Waist girdle no. 112

Girdle (uçkur/uşgur) which passes through the hem of the underwear (iç donu) and is fastened in front to show the two embroidered edges. It is made of silk in its natural, ivory colour. One long side has a loom-woven selvedge, the other three sides a narrow hem made with the sewing machine. The decoration consists of two different floral patterns side by side; the first comprises two flowers with five petals each, embroidered with blue or mauve and dark red thread. Between the petals are fine linear patterns in backstitch. The stems are yellow, the leaves off-white outlined in dark green. Between the two flowers, above and below, there are star-shaped motifs with a small hole in the middle. One drawn thread forms a line separating the flowers from the next pattern, namely two groups of three flowers in oblique arrangement with similar leaves and four stars. The colours here are bright pink (gypsy pink, çingene pembesi) for two flowers of each group, yellow for the stem and off-white for the leaves which have dark green contours. One flower in each group is dark red, another has two colours, off-white and dark red, with a dark green contour like the leaves. The embroidery is fine with well made filling stitch (dolgu işi), and backstitch (iğne ardı) for stems and other lines. Two girdles could be made out of this piece, each 14cm wide (total width 28cm). Length: 1.66m.