Bordal – Madeira Embroidery Factory

Bordal has been making Madeira embroidery since 1962 and describes itself as the main manufacturer and exporter of this craft, which has been part of island life for generations. Its building on Rua Dr. Fernão de Ornelas, a shopping street in the centre of Funchal, holds the factory, a shop and an archive of some sixty thousand designs. Table linen, bed linen and babywear are the house specialities, embroidered on linen and cotton.

Since 2013 visitors have been able to follow the Madeira Embroidery Historic Tour through the factory, which the company calls its living museum. The route shows each step beside old tools and documents: the design drawn on tracing paper, the perforation of the pattern, the stamping of the fabric with blue ink, and the checking, cutting, washing and ironing done when a piece comes back. The embroidery itself is still done by hand by embroiderers working at home in the countryside, as it always was.

Bordal also teaches. In its workshops, experienced embroiderers pass on their skills after a walk through the stages of production, and each participant receives an embroidery kit. The company says it developed a more natural paste for stamping the designs, replacing the original mix of indigo, petroleum and wax. The shop and factory are a few minutes' walk from the Mercado dos Lavradores and the rest of central Funchal.