Interesting things

Cloth bleaching

Cloth was bleached in nice warm sunny weather. Women or sometimes girls, gathered around a well, a spring or by a river, and did the work, chatting with one another. When the time was right, bleachers could be seen gathering from all directions, carrying cloth on their shoulders.

 The bleaching was done in the following way: first, hot water and ash were spilt over the cloth, which was then taken to a stream or river and thrown into the water and spread out so that the water rinsed it, Then, it was picked up and spread out on the grass of clean ground or left to dry on the fence or a rod, without draining. The immersion and drying was repeated three to five days in a row , and then, once again, hot water and ash were spilt over the cloth. Over the next seven to eight days it was immersed and dried in the sun again and again. In some places, the cloth was placed in a simple hollow cylinder called stublina, which was entrenched in the ground and filled with a layer of ash and a layer of oat straw. The cloth was placed on the straw and covered with another layer of straw and another layer of ash and finally, hot water was split over all this. This was done in order to keep the cloth wet and warm, which, at first made the cloth yellow and, later, helped the whitening 

process.

Dyeing wool

The black colour known as vranilo or mrčilo was made by cooking ashtree leaves with blacksmith cinder. If they needed the yarn for embroidery, people used to wool of black sheep.

The red colour was made of the plant called madder (broć). The root of the plant was dug up in spring and dried during the summer. People sometimes bought madder, ground it in the mortar, and then sifted the powder and diluted it in water. Previously they immersed yarn in alum and left it in it for a week. When they took it out, they immersed it in madder, in a clay container. If the colour was not intensive enough the yarn was dried and immersed in madder once again.

The blue colour was made of indigo which could be bought in towns. It was done in the following way: indigo was diluted in the so-called šjera (the water used for the very first washing of wool, which was foamy and contained some acids). After that, yarn was immersed in this solution.

The yellow colour was made of the plant called balučka (colchicum auctumnaia) or hazel leaves. Only young plants of balučka were used. The colour was also made by cooking wild apples.

The green colour was made by mixing the yellow and blue colour. The yarn was first dyed yellow and, after that, immersed in indigo.

Raw leather opanaks

The traditional names of this kind of footwear are: prijesni, presni, prešnjaci, sirovari, šivci, hrtice etc,  depending on the region. They were made of pigskin, calfskin, cowskin, lambskin, and buffalo skin. The fur was usually not removed from the skin. Depending in the region, there are two basic types and several versions of each. In both types, the foot is covered with a piece of raw leather of appropriate shape and size. Along the borders, there were holes and laces (vrnčice) were put through them in orther to crease the skin. Laces were made of thin strips of leather, thick cotton thread, woven goat hair or hemp. It was a kind of low footwear, straight or arched in shape, consisting of the sole, front, horn-like endings and different kinds of laces. According to the type of laces there were two basic  types: vrnčani opanci and prešnjaci. There were several versions of the latter type, depending on the shape of the endings. Leather was cut according to the shape and size od the foot. It covered the whole foot and in some types , part of the leg as well. Prešnjaci were worn in the areas of Zaječar, Niš, Vranje, Kruševac, Studenica and Leskovac and vrnčanih in Raška, Stari Vlah, Kosovo and Metohija.

Prešnjaci were affordable, cheap, suitable for walking in mountainous regions, but, on the other hand, they were not durable, economical or waterproof. The shape was the same, regardless of age and gender. They were worn over one, two or three different pairs of socks, depending on the season and weather. The second and the third type of socks were called priglavci and nazuvice. In the Panonian Region and the northerh parts of Eastern Serbia obojci (rectangular pieces of woven woollen cloth wrapped around the feet) and kalčine (stuff socks) were also worn. The word obojak was also the name of a piece of cloth put into an opanak as padding, worn in Šumadija, Vranjsko Pomoravlje and Eastern Serbia.