Kasuthi Embroidery Lends Exuding Charm To The Woman Who Wears It

By Author: Lakshmi
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Kasuthi work is very intricate handiwork on sarees, which lends charm and elegance to the woman who wears it.

Kai means “Hand” and suthi means “Cotton”. Hence Kasuthi would come to mean that work that is done using cotton and by hand. Kasuthi works have the origin in Karnataka, India.

The speciality of Kasuthi embroidery work is, it is entirely done by women. The embroidery work takes part on sarees, cholis, and clothes and is essentially a home craft. Very intricate patterns like palanquin, gopura, lamps, chariot and conch shells involved in kasuthi embroidery works.

The Kasuthi work is done by the workers with dedication & patience and they uses 4 different stitches like Murgi, Ganti, Menthi and Neygi. These works involves concentration.

For embroidery work, the workers use a hand woven cloth of dark colours. The pattern that is to be embroidered is first marked with pencil and then proper needle and threads are selected. The patterns are stitched without using knots to ensure that both sides of the cloth look alike. To obtain desired pattern, workers make different stitches with different ...
... directions to the cloth.

The basic embroidery works of Kasuthi are zig-zag, cross stitch, back stitch and running stitch. The Kasuthi stitches are horizontal, vertical and diagonal. In running stitch, the stitch will go in one direction and then the blank portions will be filled in return time.

The history of kasuthi dates back to the “chalukya” period. The women courtiers in the “Mysore kingdom” were proficient in 64 arts, with kasuthi being one of them.

Some interesting facts of kasuthi sarees are,
Flower patterns are usually the basic patterns that beautify the look and feel of saree. Kasuthi Designs replicates the rangoli styles and patterns. Karnataka sarees and dharwad sarees also use kasuthi designs, with the same motifs.
Kasuthi saris with wide silk pallu and border are well known as IIkal sarees, these are well suitable for professional wear. Kasuthi dresses with embroidery work looks professional as well as trendy.
The future is moving towards the fashion. The latest designs of Kasuthi became trend setters of the fashion world.