Artisan textile arts play an important role in Ukrainian culture, especially in Ukrainian wedding traditions. Ukrainian embroidery, weaving, and lace-making are used in traditional folk dress and in traditional celebrations. Ukrainian embroidery varies depending on the region of origin, and the designs have a long history of motifs, compositions, choice of colors, and types of stitches. Use of color is very important and has roots in Ukrainian folklore. Embroidery motifs found in different parts of Ukraine are preserved in the Rushnyk Museum in Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi.
Traditional embroidery patterns from Polissia region of Ukraine (northern part of the country). Male and female shirts are embroidered with red, black, and white threads. Red embroidery on a white background is typical for this area. The embroidery designs are often geometric rather than floral.
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Traditional embroidery patterns from Reshetylivka district, Poltava region
Reshetylivka is one of Ukrainian centers of embroidery situated in Poltava region (central part of Ukraine). The embroidery designs typical for Reshetylivka are characterized by unique embroidery techniques. First of all, it is white embroidery on white background. It looks very festive, delicate and even noble.
Reshetylivka embroidery is characterized by several techniques of embroidering: satin stitch, cutting, open work, hemstitch and drawn-stitch eyelets, known in Ukrainian as "Nightingale eyes".
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Very laborious embroidery pattern on the sleeve of a women’s shirt. Pokuttya region, western part of Ukraine. This area is characterized by a large amount of embroidery on the sleeves. This particular design consists of 9,000 circles, each one is formed by 13 stitches.
Usually, such shirts were worn by brides. They are often embroidered by the whole female part of the family rather then just one person. It takes one winter to finish such a shirt. But it is being embroidered during every hour of the day – when the future owner of the shirt has some chores, she passes the work on said shirt to her sister or mother. Thus, embroidering such a garment is a never ending process till the shirt if finished. It’s the only region of Ukraine where such collective work is practiced.
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Bright and colorful embroidered shirt from Volyn’ region of Ukraine (north-western part of the country). The beginning of the 20th century.
First Ukrainian shirts in this area were embroidered using 1 to 3 colors. But later, women began to use dozens of colors and shades on one garment. On this particular sleeve of the shirt, we see 8 colors.
The cross-stitch technique of embroidery also says that the shirt can be dated the early-middle 20th century. And the length as well – older embroidered shirts traditionally were long (ankle-length or at least below-the-knee-length).
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Ukrainian folk garments – embroidered aprons. Ovruch district, Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, the 1st half of the 20th century.
Look at these nice embroidery designs made with red and black threads (on the last apron, the black color of threads is washed out to kind of gray with time). Also, each apron has frills as embellishment.
Curious sample of Ukrainian embroidered shirt from Zhytomyr region (northern Ukraine, so-called “Polissia” or “woodland” area), the 20th century. This shirt is interesting because it has a phrase embroidered on it, which means “It’s good to love but hard to forget”. Embroidered text is rather rare but it occurs sometimes. Though, usually, it is a name or date. This one has a whole phrase.
