What is ajrak? The block-printed cloth of Sindh

How hand-printed ajrak is made

Workshops order the stages a little differently, but the principle is resist printing. A paste is printed onto the parts of the cloth that should not take the next dye; the cloth is dyed; the protected areas keep their earlier colour. Repeating this with mordants and different dyes builds the layered pattern, and traditional ajrak is printed on both faces, with the blocks lined up so the design reads almost the same from either side.

• Preparing the cloth: the cotton is washed and softened so later dyes take evenly.
• Outlines and resists: carved blocks print the black outline, then a resist paste over the areas meant to stay white.
• Indigo and red: indigo gives the blue; the red traditionally comes from madder or alizarin, fixed by a mordant printed where red is wanted.
• Washing and drying between stages: the cloth is rinsed and sun-dried again and again, which is why a genuine piece takes a long time to finish.

Hand-printed ajrak or an ajrak-style print?

Most suits sold as ajrak in summer collections are screen or digital prints of the patterns on lawn or cambric. They are lighter, more even and quicker to produce, and there is nothing wrong with them as long as the label is honest. Our article on block, screen and digital print covers those methods in general. For ajrak in particular, these are the clues.

• The reverse: hand-printed ajrak shows the pattern clearly on the back. A printed copy is usually much paler there.
• The joins: look along a row of motifs. Block repeats meet with tiny shifts and overlaps; a digital print repeats with machine regularity.
• The colours: natural indigo and madder give deep, slightly uneven tones. A print can come in any palette, including pastels the traditional cloth never used.
• The base cloth: traditional ajrak is cotton with some substance. A print on fine lawn is lighter, smoother and often more see-through.

Borders, and how they shape a kameez

Ajrak nearly always has borders: narrow bands of a different pattern framing the central field, often with a deeper band at the ends of a shawl. When ajrak cloth or an ajrak-print suit is made into a kameez, those borders become the design. They can run along the hem, finish the sleeves, edge a front placket or frame a neckline.

Because a border sits along one edge of the cloth, where it can go depends on how the pieces fit on the fabric. A border used at the hem also ties the kameez length to the cloth, so it is worth deciding the length you want before anything else. A whole ajrak shawl is often enough for a kurta, depending on its size and your measurements, with the borders saved for trims. A plain trouser in indigo or a deep red lets the print lead; our guide to matching a plain fabric to a printed piece helps with the colour.

Having ajrak stitched

With our Stitching Only service you send your own ajrak cloth or ajrak-print suit. Before posting it, share photos of the whole piece, both sides and a close-up of the border with a tape measure laid across, and say whether it has been washed. We confirm the cloth suits your design and that there is enough of it before you send anything. Hand-dyed ajrak can release some colour at first, so a quick colour-fastness test is a good idea. You can start from the stitching quote form.