Indigo Mist Ramie
c. 1940s–1960s · Ramie
Cloth · People · Places · Time
An Atlas of Chinese Homespun Textiles
Documenting handwoven cloth, patterns and the stories carried in every thread.
What is Tubu?
More than “vintage fabric.”
Tubu Atlas treats each textile as a documented object. Region, period, yarn, weave, printing, motif, condition and dimensions remain attached to the record even after a piece is sold.
Read the introduction →
A new way to wander · 云上布店Make yourself
Make yourself
at home.
Take a cloth off the shelf. Unroll it. Imagine what it could become.
Explore our virtual shopAtlas
Explore by region
Start geographically, then move across technique, pattern and period.
Making
Explore by technique
The same region can hold many different making processes.
Featured object
A permanent object record
Availability can change. The archive record stays.
TA-SH-0001
Hai Shang Ji Hua — Shanghai Shepherd’s Purse Picked-Weave Textile
- Region
- Shanghai
- Period
- c. 1940s–1960s
- Material
- Cotton
- Dimensions
- Approx. 200 × 41 cm
A rare Shanghai-area tiaohua cloth in which tiny four-petal flowers are woven directly into a deep blue checked ground rather than printed or embroidered on the surface.
View textile record →Documentation
Newly documented
Recent additions, whether available or already archived.
Reed Path Lattice
c. 1960s–1970s · Cotton
Indigo Grainfield
c. 1960s–1970s · Cotton
Blue Current
c. 1970s · Cotton
Shop
Textiles on Etsy
Explore the cloth and its story here. Visit the Etsy listing for current availability, price and delivery details.
Four Seasons Weave — One Continuous Jiangnan Textile
c. 1960s–1970s · Cotton
One uncut, 6.5-metre Jiangnan cotton textile changes from indigo stripes to red-blue checks and denser plaid, with no joining seams between its woven sections.
Gentle Current — Jiangnan Wooden Comb Check
c. 1940s–1960s · Cotton
Soft red and indigo lines form a large square grid around fine comb-like inner stripes in this substantial, softly structured Jiangnan homespun cotton.
Hai Shang Ji Hua — Shanghai Shepherd’s Purse Picked-Weave Textile
c. 1940s–1960s · Cotton
A rare Shanghai-area tiaohua cloth in which tiny four-petal flowers are woven directly into a deep blue checked ground rather than printed or embroidered on the surface.
Late Qing Butterfly & Flower Summer Cloth
Estimated early 20th century; possibly late Qing / early Republican · Handwoven ramie / bast-fibre summer cloth (listing attribution)
Blue butterflies, flowers and scrolling leaves decorate a narrow ramie summer cloth, estimated to date to the early 20th century, possibly the late Qing / early Republican transition.
Journal
Stories from the Atlas
Evergreen knowledge pages designed to support both research and search discovery.
Motif study
Peony 牡丹: From National Beauty to Chinese Folk Textiles
Trace the peony from Tang and Song literary culture to auspicious design and vintage Chinese folk textiles, with examples from multicolour printing, blue resist and Tubu Atlas study pieces.
Motif study
Die Lian Hua 蝶恋花: Butterflies Among Flowers in Chinese Folk Textiles
Explore Die Lian Hua, the butterfly-and-flower motif across vintage Chinese textiles, from Nantong multicolour prints and indigo-resist cloth to ramie summer cloth and study fragments.
Culture & meaning
Cloth, Household, Hope
A Tubu Atlas perspective on Chinese homespun: household weaving, dowry, local style, women’s labour and the auspicious wishes carried in cloth.
Archive
Sold pieces do not disappear
Objects remain searchable after sale, preserving photography, attribution and notes.
Qilin Bringing a Child — Nantong Indigo Textile
c. 1950s · Homespun cotton
Our approach
Document first. Attribute carefully.
Each record separates observable facts from attribution. Confidence can be confirmed, probable, estimated or under review, so the archive can improve without losing its history.
How we document →