Handicraft : Lisu sewing

Lisu clothes are characteristic by their colorful and unique design, with red largely used as its base color. The hat is actually a turban - tightly wrapped black cloth, strands of yarn crises-crossing the top, with the brim made of long strips of beautiful fabric. This in turn is decorated by small beads or marbles, and colorful tufts. The long sleeved shirt can have different colors like blue, navy-blue or green, but the sleeves are usually dyed red. The shirt front reaches down to the knees, and the back all the way down to the ankles. The shirt is closed by crossing the left side over the right, fastening under the right arm. This creates a triangle of cloth which folds back on itself revealing the inside color of the shirt. The collar is made by sewing a circle of black cloth into the neckline, then using small colorful cloth stripes sewn around the neck making a rainbow effect. This same style is applied to the sleeves.

The pants look very similar to fisherman pants and are black with red leggings around each calf. A six meter long black cloth belt is wrapped around the waist, and has decorative tassels dangling from the back.             The waistcoat is made from felt, decorated with silver around the neck and silver buttons running in lines down the chest. It is fastened using silver square buckles and the shirt has pockets, also decorated with silver. Lisu men wear shirts usually like the clothes in town, and the pants are like fisherman pants which can be dyed a number of colors (except black which is often reserved for the women).

The stripes                   The basic patterns that the women use are created by sewing small tabs of fabric of contrasting colors criss-crossing over one another. kua-pia-kua (tail of the bow) pia-goo-ma-kua (tiger's chest) foo-yee-chee (snake's belly) na-hoo-mia-cheuy (hat's eyes) ee-geu-ja-ya (crises-crossing tabs of colored fabric) ah-na (dog's fang)

The women’s shirt usually consists of two stripes, traditionally ee-geu-ja-ya (crises-crossing tabs of colored fabric)and ah-na (dog's fang). This is the basic stripe. The ee-geu-ja-ya and the ah-na mix with every stripe, but pia-goo-ma-kua (tiger's chest), the kua-pia-kua (tail of the bow) and the foo-yee-chee (snake's belly) stripe are never mixed together because it is very difficult and they have their own character. These patterns are most often seen decorating sleeves, belts and children’s hats. In the past they were handmade, but now the Lisu people have adapted to modern ways.

http://lisu.hilltribe.org