A Swati Shahtoosh shawl in deep mustard gold, with a wide hand-embroidered lattice border on all four sides and a paisley buta set on the field inside each corner.
Block-printed, then embroidered by hand
The design does not go straight onto the cloth. It is first printed on with carved wooden blocks — an outline in washable ink that maps every line the embroiderer will follow. The blocks themselves are cut by a separate craftsman and a workshop may use the same set for decades.
The embroiderer then works the whole design by hand over that printed line. The ink washes out at the end, leaving only thread. It is worth understanding what this does and does not mean: the block guarantees the placement is even and the borders match corner to corner, but every stitch, every colour change and all the shading is still done by hand, one needle at a time. A printed shawl would be finished at the printing stage. This one is where the work begins.
A geometric border, not a floral one
We carry mustard in more than one embroidery, and this is the one that breaks pattern. Our other mustard piece is floral — a narrow leaf-and-vine line at the edge with a small buta in each corner. This border is jali work: a deep trellis of diamonds, each one filled with a tiny cross and flower head, with leaf-shaped eyes set along the rows and a fine scalloped line closing it top and bottom. The paisley is lifted out of the border here and placed on its own on the open field, so it reads as a motif rather than a corner finish.
Geometry is the harder thing to embroider by hand. A vine forgives a wandering stitch because no two leaves are meant to be identical; a diamond grid does not — every cell has to be the same size and every row has to stay square across the full width of the shawl, and the eye catches any cell that drifts. This is the border a workshop gives to a steady hand.
The colour
Deep mustard gold, warm rather than bright, and one of the few strong colours that reads as a neutral once it is on. It suits men and women equally and works over black, brown, cream and olive alike. The border is worked in rust, teal, rose and green, which keeps it from going tonal against the ground.
The cloth itself carries a fine self-coloured diamond lattice, visible only when the light moves across it — the same geometry as the border, one woven in and one stitched on.
Details
- Swati Shahtoosh — handwoven in Salampur, Swat, and hand embroidered in Multan
- Self-coloured diamond lattice through the ground
- Wide hand-embroidered jali lattice border on all four sides, with a paisley buta on the field at each corner
- Design block-printed first, then embroidered entirely by hand
- Approx. 40" × 80"
- Dry clean only — store folded and away from direct light
Each shawl is embroidered by hand, so slight variation between pieces is expected and is the mark of hand work rather than a fault.
Ships in Attan's branded box with a thank-you card, ready to gift.
