Kirovohrad Oblast

Kirovohrad embroidery is known for realistic plant motifs, such as flowerpots, flowers, leaves and buds, and for the "nightingale eyes" technique. Red and black dominate, and according to the Baba Yelka ethnolab's expeditions the most common motif is the rose, worked in cross-stitch.

Until 1943 the local history museum kept the embroidered shirt of Hetman Pavlo Polubotok. It is known for certain that it was there. Where it went afterwards is still unknown. So the Kirovohrad vyshyvanka also comes with stories of loss.

A relic that is still being searched for

Together with Polubotok's vyshyvanka, Volodymyr Volkov's painting "Emperor Peter and Hetman Pavlo Polubotok" also disappeared from the museum's collection. Both items were certainly in the city until 1943 - then Yelysavethrad, a cultural centre with its own artists.

This is not the only loss in the region's history, and some of these traces will most likely never be found.

Realism down to the last detail

The old pieces of Kirovohrad embroidery preserve the symbolism of the early farmers: the image of the Great Goddess, worshipped as far back as the Trypillians, shown as a bird or the world tree. The double-headed eagle here traditionally reflects the unity of male and female principles.

Later, lush multicoloured motifs spread - vazony (flowerpots), flowers, leaves and buds - worked with extraordinary realism: if a bunch of grapes was embroidered, the embroiderer conveyed even the shine of the grapes and the thin tendrils.

The "nightingale eyes" technique

The original technique of Kirovohrad embroidery was "nightingale eyes": small holes were pierced in the linen. The method appears under the same name in other regions too, but here it was combined with the most realistic plant designs.

Baba Yelka: a modern expedition for old rushnyky

The Baba Yelka ethno-laboratory in Kropyvnytskyi has collected more than 150 embroidered rushnyky and 14 shirts found during field expeditions - the rest were acquired in various regions to show what exactly sets the Kirovohrad vyshyvanka apart from its neighbours.

According to the laboratory's researchers, the most frequent motifs of local embroidery are plants and flowers. And women's shirts on hemp linen had a practical detail: the pidtychka, a detachable lower part that could be unpicked and replaced.

Colours of Kirovohrad Oblast embroidery

Red and black dominate in the Kirovohrad Oblast vyshyvanka. The palette is restrained, and against it the realism of the details stands out even more - all the complexity lies in form rather than colour.

Roses in cross-stitch: what the expeditions found

Over three years of expeditions, the Baba Yelka team singled out the most common motifs of the Kirovohrad vyshyvanka. Most often these are roses, always embroidered in cross-stitch in red and black, as well as hops, grapes, leaves and poppies. Men's shirts typically carry small oak motifs or geometric embroidery, while women's shirts show the full variety of herbs and floral ornament.

Inna Tilnova, head of the Baba Yelka NGO, explains that the Kirovohrad region is not a separate ethnographic region: its embroidered shirts combine features of the neighbouring Kyiv region and Poltava region. Brocard embroidery became characteristic here - red and black colours and cross-stitch. As for what was embroidered before Brocard, the researchers say plainly: "We do not know."

A telling detail from the expeditions: grandmothers never say "vyshyvanka", only "sorochka", a shirt. That is why the laboratory uses this word too.

The shirt from Tsvitne: a trace of older embroidery

One of the most valuable shirts in the collection comes from the village of Tsvitne. It is made of two parts: a cotton top embroidered with berries and an old lower part decorated with cutwork. According to the craftswoman Anna Baranova, who described every shirt in the collection, this lower part shows what Kirovohrad embroidery looked like before Brocard.

The threads of this shirt were probably dyed in a loaf of bread: they were soaked in linseed oil and baked, which turned them yellow. The upper part of a shirt was embroidered on white cotton, while the lower part, which was not visible, was made of homespun cloth, so it could be cut off and sewn onto a new top.

By 2024 the Baba Yelka collection had grown to 52 embroidered shirts, most of them from the former Oleksandriia, Svitlovodsk and Novoukrainka districts. In 2026 the Central Ukrainian Regional Museum of Local History in Kropyvnytskyi showed the exhibition "20 Embroidered Shirts of the Kirovohrad Region" - authentic shirts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries from different parts of the region.

Pukhlyky, gathering and scalloping

On 18 May Baba Yelka showed about fifty shirts that the team had collected over five years of expeditions. Journalists from Tochka Dostupu noted down the techniques found on Kirovohrad vyshyvankas: fine cross-stitch, "pukhlyky" (small puffs), gathering, scalloping, cutwork with filling and a separate finish for the hem. The Brocard cross-stitch here is the slanted kind.

Speaking to Suspilne, the head of the ethno-laboratory added that, besides Brocard cross-stitch, many shirts in the Kirovohrad region are embroidered in art satin stitch and tambour stitch. The oldest items in the collection date from the beginning of the 19th century and the most recent from the 1990s, so the laboratory's collection spans almost two hundred years.

Eleven patterns from the chests

So that the patterns can be repeated, Baba Yelka published an album of embroidery charts for shirts from its collection. As the laboratory told Suspilne, the idea came from visitors who kept asking for charts of the old shirts. Ten charts were planned, but choosing was hard, so they settled on eleven. Almost all of them are for cross-stitch, since such shirts make up the vast majority in museums and private chests in the Kirovohrad region, and only one is for art satin stitch.

The charts were drawn by graphic designer Dariia Halko, who moved to Kropyvnytskyi after the full-scale invasion. So the Kirovohrad vyshyvanka from the laboratory's collection can now not only be seen at an exhibition but also embroidered at home, stitch by stitch.

Frequently asked questions

Has Polubotok's vyshyvanka been found?

No. The shirt of Hetman Pavlo Polubotok was definitely kept in the local history museum of what was then Yelysavethrad until 1943, but where it went after that is still unknown. Volodymyr Volkov's painting "Emperor Peter and Hetman Pavlo Polubotok" disappeared along with it.

What is Baba Yelka?

A contemporary ethno-laboratory in Kropyvnytskyi. On field expeditions it has gathered more than 150 embroidered towels and 14 shirts, and it shows them to explain what sets Kirovohrad embroidery apart from its neighbours.

What does the double-headed eagle mean on local embroidery?

By tradition, the unity of the male and female principles. The motif also appears in the Odesa and Chernihiv regions, but there it is explained differently.

What was embroidered in the Kirovohrad region before Brocard cross-stitch?

No one knows for certain. The Baba Yelka researchers suggest white-on-white embroidery or cutwork. A clue comes from the shirt from Tsvitne, whose lower part is decorated with cutwork.

Can you embroider an old Kirovohrad shirt yourself?

Yes. The Baba Yelka ethno-laboratory published an album of eleven embroidery charts for shirts from its collection: ten for cross-stitch and one for art satin stitch.

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