Four years ago, I designed this dress, made a pattern and started sewing. In 2018, I created a brand called Zayzelle, opened an online shop, and started making and selling the dress. I sewed the same pattern in many fabrics. I employed my friend Rosario in Teotitlan del Valle to help me. What I discovered is that building a fashion brand takes time and takes me away from Oaxaca Cultural Navigator. So, I closed the store.
Sizes and Dimensions: The dresses are all one size and will fit size large to extra-large. All have similar dimensions: 27″ wide seam-to-seam, 43″ long from the back neck opening to hem, and a 26″ sleeve that can be rolled up. This is easy dressing, unstructured, comfortable style with a relaxed drape.
Every garment is handmade. All the fabrics are fine linen or cotton. The cloth determines the look. Deep patch pockets will hold keys, cell phone, change purse or wallet, cosmetics. Finished French seams guarantee they will never unravel! Easy to care for: wash on delicate setting in the machine and hang to dry. Iron if you wish.
I have priced these dresses to sell. They are 50-75% off of the original price. Price includes USPS mail to anywhere in the USA. Mailing to Canada is extra.
How to Buy: send me an email at norma.schafer@icloud.com and I will send you an invoice to pay with credit card. Please include the Dress Number, your name, and mailing address. Thank you. I return to Mexico on October 16. All orders must be received and paid for by October 10. I will mail by October 12.
Two dresses remain: Dress #2 and Dress #9. Help me sell out!
If you don’t like the price, make an offer!
Khadi Oaxaca Clothing Now Comes in Yardage, Too
Khadi Oaxaca makes hand-spun organic cotton. Over 100 indigenous women participate in this cooperative located in the Oaxaca mountains halfway between the Oaxaca city and the coast. It takes about three hours to get there.
Dress with rolled sleeves and patch pockets.
At the winter Museo Textil de Oaxaca expoventa (show and sale), Khadi Oaxaca presented an extensive selection of beautiful clothing — mostly ponchos, quechquemitls, huipils and men’s shirts. Some of the textiles are woven on the back strap loom and others on the counterbalance pedal loom also called a flying shuttle loom.
There was lots to choose from, including bolts of beautiful handwoven material. The cotton is dyed with indigo, pericone (wild marigold) and Khadi Oaxaca also harvests and spins coyuchi, a caramel-colored, very soft wild cotton indigenous to Oaxaca and becoming very rare.
Khadi Oaxaca fabric close up, with neckline detail. Organic handspun cotton: indigo, coyuchi, pericone.
I was beside myself and had this urge to sew up a dress using a paper pattern I made from a favorite dress. I have made this dress design several times and the Khadi Oaxaca yardage was calling me. Especially the piece woven with coyuchi, indigo and pericone.
Yardage? Not exactly.
We are in Mexico and fabric length is measured in meters, not yards. We measured the dress I was wearing (one of the favorites) and decided I needed four meters, compensating for the fact that the cloth is 15-1/4″ wide. There are 0.914 meters to the yard or 1.093 yards to the meter. Never mind that after cutting out the pattern, I was substantially short! Could I make this dress sleeveless? I think not.
The Museo Textile de Oaxaca has Khadi Oaxaca textile lengths for sale. When I sent a message to Khadi Oaxaca, they told me they would bring the meters I needed to museum! Thank you and hallelujah for great customer service. Price: 350 pesos per meter.
Patch pockets. French seams! Love the slubs and irregularities of the weave.
After the intensity of our Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat last week that I fully participated in, writing about mother, father, family and home, I loved the down-time that this project gave me. I’ll be writing about the retreat in days to come.
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Textiles, Tapestries & Weaving, Travel & Tourism
Tagged cotton, coyuchi, dress design, fabric, indigo, Khadi Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca, pericone, Sewing, textiles, wild marigold, yardage