Yellow, Blue & Red Silk Ikat Fabric – Honour

The Honour design is one of the busiest cloths in the shop: large palmette motifs in saffron yellow, cornflower blue, red and olive green crowd a white ground, every edge feathered where the tie-dyed warp has shifted a thread or two on the loom. Because it is woven 50 cm wide rather than the usual 40, the repeat sits whole across a cushion front and pieces with fewer seams down a dress. Half silk, half cotton — adras — so it has sheen without slipping about under the needle.

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: 50% silk, 50% cotton
• Width: 50 cm (20 in)
• Pattern repeat: about 225 cm
• Main colours: white ground; yellow; blue; red; olive green
• Design / motif: large flame-edged palmettes (Honour design)
• 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: dry-clean recommended; if washing, by hand at 30 °C with a mild detergent, dry in the shade, iron on the reverse

Suitable uses

Dresses, kaftans and kimono-style robes; cushion fronts (half a metre each at this width); a scarf from a metre and a half. Not for upholstery — the silk face will polish on a seat. 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. Colours differ slightly between dyelots, so order the full length you need at once. Washing and pressing are covered in how to wash ikat fabric.

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.