Checked fabric – `kraciak`

The fabric was made around 1915 in the village of Jeleniec, in the Łuków district; its maker is unknown. It is 136 cm wide and 174 cm long (sewn together in the middle). It was woven from a linen-wool thread in linen weave, with yarn of equal thickness in weft and warp on a vertical double-needle loom. The grids are square, sometimes rectangular, and form sets of symmetrical stripes, while the vertical and horizontal stripes are sometimes unequal. The vertical stripes are broader and more distinct in colour. Several colours were used in the presented fabric: navy blue, green, yellow and red (the threads were dyed with factory dyes). This fabric is classified as decorative and used for decorating objects, and residential interiors. It was used as bedspreads and to sew a woman's festive costume element, including skirts. Such fabrics were usually two-coloured (black and white, black and navy) and had smaller checks. They were called checks because of their texture. The fabric was most frequent in the last period of old clothing to make skirts with wedges or the so-called tails. They were already modelled on urban fashion. Such fabrics were still made in the 1960s, but later, there was no demand for them; moreover, their production was very labour-intensive and required a weaving workshop, which is quite large, and weavers did not have space at home to spread it out.