Tied Dyed Body Wrap

Singer treadle sewing machines were introduced into West Africa in the late 19th century. Before long machine stitched resist techniques were invented by many West African cultures from Nigeria to the Ivory Coast. Machine resist is done on mill produced cloth as otherwise it would snag. The cloth is pleated, machine stitched and dyed. Then the machine stitched cotton thread is unpicked by a razor blade. Machine stitched resist work is easily identified as the design is more linear and the stitching finer than hand stitched resist.This example is made on mill produced white shirting yardage and instead of pleats it was folded in four quarters before stitching.