Hand-woven clothes, with rich colors and ornaments, are still popular among ethnic people in Hunan. Provided to China Daily

Unlike machine-aided embroidery, the cross-stitch technique does not require a draft design or embroidery frame but only hands and skills.

Huayao women follow the veins of the hand-woven cloth and make embroidery according to a picture in their mind.

The women always carry their needles and embroidery work with them so that they can make cross-stitch whenever they have time.

They are often seen with their needles and cloth in front of a diaojiaolou, a wood-structured house over the water, on a stone near a brook or in the forests.

The hand-woven cloth in plain colors of blue, white or gray becomes art with aid from the needles of the Huayao women. Images of flowers, Mandarin ducks, golden sunsets and rainbows transform plain cloth into something extraordinary.

These are then made into scarves, cloaks, belts, skirt lace and underwear.

Women from the Miao and the Dong add even more romantic elements to their craftsmanship.

They not only make clothes for family members but also bed covers, handkerchiefs and pillows.

They even weave flower belts using colorful threads as tokens of affection.

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