Scarlet Suzani Cushion Cover with Yellow Palmette

A palmette outlined in bright yellow sits low on a scarlet ground, with grey-blue leaf sprays rising above it and small green tendrils filling the gaps. The yellow outline is worked in chain stitch, which is why it holds its line so cleanly against the red.

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: scarlet with yellow, grey-blue and green
• Motif: a central palmette outlined in yellow, with leaf sprays above
• Cut from a vintage Soviet-era suzani, not an antique — Uzbekistan does not permit antique textiles to leave the country
• 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

One scarlet cover against oatmeal or grey does more than three quieter ones; keep it away from other reds. 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.

Availability

This cover is sold. Each one is cut from a different suzani, so this exact panel cannot be repeated — but we cut new covers from other embroidered cloth all the time. Tell us what you are after and we will send photographs of what is on the table.