Awe-Striking Weaver-Manipulated Lace Weaves Are Incredibly Meticulous

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The Romanian blouse: an apparently simple clothing item packed with history and hard work. Not only do the Romanian blouse have a storied past, but they are also making fashion waves in the present. Many celebrities have been seen showing off their Romanian blouses. Their earliest primary purpose was likely to provide warmth. „Originally, before WW2,  the traditional Romanian blouses were commonly used by the laboring classes and embellished with only loom woven motifs in colors specific to our village: white, black and yellow, burgundy and cream, green, brown and black, brown and yellow”, says Mrs. Carcea Teodora from the village of Vicovu de Jos, Suceava county. „The mid-1900s saw an introduction of needlework patterns and weaver-manipulated lace weaves.”, she continues.

Generally, dark and earthy shades are characteristic to blouses made in the mountainous regions and Vicov sits at the foothill of Obcina Mare ridge.

Carcea Teodora and her daughter, Țugui Maria Magdalena, are two of the few weavers from Vicov, but the complexity of their designs make them quite unique in the whole region. As I sit and watch Mrs. Teodora lace weaving , I can see why it takes over two weeks to finish one blouse.

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With a needle, she picks up to make a shed and she passes the shuttle through there. The technique is called lace weaving and it is very rare, as it requires a lot of patience.

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In a lace weave, the fill yarn passes through the shed formed by picking up two (or more) of the upper warp threads and pulling them over the under ones and putting the under ones on the needle. There are two yarns going one way and two yarns going the other way, forming a little x.

Weaving lace by hand creates a fabric using a needle and thread to weave hundreds of small holes. She uses thin white cotton warp and satin cotton wefts that give a soft, shiny finish to the fabric.

The warp and weft are so thin that it takes minutes to weave just one row. The result of the intricate process is a high quality and valuable design.

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