We could charge you less. It would mean paying her less. We refuse that.
Every hand-embroidered Deerah piece carries a price built on fair wages, real hours, and a craft passed down through generations of Palestinian women.
Across the industry, this craft is chronically underpaid. We do it differently.
It's common practice to pay artisans as little as $5–6 per DMC thread ball — a rate that, given a single ball can take 3–4 full days to stitch, often works out to pennies per hour. This is the quiet norm many "heritage" brands rely on to keep prices low.
One woman. One needle. One thread. Sometimes 200 hours.
Tatreez is counted-thread embroidery — every stitch placed by hand, counted against the weave of the fabric, with little margin for error. A single motif can take hours on its own. A full bodice of traditional patterns can take weeks. This work takes its toll on the eyes and vision, too.
A direct line between your purchase and the woman who made it.
We work directly with Palestinian women, many from Baqaa and Hussein refugee camps in Jordan, who have inherited this craft from their mothers and grandmothers. For generations, this skill has been chronically underpaid, treated as informal "women's work" rather than the rigorous, technical craft it is.
Every Deerah piece is a deliberate correction to that history. No middleman — just a direct line between your purchase and the woman who made it.
Read the full impact of your purchase →Hand-embroidered vs. machine-embroidered
We offer both, and we're upfront about the difference.
Quick, consistent, accessible
Modern embroidery machines recreate traditional motifs quickly and consistently — beautiful, accessible, and a faithful nod to tatreez patterns at a lower price point for the price-conscious.
Singular, irregular, original
Stitched entirely by hand, motif by motif, with the kind of irregularity and depth only a human hand produces. No two are ever fully identical — the difference between a print of a painting and the original.
Neither is "better." They serve different audiences, different moments, different budgets, different intentions. But the price difference between them isn't arbitrary — it's the literal difference between a machine's hour and a human's hundred hours.
A hand-embroidered Deerah piece isn't just a garment.
A documented, wearable piece of Palestinian cultural heritage.
Dozens of hours of skilled labor, fairly compensated.
A one-of-a-kind object — your exact piece will never be repeated stitch-for-stitch.
A piece that, with care, outlives trends and gets passed down, the way tatreez always has been.
"This is why we don't discount hand-embroidered pieces the way fast fashion discounts inventory. The price reflects the work. Always."
Every hand-embroidered Deerah product page lists the exact hours and technique behind that specific piece — look for "The Craft Behind This Piece."