With the embroideries made during the workshops held at Casa Árabe, we will be creating a panel that forms part of a traditional dress from Gaza, to which we will add all of the scraps that you send in to us as “threads of the diaspora.” The work will be exhibited at Casa Árabe once completed.

How to take part:
Basic instructions for making tatreez (Palestinian embroidery). Download them here.

The materials you will need:
- A number 26 round-tip needle .
- Panama cloth, number 14 (dark beige or light beige), in 10x10-centimeter squares.
- Thread number 8, DMC (embroidery thread, cotton), in whatever colors you wish; there is a wide range of options
- Scissors

What to embroider:
We provide you a selection of 15 designs and patterns to provide inspiration (download them here). Add color to them with your own personal touch. There are also other possible designs (with different themes, colors, difficulty levels and origins) at Tirazain.com (@tirazain.initiative), a digital archive created by Zain Masri, from which we have obtained these patterns.

How to donated your piece of embroidery:
You can bring the piece to Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid or send it in to us via postal mail, by January 15, along with a donation certificate (that you can download here) , and submit it to: 
Casa Árabe
Formación / Hilos de la Diáspora 
c/ Alcalá 62.
28009 Madrid

Tatreez, traditional Palestinian embroidery, registered since 2021 as a form of Intangible Immaterial Heritage by UNESCO, is a Palestinian folk art traditionally practiced by women. It has now become a symbol of Palestinian culture, identity and resistance. A space for interaction shared along with similar customs and artistic practices from other regions in the Arab world and Mediterranean. Tatreez was used to decorate dresses, with specific shapes, colors and motifs that helped identify the region and place where they were woven in historic Palestine.

In addition to the human and material destruction of the Gaza Strip, there has also been destruction of its cultural heritage, which is often intangible, including the knowledge and tradition of Palestinian embroidery or tatreez, in danger of being lost forever in this region of Palestine.

In line with the project Living Tatreez that we hosted last year, the goal of this new series of workshops and meetings is to increase awareness about the different varieties and dimensions of tatreez and its meaning as part of Palestinian identity and culture, thus creating networks of cultural resistance and solidarity from different parts of the world. In addition to being an art form in and of itself, which can be used in clothing, dresses, scarves, artwork and posters, it is also a way to make a living, especially for many women in the diaspora and among the Palestinian refugee population in Jordan.