SailingKnitter

In these hot, tropical Caribbean lowlands of Guatemala, the Mayan women wear these lacy blouses (huipil) over spaghetti strapped camisoles rather than the heavy woven fabrics seen in the cool higher alttitude villages. Their shape is a simple rectangle folded in half and a neck opening cut out. Then a small area is sewn up the sides leaving a hole for the arms. This leaves a lot of fabric draped (flopping about) at the sides and underarms. Most of the ones I see are machine made airy fabric with intricate bottom borders, sometimes with floral fringes. Some are hand crocheted such as the three pastel colored huipils at the far left of this photo taken of a local street vendor.

The embroidery around the neck opening is machine made in these, but sometimes you can see hand-embroidered samples walking by. Hmmm. I wonder if anyone would be interested in knitted lace?

The Mayan women wear long woven skirts. You can see the fabrics for the skirts leaning against the huipils in the top photo and also here's another pic. In this area, the skirts are quite full and gathered rather than the straight line wraps of other areas of Guatemala. It seems that shiny threads of gold running through the skirt fabric are very popular in this area. The black and white semi-patterned areas are ikat or tie-dyed. The threads are dyed before weaving, and the patterns appear as the cloth is woven.

This lovely woman was embroidering a blouse while tending her vegetable stand here in the Rio Dulce. Her huipil is not typical of this area with the heavy tapestry style fabric so she is probably originally from another village (Chichicastenago?).


These are not "dress-up" or ceremonial clothes, but rather are the everyday wear for these women. I don't know how long this traditional form of dress will be around, but I so enjoy looking at the beautiful and colorful fabrics! So much so that I've been inspired to dig out my embroidery floss and perhaps give it a go as a border on a simple tank top. For me...not for Jonesy. He looks just fine in his traditional cruiser outfit of tee-shirt, shorts, ball cap and sandals or crocs.