Tie dye Sarees and Patola Sarees are combination of the craft of tie-dying (Bandhana) and weaving. Patola is mostly in use as a wedding saree in Kathiawar and Gujarat. In Java and in Indonesia too the Patola fabric is used for wedding dresses. The fabric is so exquisitely and so highly valued that it is handed down from generation to generation in the family. Women in Gujarat and Kathiawar treasure the possession of patola with pardonable pride.
Patola unlike the other ornamented fabrics is invariably woven in just the plain weave. The elaborate and intricate patterns which mark the Patola sarees are produced by the wonderful art of Bandhana or tie-dying. The silk yarn with which Patolas are woven, is first dyed by the Bandhana process before it is put on the loom. The yarns, both warp and weft, are dyed in the lightest of colours. Then they are stretched on the ground, and the dyer proceeds to mark certain portions to indicate the lines of the desired design. Weavers’ wife who helps him in his work, then ties up the marked portions with cotton thread so tightly that the next dye can’t penetrate through to the tied up portions.
 

Tie Dye Sarees

The yarn is then immersed in dye-baths of the desired colors and shades. The operation of tie and dye is repeated several times until all the colors and shades required for the planned design have been applied the dark color at the very last. Then the weaver starts on his job. The warp threads are arranged in pre-arranged sequence, and the weft is then interlaced one by one very carefully to form the planned design. The process of producing a Patola, is therefore a very laborious one and is extremely complicated too. Meticulous care and a good deal of creative imagination is needed for making the correct portions on yarns for dyeing in different colors of pattern. A very retentive memory is another essential requisite for registering and recalling accurately the sequence of the colored threads in the pattern. Thus only a few traditional designs are used for Patola patterns.