http://www.perfekt.krakow.pl/stroje/lublin



Thank you very much again

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals.

Roman K.
Rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:

Janusz Swiezy, 'Stroj Krzczonowski' from the series Atlas Polskich Strojow Ludowych, Poznan, 1952

Elzbieta Krolikowska, 'Polski Stroj Ludowe' [The Polish Folk Dress] sic, Warsaw, 2000

Majka and Hunt, 'Polish Folk Costumes', Halifax, 1991

Stanislaw Gadowski, 'Stroj Ludowe w Polsce', Warsaw, no year shown

Aleksander Blachowski, 'Hafty Polskie Szycie', Lublin 2004

Kazimierz Pietkiewixcz, 'Haft i Zdobienie Stroju Ludowego', Warsaw, 1955