A few days ago I got a couple of the beachwear ‘sarongs’ made of soft Rayon.
The red/white was made in Thailand, and is a print. The bright white flowers are some sort of fabric paint. it’s about 3 1/2 feet wide x 5 feet long.
The dark blue, from Indonesia, about 4 ft x 5 ft, was done in a modified Batik way. Altho the designs were made with a wax-resist, they were ‘stamped’ rather than hand-painted. Faster production that way. The blue color is mottled like it was hand-dyed, scrunched-up.
These are what I think of when I hear the term ‘sarong’. We certainly see lots of examples of them at the beaches here in summer!
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Thanks for the photos. I love that blue/white batik.
We're seeing more and more stamped batiks due to the tremendous demand for them by quilters. It would literally be impossible to make enough to meet the needs the traditional way.
The blue rayon batik is going to become a pair of comfy elastic-waist knee-length shorts. The fringe will be trimmed off.The red fabric is being sent to my daughter, her girls will have fun dressing up in it!
I am still pondering how to place the pattern peices on these two polished-cotton prints to get a short-sleeved top & knee-length shorts. Probably size 14 or 16. The colors are the same, but not the pattern, and the pieces are 2 meters long, x 44 inches wide. Thank goodness it's for "backyard wear" in the summer, so I can get away with being creative!
These are what got me going on this 'batik' thing... they are labelled as Batik, but they are not wax resist dyed. I'm thinking maybe Batik in this case, refers to the traditional designs. The designs themselves have a lot of meaning and tradition.
Because of the wide (about 20-22 inches) border-print at one end, and the design being different on each selvege, I'd really like to know what purpose, what sort of garment, they were intended for. The design placement sure limits what you can do with it.
They are so pretty, I love soft rayon fabrics.
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