DescriptionTraditionally, tatreez was used to ornament dresses and garments -- a highly prized possession in a Palestinian woman's life once completed. When a dress was no longer wearable, however, it was frowned upon to discard the embroidery. Instead, Palestinian women reused and recycled the embroidery onto pillows, tablecloths and various household items. This skirt panel was cut from a thobe perhaps to make into a table runner. It appears to have been originally produced in the 19th century for an al-Khalil dress and the dress, worn to tatters. In the 1970s, embroidered household items and fragments were sold and purchased by American tourists in Jerusalem.