Black & White Silk Ikat Fabric – Feathered Zigzag Stripe

Black and white, and the zigzag is the whole design: stripes of black and white cross the width in a nervous, hand-drawn line, each edge broken into the fine teeth that come from tie-dyeing the warp before it goes on the loom. It is the cloth for people who like ikat’s texture but not its colour. Sixty per cent silk gives the white a soft shine; forty per cent cotton gives the cloth its body. 40 cm wide, 225 cm repeat.

Product details

• Product type: handwoven ikat fabric, sold by the metre
• Origin: Margilan, Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan
• Weaving technique: warp ikat — the threads are tie-dyed before weaving; handloom, no power looms
• Composition: 60% silk, 40% cotton
• Width: 40 cm (16 in)
• Pattern repeat: about 225 cm
• Main colours: black; white
• Design / motif: feathered zigzag stripes, monochrome
• Sold by: the metre — one unit is 1 m (1.09 yd), cut in one continuous length from 1 m up
• Condition: new, uncut from the bolt
• Care: hand wash at 30 °C with a mild detergent, no wringing, dry in the shade, iron on the reverse; or dry-clean

Suitable uses

Jackets, trousers and shirts, a monochrome kaftan, cushion fronts in a black-and-white room, a lampshade. Cuts economically because the stripe is continuous. More cloths of this kind are under Silk Ikats.

Handmade note

Handwoven on a wooden loom, so expect what the loom leaves: motif edges that feather where the warp shifted, a hairline of colour variation along the length, and a selvedge that is not perfectly straight. The pattern is dyed into the thread, not printed on it, and shows on both faces — the test described in our handwoven versus printed ikat guide. Colours differ slightly between dyelots, so order the full length you need at once.

Cut to order and dispatched from Bukhara within 24 hours by Uzbekiston Pochtasi tracked airmail: USA 9–18 working days, Europe and the UK 8–16, elsewhere 10–20.