Embroidery of North L'viv Oblast, Ukraine

This couple is from the village of Pidhirtsi, south of Brody. Note again the simple overcoats, cut in a more southern style, with several gussets.

As interesting as these photos are, they do not show the embroidery which was presumably present. 

Let's take another look at the image at the head of the article. This shirt is typical of the region. Standard Halychyna cut with shoulder insert. Fold over collar. Cuffs attached to gathered sleeve. Relatively simple embroidery on the collar, cuffs, shoulder insets and upper sleeves, with wide emphatic joining stitch.

The primary palette here is black, not surprising since we are so close to the Sokal' region, with the addition of accents of red or as here, dark blue. The primary stitch used is counted satin stitch, with over cast stiches on the cuffs and collar. Taking a closer look at the joining stitch, we see that it is made in three parts. Both the upper sleeve and ustawka have something like a blanket stitch executed on their edges in black, with a joining stitch connecting their loops in blue.

 Here is a closeup that has been lightened, with the contrast exaggerated. 

Blue is extremely rare in traditional Ukrainian embroidery. It is used as an accent along with many other colors in some Hutsul and Halychyna embroideries, indigo thread is used in Poltavian embroideries in the region of Hadiach, but is mostly unknown otherwise, especially such a dark shade. 

[Yes, you will see cross stitch embroideries done in light and dark blue, but this is a recent fad]

But this shade of dark blue seems to be an integral part of this region's embroidery. 

Here is another example, by a well known contemporary embroiderer, Mahdy Dzvin. Here we see many of the same elements. Relatively simple and narrow design. Black and dark blue counted satin stitch. She has made more extensive use of the joining stitch, and she used all black. She has customized the front opening of the shirt in an interesting but non traditional style, opting for no collar. Running stich and overcast blanket stitch are in evidence, as in our first example. 

Here is what seems to be the shoulder of a woman's shirt. Notice that here again, the joining stitch is done in both black and blue. The other characteristics of the design also align with this style.

Here is a modern style man's shirt using the same embroidery design.

Here is another example. Here the black and have been joined by green. There are more rows of embroidery, and there is no joining stitch used. The embroidery here is also present around the front opening. 

In this example we see an extremely small embroidery design all in black. 

Here is a sampler from the region which includes the design on the shoulder inset above which is not well visible in the photo.

Here is another example of shoulder embroidery. 

Here is another shirt from Zhowkva region. The motifs are smaller but are combined to make a larger composition.

The following are shoulder inset embroideries from Zhowkva region. 

The following are designs from a shirt collar from the Zhowkva region. 

http://glishchynska.blogspot.com/2015/12/blog-post_14.html

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. I encourage you to try your hand at this style of embroidery if you are so inclined. 

Roman K

email: rkozakand@aol.com