{My Indonesian Silk Batik Sarong & Kebaya}

Of course having lived and worked for many years in Indonesia I could not resist buying a formal Indonesian Silk Batik Sarong and a white cotton lace Kebaya. That is very much the traditional wear for the country. For normal wear it is made out of cotton batik and for special occasions the use of silk and other valuable fabrics is being used.

• Being blond and blue eyed, I fell for this blue silk batik sarong...

My photographer did cut my feet off... 

It is quite an art for putting this on yourself!

With the use of a half corset, the silk batik fabric of the Sarong is being held in place. I do wear a white camisole under the cotton embroidered lace Kebaya/blouse.

My white embroidered lace Kebaya came from Batik Nyonya Indo

Purchased at Hotel IBIS, Jl Malioboro in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

My silk batik Sarong is from SAPTOHOEDOJO

Our boss in Indonesia did bring us there often.

They had a restaurant with delicious food and she had a beatiful Art Gallery and the best batiks in town.

We also did watch beautiful Javanese dancing in her theatre!

Glad that I purchased this silk batik Sarong at her airport shop...

Related link:
{Anita Anggraeni our Foster Daughter} | previous post by me showing foster daugther Anita in her Wedding Sarong, just scroll down.

{We Both Watched Silkworms Chew Mulberry Leaves in Italy}

• When we went together on one of our consulting trips to Italy, we had quite an experience on June 6, 1986. We will never ever forget this day. After our work day, before our friend Tommaso did drop us off again, at our favorite four star hotel Bellavista in Montebelluna, Treviso, he brought us to the most unusual place we've ever been. A Sericulture or Silk Farming place! Wow, we had never ever seen anything like that! Sericulture or Silk Production... just click those hyperlinks. 
• During my fashion study we did cover the qualities of the various silks, like Japanese and Italian silks being of very high quality. I knew Thai silk as my husband had a very special tie made from Thai silk, I knew raw silk, silk georgette, silk charmeuse etc. etc. 
• But NEVER I had seen those actual silk worms. Yes, there are different types of silk worms, yielding those various silk qualities. But here we were in a kind of a huge greenhouse where racks were build and one could hear those thousands and thousands of silkworms actually chew!

• This is the actual photo that my husband Pieter made of such silkworms being on the racks. In the back you also see some cocoons.
• The entire family in this Italian town were involved. Cutting up the leaves from the mulberry trees for feeding them to those silkworms.

• This is a ready cocoon that will be good for collecting!

I got one but gave it away to my nephew for taking it to school...

• They yield 600 to 900 meters (2,000 to 3,000 feet) when unwinding, after dropping them in hot water. Poor silkworms...

• From friend Tommaso I received this Italian book about Modern Silk Worm Culture.

• Instead of copying some photos from this book, there is a link below this post where you will find plenty of silkworms eating mulberry leaves!

We did have a weeping mulberry tree near our gazebo. We cut it down as it grew so big and completely blocked our pond view. But this would be the leaves that they do prune off and chop them up like making salad, for feeding them to the silkworms!

In our wood garden we also do have a mulberry tree that does yield mulberries. Mostly they fall off and I guess the birds will feast on them. The tree is way too tall for us to get any for making jam.

Did any of you ever see this kind of silkworm farms?

Or does any of you have a mulberry tree?

Related link:
Silworms eat mulberry leaves | link from Bing with lots of photos for getting the idea

{Horst my Birth Place, Used to be an Old Linen Weavers Town}

• Most of you probably do know, how linen is produced; from Flax into Linen. 
• Flax is the world's oldest fiber plant with a lovely flower that varies from white to intense blue. Below this post you find several Flax and Linen informative links. Also you can find out more about the top linen fiber producing countries in the world today.
• Well, Horst in the province of Limburg, my Birth Place, was such an important Flax producing town and we used to have lots of home weavers and also several Flax Fens. One was only half a mile away from my Parents' home; called 't Rotven (Rotting Fen).

• On October 17, of 2005 we did make this photo of a work of art  called: ' Linen yarn drying '. The bronze work refers to the many home weaving mills that Horst once knew. The yarn was placed into water to get the tannins out. Then the yarn got dried on sticks. Hans Stoffels and Mia Daenen created this bronze piece of art work.

• With our friends Johnny and Hannah from Dublin, Georgia, we did travel in The Netherlands and we made this photo.
• Too bad that the art work has been moved away from this spot. No longer is there water around it... a pity as it did signify exactly what it was all about.
• In 1950, the last of the hundreds of home weavers quit his job. But in the 1700s it was a thriving home industry.

• Love for Linen
• Below this post you find a link that reads: Top Ten Wedding Gifts, where Quality Sheets ranks 3rd and Fine Table Linens ranks 6th. So there still is a LOVE FOR LINEN! 

This is from the Dutch magazine, NOUVEAU AUGUST 2010

• New developments and those trusted wrinkles make the age old linen the ultimate material for making it cool and elegant through summer.

• Soft, smooth, chic and flowing: linen is wonderful material that feels great on our skin...

Napkins for the King...

• Do you love linen as much as I do?
• Nowadays there is so much linen being used in interior design, such as linen jute or burlap as we know it. Even on my Zen Cart powered on line boutique Mariette's Back to Basics, I offer lots of French made jute linen gifts. 
• It makes me very happy to see a comeback of this noble fiber with the longest history on this earth of any fibers.

• Linen makes an impressive comeback. Isabella Rossellini was one of the first that discovered linen as a graceful taste maker in the 80s. 'Now you are an eco-fashionista when wearing it, but I simply found it comfortable' she said.
• What is damask? Linen is the material, damask is the pattern weave that is only visible when the light falls upon it.
• Smoothly starched or slubby? 
• Linen fiber is twelve times stronger than cotton and absorbs very strongly; It can soak up 20-25% of its own weight in moisture before feeling moist itself.
• Because it is a lose weave, the moisture dries up again fast, thus feeling cool to the touch in warm weather and warm when it gets cooler.
• Linen does not pill, has just like silk a natural shine and can be worn by almost anyone: pure linen does possess anti-allergic qualities. 
• For the cultivation of flax there is a significantly less need for pesticides and fertilizers than for other crops. The fibers can be recycled and are biodegradable in nature. (Making it Eco friendly!)
• Italian linen does have a more silky finish than for instance Irish linen, which is more 'slubby: that means that it is more irregular, with little imperfections that makes the fabric more alive. The most slubby linen currently comes from Poland and Russia.
• Nowadays linen often is being blended in with rayon or cotton: Armani and Calvin Klein love to use these blends, because they wrinkle less.

Royal table linen

One of the prettiest and most famous linen pieces is the wedding gift that Queen Wilhelmina from The Netherlands in 1947 gave to then princess Elizabeth of England. It was a complete table set of three linen damask tablecloths with 96 napkins, designed by referral of the Queen by Miss Kitty van der Mijl Dekker. The set is still being used.

In search of lovely linen... Sanny de Zoete is specialized in custom woven damask tablecloth of 100% linen after designs of Dutch artists. She does sell linens, gives mangle and laundry tips, does programs and wrote books. She has a FB Page: Sanny de Zoete Damast. World's Prettiest Antique and Designer Linen Damask.

Hoping you enjoyed reading about this favorite fiber!

Related link:
Top Ten Wedding Gifts | Quality Sheets ranks 3rd and Fine Table Linens ranks 6th
{Clothing around 1850 - Museum de Kantfabriek} | previous post by me
{Michelle Obama & Print Unlimited from Horst} | previous post by me
{Museum Lace Factory - Antique Lace Toer or Poffer} | previous post by me
HISTORY OF LINEN | also quite informative
Top Flax Growing Countries Of The World | Linen Fiber Production
Museum de Kantfabriek Horst aan de Maas | video on Youtube