Shweshwe Fabric

The first time I saw shweshwe fabric I couldn't believe anyone would use it as it was so stiff. The native South Africans make "native" dresses with the more traditional prints, but there are some lovely modern styles. I learned from some of the other missionary sisters that the trick to make the fabric softer was by soaking it in water and removing the heavy glue that was used in the manufacturing process. I am going to make a couple of lap size quilts when I get home. We went to Edenvale to buy the fabric on the 21st and found some lovely blue and greens. After coming home with it and 1 piece of pink (of course I love pink!) I decided we needed to go back and get some pink which we did yesterday - October 28th. Interestingly, in going back there were only a couple of blue green fabrics and some of the pink I had like the week before was gone, but I still found some I liked. I have a photo of all the fabrics (the blue and greens have been laundered and are no longer stiff) and one each of closeups of each color range. Note that I have one pink standing up to show how stiff it is before soaking the glue off in the bathtub (also shown). I can hardly wait to get home and make some cute quilts!

Soaking some of the pink to remove glue

Chamdor, the store that sells fabric and other items. Sister Deamer says it is "Joann's on steroids!"

This is the shweshwe area. It was difficult to move the fabric to find what you want as it is heavy!

Sign about shweshwe

Modern or "Original" pattern shweshwe

Traditional patterns in foreground