Multicolour Silk Ikat Fabric on Cream – Olympics-Inspired Rings

Named for its palette rather than its pattern: rounded, blob-like motifs in yellow, blue, red, green and black — the five colours of the Olympic rings — scattered on a cream ground with the soft edges of the tie-dyed warp. The repeat is a short one at 125 cm, so the motifs recur often and a small cut still shows the whole colour set. Sixty per cent silk, forty cotton.

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: 42 cm (17 in)
• Pattern repeat: about 125 cm
• Main colours: cream ground; yellow; blue; red; green; black
• Design / motif: rounded blobs in the five Olympic colours
• 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

Children’s clothes and playful summer dresses, a scarf, cushion fronts for a white room, a lampshade. The short repeat makes it economical for small projects. 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.