An embroidery that’s versatile and easily adaptable on sarees, dupattas, shirts,cushions, quilts and many such household items as well as outfits, is the Kantha embroidery.

The Kantha embroidery hails from Bangladesh and West Bengal. Kantha was practiced by women. They used the thread of their Saree to make simple running stitch by layering sarees and dhotis to make cushions, quilts and other household items. It is basically a running stitch used to make beautiful motifs of flowers, animals’ birds and geometrical shapes, as well as themes from everyday activities. The stitching on the cloth gives it a slight wrinkled, wavy effect. Kantha is done mostly on cotton and silk fabrics. The use of Kantha is popular in West Bengal by the Kantha Sarees. Kantha is also popular amongst the tourist who visit West Bengal.

Stitches used in kantha embroidery are running stitch, darning stitch, satin and loop stitch. In kantha stem stitch is also used to outline the motifs.

Kantha is quite known because of the everyday motifs and the running stitch used in it.

The word Kantha has different meaning in different language, some say it means rage in Sanskrit while a few say its means Kanth, that’s throat. Some even say Kantha means story. Kantha is believed to be dated to the 1800 century.

The distinct feature of the Kantha embroidery is the simple running stitch used to make various intricate motifs. This just proves that creativity knows no bounds.