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Black Heirloom Hand Embroidered Traditional Ethnic Boho Dress from the Holy Land Cross Stitch Unique One of a Kind Fair Trade Widening Sleeves

Black Heirloom Hand Embroidered Traditional Ethnic Boho Dress from the Holy Land Cross Stitch Unique One of a Kind Fair Trade Widening Sleeves

Description

Black silky rayon full length dress entirely embroidered by red, yellow and orange thread cross stitch.

Notice that highly decorated square chest panel of the dress had a slight imperfection in embroidery (it will probably take you a long time before you spy this hidden "mistake"). This is not an accident, but done on purpose and according to an ancient tradition. In order to avoid an "evil eye", bad luck and illness, the “mistake” was stitched in each garment, often on the vulnerable chest area and on the back of the garment. That was done in order to distract other women looking at it.

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See more great photos of this and two other Holy Land Embroidered dresses on my Flickr, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilies_of_the_valley/sets/72157620703231289/
and here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilies_of_the_valley/sets/72157619182479933/
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This fabulous unique dress fit for a Princess from 1001 Nights, has been embroidered by several women who worked for 5 weeks to create this garment.

Besides creating and producing exclusive Lilies of the Valley designs - maternity and nursing outfits, baby wraps and textile jewelry, Lilies also collaborate with an embroidery co-op run by women of the Biblical Hebron District, Israel.

There are about 120 women from 7 different villages in the Hebron District who work in the co-op. The co-op’s shop is the only business run by women in Old Hebron. Each piece, created by women for Lilies of the Valley is one-of-a-kind, entirely hand made and created with respect for the ancient tradition of the Holy Land embroidery.

Many of the co-op’s women-artisans said that the co-op is an necessary part of their family’s income. They stressed that the co-op is especially important to women who are unmarried or whose husbands cannot find work. The women emphasized their desire to be self-sufficient.

At Lilies of the Valley, we operate on the strict principles of the Fair Trade.

Added on Nov 06, 2009