A Length of Naturally Pleated Shibori Cotton: Baby Sling

early twentieth century
90" x 11 1/2", 228.5 cm x 29 cm

This is a long piece of indigo dyed cotton shibori that is shown here knotted and slightly splayed at the ends.

The entire length is naturally pleated or creased from use--it was said to have been used as a baby sling. Upon inspecting this length of cotton shibori it can be seen that it is one continuous length and it is not stitched together from several pieces. For this reason it seems likely that it was indeed used to carry babies.

The pattern is a type of a pleated shibori that is punctuated by dark spots of indigo, probably an allusion to a sunrise or the sun. The cotton itself is of good quality, is fairly old, and it has a nice, hand woven texture. There are a few, almost-unnoticeable faint stains.

As it is a long piece is can be used in many different ways and as it is naturally pleated it can also be ironed flat--although the ingrained creases may never flatten perfectly.

This is a really nice length of shibori dyed cotton.