I sampled real raffia and synthetic raffia on my Structo- I twisted the ends of the real stuff together so I could get a continuous filament. I used the 2 different colored warps to see the effect of the colored warp. I used dark red cotton as a spacer yarn, just because it was already wound on a shuttle - BIG MISTAKE as you can see what happened when I wet finished the sample- the red dye ran, staining my sample. Lesson learned! The limitation wiht the natural raffia is that the lengths of fiber are short, so you must accept the unevenness of the joins (slubs) in the fiber. I liked the unwashed synthetic raffia, but after I wet finished, the yarn bloomed and it doesnt' look as much like raffia.
I think that a dress with tht top made of hand woven raffia, and the skirt in a commercial fabric embroidered w raffia, would be so chic!.