The dating of these embroideries poses a difficult question. It cannot be said when the first phulkari was made; indeed no example is known today which can be positively dated to earlier than about the 1820s. Even one hundred year old phulkaris are very rare. Though the textiles themselves might not have survived - due to natural wear and tear and the effects of the Indian climate - it should be possible to find other records of their existence. The 18th century Heer-Ranjha and Sohni-Mahiwal ballads, for instance, include very accurate commentary on Punjabi women's jewellery, adornment and clothing, yet the sole mention of Phulkari, according to Neelam Grewal in The Needle Lore, appears in the Heer-Ranjha in the context of the heroine's dowry. Nor do any early 19th century inventories of marriage gifts mention phulkaris. That said, the approximate age of a piece can usually be determined from the condition of the main fibres and the colours (dyes) used; with older pieces, for instance, it was quite common to use cotton threads instead of silk, particularly for white, green and rose. The best such embroideries available today were probably made between 1870 and 1920. Museums in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Lahore and London hold many baghs and phulkaris in their stores for which acquisition dates are known, thereby facilitating the dating of other, comparable pieces.

The embroidery is done for the most part upon coarse cotton cloth (khaddar) locally woven from loosely homespun yarns of irregular thickness, generally with between 10-12 warp threads/cm. Neelam Grewal expresses the relationship between women and embroidery rather poetically, explaining that the coarse ground material represents the demanding life of the Punjabi woman and the rich embroidery of fine coloured silk her hopes and dreams.

For baghs, ground fabrics of better quality are woven, called chaunsa khaddar (ca.15-18 threads/cm); here warp and weft have the same thickness and the material is more supple than standard khaddar. A still finer texture was also used - halwan (ca. 22-25 threads/cm) - produced only in Amritsar and Lahore. Weaving these cloths was much more time consuming, so women used it only for more costly pieces. Halwan is found more often in pieces from west Punjab, mainly Hazara and Rawalpindi.

Khaddar was woven in narrow strips some 45-6ocm wide; thus two to three and a half strips were sewn together for the required width. The ground was often red, considered lucky by Hindus and Sikhs alike. One also finds brown, various blue tones, black and white. Green is very rare. Hindu women from northern Pakistan mostly used a white ground with dark red silk for the embroidery.

Untwisted coarse silk yarn, pro¬duced from the outer threads of the silk cocoon, was used for the embroidery. Known as pat, the supple white yarn required careful handling. When a section of emb¬roidery was completed, the fabric was rolled in a clean white cloth to keep it from soiling while work continued on an unembroidered part. The silk came in skeins from Kashmir, Afghanistan, Bengal and the best quality from China. It was dyed mainly in Amritsar, Jammu or Dera Ghazi Khan. The village women then bought the skeins from itinerant merchants. They also used cotton yarns (bandi) for white, black and yellow in certain pieces. Wool yarns were very rarely used, except in certain specific types.

The principal stitch used for this work was the darning stitch. Indeed, the almost exclusive use of the long and short darning stitch over counted threads distinguishes phulkari and bagh from all other known Indian textiles with emb¬roidered decoration. Normally the darning stitch moves in straight lines; in a skilled example, however, the stitch work can be more dyna¬mic. The pattern is controlled mainly by counting threads; in west Punjab the pattern on the cloth is planned out with green yarn in parallel lines or squares worked in double running stitch. A woman's ability was measured by the number of patterns she could master. Since the material was, during the work, only visible from behind, a single numerical error was enough to destroy the entire symmetry. Other stitches used include chain stitch, which was used to outline figures. To fill in the motif either satin stitch or a variation known as stop stitch was preferred. Stem stitch was also used at times, as were herringbone stitch, running stitch and, for borders, buttonhole stitch.

There were no pattern books or catalogues from which designs could be copied. Rather, these were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth and example. Thus each family had its own characteristic style and, with practice and experience, each woman was able to develop her own repertoire. At this point, the textile ceased to be a mere piece of handiwork and became instead, through the stitches, colours and motifs, an expression of the embroiderer’s feelings, hopes and dreams.