Please help me date this fabric!

[Tessa Purdie]

I inherited about 3 7/8 yards of this fabric when my great grandmother died in 2010. My grandmother told me that prior to my great-grandmother's death, she had not sewn for over twenty years. This dates this fabric as 1980's at latest. It's 35" across and after a burn test I've concluded that its a natural silk-blend. From her early twenties until her death she lived in rural Queensland, Australia, and I was interested to where you would date the pattern on the fabric- or even identify it! A few internet friends have suggested that its an English/Scandinavian pattern from the early 60s- which would date about right but I would love to know if there's any more info. There's nothing written on the selvedge either, so I have no guesses!! Thanks everyone P.S. she was in her late nineties when she died and may have kept it many years prior to when she stopped sewing.

 

[Rue_de_la_Paix]

Tessa,

That is lovely, and wonderful you have some of your grandmothers fabrics. If the selvages are intact on both sides, the width indicates it is a rather old fabric, likely pre 1940. However the pattern does look more like a late 1950s to 1960s era pattern and scale of the design. The color reminds me of 1930s. I wonder if it was used for scarves, when the silk could be custom made in shorter widths in order to prevent fraying or cutting when they were hand rolled and sewn. From the selvage I can see, it is a silk screen or roller print.

How wide is each little design?

My thoughts are only hunches, lets see what others may think.