The folk costume

Making

To a folk costume it is necessary to have abilities which are being transferred from the generation to the generation. At present a folk costume is worn occasionally often during church celebrations, however embroidery and laces are still widespread. Many women make traditional embroidery motives on contemporary functional forms, mainly on linen napkins. As for aprons,they are part of the outfit in the Kurpie region. Motifs of laces are still used in tablecloths and digressions to the underwear. Strings of amber beads comprise exeptional ornament of the outfit of the Kurpie culture because this part of the region was famous for amber products. Craftsmen treated amber in a very unusual way with the use of weaving spinning wheel. To this day only few of them who make the souvenir objects in the technique mentioned above. We can meet them on local fairs or inspections of the regional works of art. Both young and elderly women in the Kurpie region used to interwine their hair into two plaitsand and tied them together with a ribbon. Sometimes, they covered them with the shawl. Shawles were usually red or yellow with flowery pattern.In the winter older women covered their heads and backs with big, woollen, scarves. Girls used to interwine hair into plaits and they tied them with colourful ribbons. To church celebrations or family landmarks they put the foreheads' on , i.e. tall head-dresses made of cardboard covered with black velvet and decorated with colourful appliqué, usually with sequins, flowers and ribbons. The ribons were worn on the left or back of the head(they were a sign of the woman's wealth).Now, foreheads are a genuine and characteristic element of the costume worn by inhabitants of the Kurpie region. Girls clothes were supplemented by a few strings of beads (usually made of amber). Wedding costume was decorated with a string made of artificial flowers with the bunch of ribbons hanging on the back.