How to Make a Ukrainian Vyshyvanka Blouse – The Planning

Makelings latest project:
Make a Ukrainian vyshyvanka blouse for my eldest granddaughter, Gloria. This is the first installment of a four part series documenting my process for making this blouse.

What is a Vyshyvanka Blouse and why am I making one?

Vyshyvanka is the Ukrainian word for the embroidered blouses, chemises and shirts that are part of traditional Ukrainian national garb. Ancient Ukrainians believed that a vyshyvanka worked as a protective talisman for the wearer. Modern day Ukrainians wear their vyshyvanka garments as a symbol of national pride and cultural identity.

Hopefully, I’m not going to be making just the one vyshyvanka. My long range plan is to make a vyshyvanka shirt or blouse for each of my seven grandchildren – a connection to me, and to our shared Ukrainian heritage.

I Am a Ukrainian-American

My mom and dad were Displaced People. They called them DPs — people who emigrated to the USA as refugees from post-World War II Germany. Along with many of their fellow Ukrainian DPs, our family settled in one of several Ukrainian enclaves in Chicago, on the far southside. Chicago’s Ukrainian community was hardworking, tight knit, and dedicated to maintaining a link to their beloved lost homeland..

Our Neighborhood Ukrainian Hall

Much of my childhood revolved around activities at the neighborhood Ukrainian hall. This is where I went to Ukrainian school every Saturday. I learned to read and write in Ukrainian, and was also taught Ukrainian literature and history. The hall was the center of our community’s life. There we sang traditional folksongs. We memorized and recited the poetry of Taras Shevchenko. We danced Ukrainian folk dances on the hall stage dressed in the vyshyvanky our mothers made for us. At the hall we learned about making the pysanka Easter eggs. At the hall we carved and painted wood in intricate geometric patterns. Some of us learned how to play the bandura, a beautiful harp-like instrument. And it was at the hall where I was first taught the art of Ukrainian embroidery.

The Threads That Bind

Embroidery is such a connecting force in the Ukrainian community, and was very prevalent in my everyday life. Everyone had a vyshyvanka blouse or shirt in their wardrobe. Embroidered throw pillows, doilies, towels, and table linens decorated every Ukrainian home.

Once a year we went to the hall for Veshyvana Vechirnitsia — “Embroidered Evening”. On this night, it was mandatory for everyone to come dressed in embroidered clothing. Mr. Zaokopny’s band played polkas, waltzes and foxtrots, and we all danced the night away on wooden floors slippery with dancing dust.

In the 60’s and 70’s embroidered peasant clothes were suddenly the rage. I wore my now trendy vyshyvanka blouse with jeans that I also embellished — to my mother’s horror 🙂 — with colorful Ukrainian patterns around the belled bottoms. Very cool!

It has been years since I’ve done any cross stitch work — almost 30 years since Natalie and Bob were involved in Ukrainian dance (oy!) — but, all of a sudden, I’ve been itching to pick up the needle. This project is my reintroduction to the world of Ukrainian embroidery.

Through the Ages, a Handcraft Becomes a So Much More

The tradition of embellishing clothing with embroidery in Ukraine goes back many, many centuries. In 513 BC the Greek historian Herodotus talks about the colorfully embroidered clothing of the Scythian people occupying Western Ukraine. A fragment of purple fabric embroidered with gold thread dating to the first millennium AD is the oldest example of embroidery found in Ukraine. Dating from the 6th century, silver “Dancing Men” figurines wearing vyshyvanka were part of a horde unearthed in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine. The first school of embroidery in Ukraine was organized way back in the 11^th century. Throughout these centuries to the present, embroidery flourished and developed to encompass many regional styles.

The vyshyvanka first became a symbol of national identity for the oppressed when Ukraine was part of the Tsarist Russian Empire in the 19th century. As recently as the 1950’s, people were jailed in Soviet Ukraine for wearing the vyshyvanka. Beginning in 2006 on the third Thursday of May, Ukrainians all over the world began celebrating Vyshyvanka Day. And now, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the vyshyvanka blouse and shirt has become a symbol of defiance.

Regional and Symbolic Pattern and Color Traditions

Just like the design motifs drawn onto Ukrainian pysanky easter eggs, the embroidery patterns and the colors on a vyshyvanka are imbued with symbolic meaning. On a vyshyvanka blouse, every stitch has meaning. This symbolism makes an everyday item like a blouse, very personal and significant. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of embroidery patterns which vary from region to region. Ukrainian motifs and symbols include purely geometric patterns, along with more organic plant-inspired patterns and animal forms.

Beautifully handcrafted, there are also many varied stitch types and techniques included in the Ukrainian embroidery lexicon. Mereshka is a drawn thread technique combined with white-on-white embroidery originating in the Poltava region. More crewel like stitching is prevalent on the embroidery that can be found in central Ukraine. Nyzynka (counted satin stitch) and combined with intricate smocking is a common techinique in the Carpathian mountain regions. Overall, khrestyk (cross stitch) is the most commonly used technique.

Gloria’s Vyshyvanka Blouse

My goal is to make a fashionable and wearable vyshyvanka blouse for Gloria. I don’t want this blouse to be something collecting dust in a closet. I want it to be loved and worn. For these reasons, in lieu of the traditional white ground with black and bright color embroidery, I’ve decided on a color pallet to better suit Gloria and her fashion sense.

Choosing The Motifs

It was so hard for me to decide on the embroidery pattern to use for Gloria’s vyshyvanka. I poured over several PDF packets of Ukrainian patterns downloaded from an Etsy seller out of Ukraine. I also have a couple embroidery pattern books in my library. Aargh! I was overwhelmed by the vast array! So I created a few parameters to narrow down my options. My embroidery design needed to be:

• light and airy in feeling, where the ground fabric is not heavy or overcome with stitchwork
• a less geometric and more organic design – miscounting cross stitches on a geometric pattern can result in a lot of unpicking. Organic patterns are a little more forgiving
• I need one wide motif, at least 5 inches wide, to band the upper sleeve, and one border motif, approximately 1″ wide, to unify the designs on the blouse
• include symbols meaningful for Gloria, and me

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Poppies!

When searching through hundreds of patterns, I could not help but return again and again to the design used on my daughter Natalie’s vyshyvanka blouse from her dancing days.

Though I don’t practice magical thinking, I do like the symbolic meanings that have been ascribed to various patterns over the centuries. For the main motif banding the balloon sleeves, I am going with a twining, organic poppy design. To contain the “wildness” of the organic pattern, I plan to add a simple geometric border of stylized poppies. This geometric border will also be repeated on cuffs and at the neckline.

In Ukrainian culture, poppy flowers not only symbolize love and beauty, they offer protection from evil spirits. The sad thing is I don’t know what happened to Natalie’s vyshyvanka. Most likely borrowed by one of the young dancers and never returned. Though I’m not recreating the exact blouse for Natalie’s daughter Gloria, I find carrying on with the same poppy design from generation to generation to be meaningful.

A Non-Traditional Color Scheme

The iconic vyshyvanka blouse is sewn on bright white fabric using black and bright colored thread, mainly red. Modern day Ukrainian sewists have been exploring new and different color combinations, and I plan to do the same for Gloria’s vyshyvanka. I decided to go with ivory color fabric instead of traditional bright white. Ivory will better compliment Gloria’s golden skin tone. Ivory makes a nice backdrop for the analogous color scheme I selected with a focus on greens and oranges.

Next Steps

I’ve quite a lot of work to do to get to the point where I can actually begin the hand embroidery work. Stay tuned for the Upcoming Installment:
How to Make a Ukrainian Vyshyvanka Blouse — The Preparation