In Transcarpathia, traditional long shirts were recreated for the first time

Recently, in the museum of folk architecture, masters from Uzhgorod presented their works – shirts of different areas of Transcarpathia recreated according to ancient techniques and cuts. The craftswomen worked in the studio of Transcarpathian folk embroidery at the museum – as a result, for the first in the region, replicas of ancient shirts of Borzhava valley inhabitants (Irshava district) and Transcarpathian Boykos were recreated.

The women were working on the shirts for almost a year – first, they studied the techniques and stitches on ancient specimens from the museum collections, then chose the ones which they wanted to practice, and then the longest period began – actual work with needle and thread. According to the masters, sewing an ancient ornament is just half of the job, it is much more difficult to piece the shirt together.  

– Without the help of my colleagues – Galina Munchak and Victoria Spivak – on how to cut a shirt, how to piece it together, I would not have coped – Uzhgorod master Tetyana Zavodyak, who worked on Irshava shirt, says. 

– The hardest part in the reconstruction of old shirts was to determine the correct proportions of cut, – famous Uzhgorod seamstress Victoria Spivak says.

Her colleague Galina Munchak adds that there was a lot of work with ripples typical for shirts in all districts of the region.

– Making embroidery on ripples is not as difficult as putting it together, and then inserting this puzzle correctly into the overall design of the shirt. If you make a mistake in size, it all goes athwart – the mistress says.

The museum awarded the women with special diplomas confirming their new skills.

The mistresses promise to show their reconstructed shirts to the general public at the first parade of embroidery.