Teal Blue Suzani Cushion Cover with Red Sunbursts

Five sunburst rosettes in red and cream sit on a teal blue ground, the middle one larger than the four around it, each with gold points radiating out. The teal has faded slightly unevenly, which is what happens to an indigo-dyed cotton over years of use.

Product details

• Product type: suzani cushion cover — cover only, insert not included
• Hand-embroidered in silk on a cotton ground: basma couching for the solid shapes, yurma chain stitch for the outlines and vines
• Size: 50 × 50 cm (20 × 20 in); fit a 55 cm insert for a full cushion
• Closure: concealed zip across the back
• Backing: plain handwoven ikat, usually beige, so the zip never crosses the embroidery
• Main colours: teal blue with red, cream and gold
• Motif: sunburst rosettes with a larger one at the centre
• One of a kind: cut from a single suzani, so no two covers are the same
• Care: Remove the insert. Dry-clean by preference; a separate cool machine wash in a bag with no spin is allowed. Press on the reverse over a towel and keep it out of direct sun

Where it goes

Blue and red is the safest combination in the section — it will go with almost any sofa that is not itself blue. See the rest of the suzani cushion covers, the whole suzani panels they are cut from, or a plain ikat cushion cover to sit beside it.

How this suzani is made

A suzani is a dowry cloth: cotton strips laid out, the design drawn on in ink, then embroidered in silk by several women of one household and joined up at the end. The filling is basma, a laid-and-couched stitch that lets the silk sit flat and catch the light; the outlines and vines are yurma chain stitch. A cushion is cut from such a cloth so that one whole motif sits square in the panel, and sewn up in our workshop in Bukhara.

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.