A Folk Costume for “Sprigulītis” in Australia

The folk costume was created thanks to the Latvian-Australians’ love of folk dancing. The “Sprigulītis” folk dance group was founded in Canberra in 1953, yet none of the dancers had a folk costume. “No one thought back then that everyone should wear the same kind, but rather – whatever would be easiest! There was no one weaving in Canberra, so we made our own folk costumes. Skaidrīte had Rucava, Inta Skrīvere had Bārta, I had Nīca, Dace Brasla had Abrene, Biruta had Kuldīga.” The shirts of the folk costumes were also embroidered by the participants themselves. At that time, there was nowhere to get the right colour of fabric for the Nīca skirt, so they bought white fabric and dyed it red. Vita also made her own embroidered Nīca shawl: “You couldn’t get the right kind of fabric that could be easily embroidered. So I bought something called ‘baby flannel’. I embroidered a Nīca shawl on it by counting the stitches.” It was not possible to obtain beads for the crown, but one was made, albeit “a sadder one”. Later, Vita made a wife’s cap for her folk costume.