Until the Second World War, skirts were worn of an old-fashioned type. Newer costumes are from the period after the war. The shirt was embroidered. Women knitted on a hook or on two spools (needles), with very thin sewing threads. Lace was bought afterwards. You have to do everything yourself. The huštani (type of skirt) were made of thick black linen bought from the stores. My father-in-law, when he was in Argentina, sent me material to make huštan. The huštan was on straps. When someone didn’t have enough strength, who was skinny, he would lose his clothes without strands to hold it.
Materials for the shirt were bought. Who had money would buy lace, and who didn’t, had to make their own. Čenašić (decoration on the shirt) was made by us women ourselves. We looked at the patterns on the older necklaces and so we would work on them that way. It was nice. I’ve had those čenašići for a long time. Čenaše to line up in a necklace we bought from old women in Šibenik, they were selling them. Women would buy čenaše and string them on a sewing thread. The thread was both thicker and thinner, we would take a little thicker so it wouldn’t crack. Mother or father when someone went to Šibenik would tell them to buy those. The pearls to make čenašiće would come in tubes, then each tube would have its own color. You have to buy different colours, blue, red so they would match. We didn’t write names in a pattern, we would make necklaces and čenašiće, later we would just sew them on a shirt. We would sit there in the Get street, every one of us on our own doorstep and just line them up.
The old type of folk costume was worn by old women, and the other by younger ones.
Lucija Čubrić’s storytelling on folk costumes in Betina.
Photo: Melita Pavić wearing a newer type of folk costume