Chikankari Fabric

Chikankari fabric at TradeUNO — Lucknawi hand embroidery on cotton, mulmul and georgette grounds, sold by the metre and in bulk.

Chikankari is white-on-white shadow work from Lucknow, built from around thirty named stitches — bakhiya, phanda, murri, jaali — worked by hand on fine, pale cloth. The shadow effect comes from bakhiya being stitched on the reverse, so the motif shows softly through the fabric rather than sitting on top of it.

It belongs on light, semi-sheer grounds; on a heavy cloth the shadow work simply does not read. Hand wash and dry in shade to protect the thread.

Related collections

• Mulmul — the traditional base cloth
• Cotton embroidery — machine-worked alternatives
• Georgette — a common Chikankari ground
• White fabric — the classic palette