German Prints

This weekend Kim took me to a local fabric shop. It definitely had a clothing slant with poly blends and dress fabrics. A nice selection of linen which I may take advantage of. But what I was really there for was the wall o' German Prints.

(Lance just asked me to say how wonderful he is - we are eating lunch at a local cafe. It's Mefliam Monday so we needed something substantial in our stomachs.)

So German Prints!

The brand is called Three Cats and I found this write up on a South African Quilt Guild website:

"An Indigo dyed cotton fabric was brought to South Africa by German settler women in the mid-19th century and traders began importing this fabric from Europe. Xhosa women gradually also started using this fabric for clothing.

A German factory developed a cheaper synthetic indigo dye in the 1890s and the fabric was manufactured in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. When this manufacturer emigrated to England in the 1930's the fabric was then made in England under the 'Three Cats' trade name.

In 1982 Da Gama Textiles first started production of German Print in SA, in the Eastern Cape, under the 'Three Leopards' logo, which is the African version of the 'Three Cats.' The recipe for the dye is a closely guarded secret and it is a synthetic, unlike the original indigo dyes. There are many different designs printed on these fabrics, which are usually blue but may also be printed in maroon and brown. The Xhosa ladies still wear these dresses."

And Botswana women do as well. These ladies were nice enough to let me take their photo in a local grocery store. The woman in blue said she doesn't smile for photos which is too bad because she has a beautiful smile. The dresses make liberal use of satin stitch with white thread to create designs. Not a lot of women wear them but they are always a joy to see.

So here is what I bought.

Most of them were very small prints with the exception of the ones with the HUGE (10 inches easy) smiling picture of Nelsen Mandela. I am not making this up. Pic to follow. They worked out to be a little under $6 per meter. Not cheep but not much is here in Gabs. It smelled soooooo strongly of wax which I initially misattributed to it just being new fabric but under closer examination I believe it is made by batik process. ("DUH" all those in the know say but I was pretty surprised.) I'm so accustomed to thinking of batik as primarily the swirly tie-dye looking stuff in the states but I forget its a process more than an effect. I really need to do some research on how fabric is printed in general. All things are possible once we get steady internet access.

So I washed the fabrics, they shrunk by about 10% and got to work. As we will be spending a ton of time on the road, I'm going to use them for a Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern I can do in the car. I packed a batik jelly roll (the tie-dye kind) and have some yellow and orange that will be perfect for the centers. Pics to follow. : )