The history of Ukrainian traditional embroidered dress originates in ancient times.
Even before the formation of Kievan Rus, there was a custom to wear an embroidered shirt - embroidered with a unique pattern for the holiday, for every day - from coarse fabric, sometimes decorated with a small pattern.
Traditionally, embroidered shirts were made from coarse fabric - homespun hemp or linen.
This is both an unbleached grayish cloth and snow-white, worn for a holiday.
Ukrainian embroideries have a lot of similarities with the traditional costumes of other East Slavic peoples. The similarity was both in cut and in pattern.
Each region of Ukraine had its own characteristics in the applied colors of the pattern:
Poltava region
In the Poltava region, a white pattern on white fabric was adopted. Very often it was a white surface. Sometimes there were patterns made with red or gray threads. The white pattern was surrounded by colored or black lines.
Bukovina
In Bukovina, in a pattern on an embroidered shirt, there are black, yellow and orange colors. For the pattern, various threads are used - silk, wool. A lot of bead embroidery. Traditionally used pattern with the image of animals.
South of Ukraine
South Ukrainian patterns usually consist of many colors. The main motifs of the picture are floral patterns. The pattern is done with a cross or half-cross.
Chernihiv region
In the Chernihiv region, the pattern was made with thin threads with a characteristic pattern of small stitches inherent in this particular region. The colors of the threads are white, black, red, blue, yellow.
Volyn region
In the Volyn region, the embroidery pattern is characterized by a predominantly one-color simple compositional pattern made with red thread.
Polesie region
In the Polesie region, the pattern for cross stitch consists of a continuous ornament of flowers or geometric shapes in black and red. This is usually a simple drawing. Embroidery with red thread on white or unbleached linen.
Kiev region
In the Kiev region, the pattern of embroidered shirts is dominated by the interweaving of geometric and floral patterns of red, white and black. Plant patterns of grapes are intertwined with hop cones, rhombuses and squares. Slight use of black to color the picture.
Podolsky region
Podolsk patterns are distinguished by a combination of different embroidery techniques. A cross and a simple surface are used. The main ornament is made in one color, but small details can be made with a palette of different thread colors. Podolsk embroideries are distinguished by variegated colors.
Ternopil region
In the Ternopil region, patterns are made with very dense stitches. This gives the patterns relief and volume. As a rule, this is a one-color pattern edged with a thread of a different color.
Carpathians
Carpathian ornaments stand out very much. A very large wealth of thread colors. According to the pattern of Carpathian embroidery, you can identify the place where such a product was made with an accuracy of one village. Each village had its own unique ornament and its own combination of colors.
Transcarpathia
Embroidered shirt of Transcarpathia are distinguished by a zigzag pattern. The main colors are red and black, with the predominance of which one color.
Vinnytsia region
Vinnytsia embroidered shirts are characterized by a mixture of different embroidery techniques. Are used and smoothness, and a hemstitch, and a cross-stitch.
Lviv region
A combination of various techniques in a pattern is characteristic of Lviv embroidery. The patterns consist of elements located at a great distance from each other, which gives the ornament airiness.
Zaporizhzhya region
Zaporizhzhya embroidered shirts are embroidered in red and black colors, with a predominance of red. The patterns, in most cases, are not intricate - large and geometric. Traditionally, plant motifs are used.
Ivano-Frankivsk region
Ivano-Frankivsk embroidered shirts are considered to have the richest finish and execution. A variety of ornaments and thread colors. The drawing is very dense and filled with elements.
Traditional Ukrainian pattern
Currently, patterns for Ukrainian embroidered shirts are performed as in ancient times - manually.
But this is if you need to make embroidery in a single copy.
For the production of embroidered clothing in an industrial volume, modern technologies are used - computer machine embroidery.
So the ancient art of needlework has gained continuation in the modern century of industrial production.