A Pieced and Patched Bast Fiber Apron: Beautiful Backlit

early twentieth century
28" x 36 1/4", 71 cm x 92 cm

This is a finely woven, pieced and patched, indigo dyed hemp or ramie apron that shows three patches.

The translucent indigo dyed cloth was no doubt repurposed from a kimono and it shows patches and a spray of holes here and there which can be seen if you pore over the photos shown here.

Because of the seaming, piecing and patching this piece looks especially nice when backlit which is illustrated in the lead photo here. The structure and the details show particularly well and the translucency is a wonderful essential factor in this piece, when exploited, is visually gratifying.

A nice piece of hand stitched cloth from someone's everyday life in old Japan.