Embroidered Shawls

Traditional masterpieces

Full-surface hand-stitched embroidery on fine wool, design#4

Hand-embroidered Shalimar Gita (design #5)

Pure pashmina shawls cannot ordinarily be embroidered. Some 70/30 shawls are embroidered (see our Pranabko Raato below), but a lot of the work now is done on more robust sheep-wool shawls. In Nepal, embroidery is generally done manually by machine.

This may seem contradictory, but around the world most embroidery is done by robotic embroidery machines, usually following digital directions. Most of the sewing machines in Nepal are old-style treadle-powered devices like your grandmother used. The designs are sketched on the cloth in soap, if at all -- many of the artists can do quite complicated work freehand. Such embroidery can be recognized by the perfection of stitching, and by the fact that the back side of the shawl looks almost as good as the front.

Manual stitching by hand-held needle is getting harder to find in Kathmandu. Most of the embroiderers are Muslims from India, working in small teams, paid low wages, and likely to return home for vacations and other reasons, which makes it difficult to keep to schedule. Designs are usually relatively simple, and variable in execution.

The best hand-stitching available in Nepal these days is produced by Kashmiri artists. A few come to live in Kathmandu for a while, but it seems that the finest shawls are brought in by Kashmiris families that have been in the business for generations. They generally have workshops and outlets in India as well as Nepal.

Review posted by VK on TrustPilot:

Unique pashminas I own several of their beautiful pashminas. Quality and unique pieces and great customer service. Highly recommend them.

Thanks, Vanessa! Read more reviews.

The Shalimar Gita

Fine woolen shawl with peerless full-surface hand-stitched embroidery

71 x 203 cm; 28 x 80 in.

Price: $325

Hand-stitched embroidery on fine wool (not pashmina). These are outstanding examples of the chain stitch as practiced by Kashmiri artists; for more information on this style, see the Wikipedia article.

The density of embroidery coverage varies quite a bit. What we call full-surface is relatively dense work, with an unembroidered border up to about nine-inches wide. Semi-full embroidery covers a similar proportion of the shawl, but much less densely. Full-border embroidery is concentrated around the four edges. Narrow-border embroidery is concentrated on the two shorter sides.

Below: Shalimar Gita #2

Shalimar Gita design #2: full-surface hand-stitched embroidery on fine wool

Above: Shalimar Gita Design #2

Below: Shalimar Gita #4

Shalimar Gita design #4: full-surface hand-stitched embroidery on fine wool

Above: Shalimar Gita Design #4

Below: Shalimar Gita #5

Shalimar Gita design #5: full-surface hand-stitched embroidery on fine wool

Above: Shalimar Gita Design #5

Below: Shalimar Gita #6

Shalimar Gita design #6: full-surface hand-stitched embroidery on fine wool

Above: Shalimar Gita Design #6

Below: Shalimar Gita #7

Shalimar Gita design #7: full-surface hand-stitched embroidery on fine wool

Above: Shalimar Gita Design #7

Below: Shalimar Gita #9

Shalimar Gita design #9: full-surface hand-stitched embroidery on fine wool

Above: Shalimar Gita Design #9, with full-surface embroidery

Zanskar Treadle Creations

Full-surface embroidery manually executed on treadle sewing machine

Generally, Sunrise has eschewed non-traditional confections. We look for hand-loomed fabrics, hand-dyed, and customized by labor-intensive stitchwork. The needlework on the Shalimar Gita or Nanda Devi, for example, takes three to six months to execute. Our Zanskar is produced in somewhat under one month. The handstitching is pretty much the same as it was more than a thousand years ago, while treadle sewing machines were invented in the late 1700s and probably introduced to Indian craftspeople a few years later. We're thinking that qualifies as "traditional." We understand if you prefer handstitched embroidery, but we think the Zanskar is so beautiful that we need to make it available, even if it is kind of new-fangled.

Price: $240

Below: Zanskar embroidered shawl