From:

city of Enotaevsk, Astrakhan region.

Time:

1860s.

Made of:

hemp.

Embroidery technique:

cross stitching, counted satin stitch.

Made by

Thaina (Theonia) I. Kovaleva.

Property of

Janna Willson.

This dress is a part of Southern-Russian women's costume (so-called poneva-style). Despite the Southern origin of the dress, it includes Northern details of a style (i.e., it has rectangular paliki (shoulder details)). The dress's body (called stanushka) is made in three touches technique (touch means a piece of a cloth): two pieces are sewn along the side of a body, and the third one is folded and attached to the previous two at 3/4 front and back.

The dress is decorated by embroidered flowers and tree branches. There are no ancient patterns of Tree of Life here - the designs used here are just "pictures". However, the decoration is placed in accordance with ancient symbolism of protective graphic spells yet:

		a hemline bears a graphic "prayer for fertility"
		paliki are embroidered colorfully to remind to spirits of ancestors this woman is a mother, and she needs an appropriate protection and help
		the collar and the cuff are trimmed with embroidered band of flowers and leaves instead of an ancient-stlye plain-red "fire line".
		the collar has no front cut, but embroidered line supposed to be along the cut is here

Two embroidery techniques used here are: crossstitching (at a hemline, and imaginary front cut), and counted satin stitch (sleves, cuffs, and paliki).

1. F.M.Parmon, "Traditional Russian Costume as a Source of Ideas"
2. G.S.Maslova "Designs of Traditional Russian Embroidery".
3. V.Ya.Propp, "Russian Agricultural Rituals"