| Indispensable Indigo - The Deepest of Blue | |||||||||||||||||||
| The Indigo
Project The purpose of this project is to study the roots and role of indigo-dyed fabrics in American quilts. Indigo is a unique, colorfast dye, universally used to dye and pattern fabrics from several centuries BC to the present. Most traditional blue and white quilts are made with indigo fabrics manufactured in Europe and America. Although there is no easy way to detect indigo dye in a quilt, it is recognizable by the deep rich color, even when the fabrics are well worn. Another hallmark of indigo fabrics is that heavy wear patterns will cause the high spots to be lighter blue, while fabrics protected inside folds and seams remain dark. In contrast, synthetic blue dyes are particularly light sensitive and fade more uniformly. Following is a survey of blue and white quilts, definitions and descriptions and a bit of information regarding indigo dye production. |
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Indigo Quilts Survey |
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| Definitions | |||||||||||||||||||
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Indigo fabrics appear in five types of American quilts: calimanco, blue resist, penciled calicoes, toiles, and chemical-discharge roller-printed. Of these, only the first would have used yarn that was dyed and hand-woven in early American homes. Calimanco |
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| Penciled Calico | |||||||||||||||||||
According to Florence Pettit, author
of America's Blues, an early effort  at
producing white ground fabric with a blue design was called penciling. This
technique was introduced in the 1730s and involved painting directly on
fabric with indigo mixed with chemicals and thickeners, before the indigo
had a chance to oxidize.2
This had to be done very quickly and was therefore rather imprecise. It
was usually used in combination with block prints, in other colors, creating
elaborate floral chintz patterns. Indigo blue is the color that brings the
otherwise earth-toned florals to life. Penciled blue appears in broderie-pierce
quilts in the late 1700s. Broderie-pierce describes "delicate cutout
designs of print fabric, usually chintz, applied to a solid foundation fabric
with fine embroidery stitches".3
Indian palampores and calicoes were cut into their separate designs
and spread around the surface of a bedspread to stretch the special and
expensive fabric as far as possible. Most of them feature a central medallion
motif, as do other whole-cloth quilts of the day. Penciled indigo plays
a small but important role in this group of broderie-pierce quilts. |
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Blue Resist |
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Blue Resist is a fascinating group of quilts
in America with a controversial provenance. These fabrics appear to be
originally made as furnishings such as curtains, upholstery or bed hangings.
Blue resist fabrics are "made by an elaborate resist-dye method".4
This fabric was made with a combination of applying resist by hand to
areas around block printed designs. The result is a white ground fabric
with light and dark blue designs. The fabric can be simple or sophisticated
depending on the number of different areas resisted during subsequent
dips in the indigo dye vat. There is disagreement over whether they were
printed in America or in England for export to America. According to Pettit
those that weigh in on the side of England base their argument on the
notion that the American textile industry was too primitive at the time
to produce such fabric. Those on the American side of the argument cite
the fact that these fabrics don't appear in collections outside of the
U.S. and rebut the notion of inexperience by noting such accomplished
American printers such as John Hewson. Pettit presents a convincing argument
on the side of an American source for these fabrics, but concludes by
saying "Three hundred years of uncertainty cannot be erased by an
educated guess."5
The blue-resists appear in quilts mainly as whole-cloth, but are used
as center panels, borders and occasionally cut up for pieced blocks. They
are always easily recognizable. One such quilt is included in Mary Cross'
Quilts of the Morman Migration. She points out that the blue resist fabric
in this quilt was known to be part of the bed curtains and valance that
belonged to the quilt makers mother in 1810. Cross said, "this was
and continues to be an acceptable way of preserving special fabrics as
family treasures."6 |
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| Toiles | |||||||||||||||||||
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Toiles are also whole-cloth quilts made
from furnishing fabrics. These fabrics are copperplate |
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| Blue Print | |||||||||||||||||||
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Chemical-discharge roller-print |
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 Discharge-printed
fabrics make up the group of indigo quilts with which we are most familiar.
Discharge printing was developed in the late 18th century and was first
successfully used for indigo about 1826.10
In this process, color is removed from dyed fabric creating white designs.
This method is called chemical-discharge because of the bleaching effect
of the paste that is printed on a solid ground. This inexpensive method
made possible a seemingly infinite number of fabrics printed with intricate
white designs. Discharge-printed indigo fabrics had the added appeal of
being colorfast and was often used for everyday washable clothing. Discharge
prints also imitated European blue-print but it was easier and cheaper to
produce than the resist method and almostindistinguishable. |
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| Sources | |||||||||||||||||||
| Dye - production | |||||||||||||||||||
 Many
plants can produce indigo dye, but the one that makes the strongest most
reliable color is Indigo tinctoria of the pea family (legumes). This plant
is a 4 to 5 foot shrub that grows all over India. Other countries that it
was native to are China, Indonesia, and the northern parts of South America.
Sewn late in March it will reach the height of a man by June. If cut with
a knife not too close to the ground, new shoots will come up from the roots
ready to harvest again with in a couple of months. 2 to 3 crops can be expected
per year. 13The production process to make indigo dyestuff differs in details from one country to another, but following is an abridged version of how it is made. The indigo plant is cut, placed into large vats, covered with water and remains there during fermentation. When fermentation is complete, the liquid is drawn off and the remains are whipped or beaten until scum forms. This is left until a paste settles at the bottom of the vat, which is then filtered and heated to remove impurities. The remainder is pressed into cakes and dried. It is then ready to dye yarn or fabric. (An alternate fermentation method is to compost the leaves14). |
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| The indigo dye process | |||||||||||||||||||
 To
begin the dye process, cakes of indigo dyestuff must be ground and mixed
with an alkaline solution, which turns a deep yellowish green. To dye fabric
or yarn with Indigo, the blank material must be immersed in this dye vat.
As the fabric is removed, oxygen in the air turns the fabric a shade of
blue. The length of time spent in the dye and the number of repeated dips
in the vat determines how dark the color will be. Once the fabric or yarn
is dyed, it is colorfast. The molecules of the dye actually adhere to the
fibers. When you see "faded" indigo it is not really faded, rather
the color has worn off. This accounts for the beautiful blues still evident
in old or worn indigo-dyed textiles. |
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| Washable clothing and yardage | |||||||||||||||||||
 In
Sears and Montgomery Wards catalogues indigo fabric and other yardage was
called "wash goods" because they were commonly used for clothing
and held up well to repeated washing. Small-scale prints widely spaced,
and dots, plaids and checks were common. In the 1894 Wards catalogue four
of six ladies wrappers (or dresses) and one shirtwaist were offered only
in indigo prints.11
The 1902 Sears Roebuck Catalogue has twenty-nine items in the "Wash
Dress Goods" (or yardage), four "indigo blue dress prints"
are described as "Full Standard Old Indigo
Blue Dress Prints". Two are called "Best Heavy Dutch Indigo Blue
Dress Prints" with one "heavy German
Indigo Blue Dress Print" and one "extra heavy Dutch Prints".
All of these came in white polka dots, stripes, florals, scrolls, small,
medium and large flowers, dots, sprays and figures"Give us an idea
of the print or pattern wanted and we will guaranteed to please".12
Chemical-discharge indigo fabrics were colorfast, inexpensive, available
in both familiar and fashionable designs and plentiful, clearly a ready
source for the blue and white category of quilts. |
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| Blue and white quilts | |||||||||||||||||||
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Again, most of the traditional blue
and white quilts that we see are made with indigo fabrics. By 1840 a blue
and white color scheme using indigo fabrics in quilts had become popular.
Some of these early quilts echoed the design of woven coverlets of that
time with repeated geometric designs in the center and flowery appliquéd
boarders. Early black and white quilts were usually heavily quilted, and
may include touches of earlier whitework styles, such as
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To
create a white design on the blue cloth, resist is applied to blank cloth
with a hand-carved woodblock. It is stamped repeatedly down the length
of the cloth and then immersed in the indigo dye bath. According to the
informational flier from the Blue-Dye shop in Hungary, the technology
for blue-dying came to Hungary about 500 years ago. This was a much faster
method for adding design to fabrics than embroidery; so blue prints quickly
became a part of peasant costume in Eastern Europe.
stuffed
work, cording, or embroidery.. Before 1875 solid white cotton was used
as the ground fabric. Later, blue and white quilts used shirting fabrics
with tiny printed figures and geometrics.