Smocked pencil skirt

A patched pencil skirt with the tambal pattern. Tambal means: patch, up or down (Jasper and Mas Pirngadie, 1916: 143). Old examples of tambal batiks show motifs that are strongly reminiscent of motifs on Indian trade cloths (Maxwell, 2003, p.148). The triangles together may again form a larger motif. \This skirt has a kepala ('head') with floral motifs, birds and butterflies, and a badan ('body') with tambal motif. This motif is formed by triangles, each segment of which depicts a special motif. On this cloth only the ayam puger and grin motif. \North coast tambals are more decorative, and not symbolic (McCabe Elliot, 1984:98). The ayam puger is a chicken in a semicircle; the motif is traditionally Javanese and was worn by virgins during their seclusion period before marriage (Heringa, 1996:206). Grinsing is an evil-repelling motif that resembles scales.‖ The skirt was made in a European batik factory, and was intended for that population.‖ S.W.F. stands for Mrs. Susannah Weston Ferns (born Gregory), an English lady who married William Ferns in 1867. He worked in shipping. Their three children died young, after which they moved to Surabaya. Later they left for Pekalongan, where William went to work in a sugar factory. In Pekalongan they had three more children.\ Mrs Ferns had brought her sewing machine from England and sewed dresses for the rich, including the wife of the Resident. later she hired batiksters to make sarongs. Her daughters would later take over the batik business (Veldhuisen, 1993:66-67).\Nowhere is the fabrication of a pencil skirt with motifs applied in the batik technique. Batik is a textile decoration technique, called a reserve technique, in which hot wax is applied to a cloth in patterns with a wax pen (canting) or with a copper stamp (cap). The cloth is dipped in a dye bath so that no dye can penetrate the covered parts and that part remains unpainted after the wax is removed. When a cloth is desired in several colours, this process is repeated.