Gol Duzi (A Constructive Break from the Entari)

It's been silent far too long here. It's very hard to keep updates on costumes that, well, aren't moving along so fast or are just filled with boring tasks.

The entari has been giving me some trouble. I just have no desire to work on it right now. It's very tedious in a sense because it's very repetitive, but not in a way you can easily "lose" yourself in.

So I'd like to share with you another project that I've undertaken in preparation for some of the other articles of clothing I will be working on later. It's an ancient form of art from Iran, dating back thousands of years, called gol duzi. I believe in English, it may sometimes be called "Rasht work" after the city of Rasht that uses gol duzi to attach felt appliques to garments.

Detail from a panel from Rasht, Gilan, Iran, here

Right now though, we're going to start with a simple gol duzi in an unmistakeable Persian pattern: The Boteh, or as the English-speaking world calls it, the Paisley.
Actually, this is a good time for a little history lesson as well.

What is a boteh, and why do Anglophones call it a Paisley?

A boteh is a symbolic representation of either a bouquet of flowers, ferns, and other plants, or a cluster of leaves from the "sarv" tree (Cupressus sempervirens). The term is still referred to as "boteh" in French, as during the cultural exchange between France and the Qajar Empire many concepts were shared and the names given from the culture borrowed from were kept intact (one reason why we have so many French words in Farsi).
So if France kept the name proper, why then did English change it?
Manufacture.
See, the boteh was such a popular design, and so expensive to import, than many places more "local" to the demand began to mimic it. And Paisley, a town in Scotland, was the place that became famous for being the foremost locality to produce it.
And so, in the English speaking world, it became known as the paisley.

Ok, so now that we know where the paisley comes from, let's make one.

Gol duzi is pretty simple. It's really about planning the design. The first one I made today had no plan in the design. Consequently, it came out just a bit lacking in form. It's not a terribly time consuming activity either. I made this in about 5 minutes.

 Not too bad for a quickie.

For a more filled and beautiful gol duzi we're going to actually plan first. So here's what you need:

• A piece of muslin fabric (after all, this is a "trial" or "practice" gol duzi. No need to put it on your nice fabrics first, just in case you make a mistake!)
• Embroidery floss in 4 colors. I'm using the plain old DMC stuff from JoAnn's that you can get for like $0.39 a piece.
• Embroidery needles. Again, nothing special, just the DMC needles sold next to the floss for about $2-4 a pack. I will state though make sure they're metal with a sharp point. We are going through fabric after all.
• Embroidery/Quilting hoop. These come in either plastic or wood and in a variety of sizes at JoAnn's. Choose a size relative to your piece of fabric and your design (you do NOT want to have to move the hoop in the middle of your embroidery, it can seriously warp your design). I used to have a bunch of vintage ones that were rubber on the outside and springy metal on the inside. I LOVED them, but sadly when I moved the first time, they were left behind in the chaos. If you ever manage to come across those types, I HIGHLY suggest them. they're so much easier.
• A mechanical pencil (you can use a regular one too, I just prefer mechanical)
• A design either in your head or one you've found online to trace onto the fabric. For this project I'll be providing this one for you.

So now we've got the stuff all together and are ready to go. This boteh is the main part of a comb bag I'm going to be making for a wooden Qajar style comb.

Comb bags were quite popular. Well, maybe not, but there's a lot of surviving extant examples of them.

 These are a few I've had saved up and stored on my harddrive for "pretties" and inspiration. I don't know where they came from, there's a good chance that they're from the Hotz collection though.

So we begin by tracing the design onto the muslin (or fabric of your choice). I prefer to do this once the muslin is secured in the hoop, so that the design doesn't stretch or go funny. Some people might find it easier to do it the other way around. Again, this is an "easy" busy work project, so whatever works best for you is the way to go.

If you're not using muslin, but a more solid fabric, I suggest tracing the pattern through with some chalk, like you would mark a sewing pattern. Printer paper isn't ideal for this, so you might want to trace with tracing paper first, then use the chalk to mark through the traced pattern.

Next, we begin to outline with the thread. those who are unfamiliar with a chain stitch, never fear! They're pretty easy. The key is remembering to not pull too tight, nor leave it too loose, and you'll do just fine.

Actually, you know what would explain this better? A video.:)

So when you're finished, you should have something somewhat like this.

Hopefully yours looks better, but if not, that's ok too! At least then I know I'm not the only one who had some trouble.

Please ignore the stray thread twisting there. It twisted up and around the frame, and I just noticed it. Looking at this. I'm not more glad than ever now that I decided to practice prior to attacking actual articles of clothing. I definitely can improve!