Part 28 "Dress-Up Party"

Michelle writes:

Hola! The last night  the South Dakota gals were here, we had a dress-up party. We dressed in traditional Mayan clothes, traje. The top is called a guipil, and the embroideries are specific to different regions in Guatemala. Here in Santiago Atitlan, it is birds and flowers. 

The guipil is woven in two 20-inch strips that are sewn together at the center seam. Various shaped necklines are cut into the fabric. The neckline area front and often back are then embroidered. Younger girls have seams basted in, reducing the width, 4 to 5 inches away from center seam on both sides. Can you tell that I sew and am loving these textiles?

The 108" woven band belt, faja, is either embroidered or beaded for approximately 36¨on one end. It is wrapped around the waist, then held in place by tucking in the tails. The corte, skirt, is 1 yard by 6 yards of woven fabric made of either cotton, silk, or wool or  a mixture of fibers that sometimes includes metallic threads. This, too, is wrapped around with tucks folded a few inches from the side, in front, to add extra style. The traditional and older women do not do the tucks or wear the faja, belt. This is something new on the fashion scene for the younger women. The fajas are very ornate, similar to Native American beadwork.

Michelle and Katrine

José and Michelle

The skirt material can be bought in 3-yard or the typical 6-yard lengths. To maximize your wardrobe, you buy 2- to 3-yard lengths, creating a reversible skirt, which gives more color options! You always wear six yards. If you happen to be a taller woman, more fabric will be added at the waist to extend the hemline.

Tocoyal attached to my ponytail

 Here in Santiago, some of the older women wear the tocoyal, a woven band of red, 1" wide by 25 yards long, that is wrapped around the head. The beginning and end will have one yard of multicolor woven designs. To wear, you first wrap your ponytail round and round, securing the end of the tocoyal as well as your loose hair.  Then you wind the wrapped ponytail around your head and continue with all the remaining yards, layering the band on top of the previous layer and creating a brim of sorts, similar to a hat brim, shading your eyes. The final wrap exposes the beautiful designs at the end, held in place by tucking the tail between the wraps.

Felipa and Bernabela help Katrine with her tocoyal

Yesterday we were in San Antonio Paolo, and I bought one of their hair wraps, a cinta. (This is a different Mayan culture. On the lake, which is 10 miles long, there are 12 villages, each with its own culture and language.)  The cinta is only 1/2" wide and 12 yards long, with designs woven in the entire length.  My cinta has metallic thread for the designs. It is wrapped around the ponytail again and then the head, but not layered, creating a look of multiple headbands.

Traditional Tzutuhil dress

Styling in Guatemala and enjoying the colors!