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Well, I had a great trip. Main reason for going was to visit Borobudur to satisfy another interest (Buddhist art and architecture), and this site lives up to expectations.
As far as textiles are concerned, Yogyakarta's thing is BATIK and there is plenty of it around. Styles are more traditional than Cirebon batiks, with less European-inspired patterns, though Cirebon batiks are in the shops too.
There is no difficulty in finding it ... batik touts will pursue you right out of the door of your hotel, though most are good-natured. Shake off the touts before entering any stores to make sure you are not paying more than you need to.
If you like batik (and I have to confess it is not really my thing, being more interested in village-made textiles and woven designs) then I suggest to start with a trip to the museum at the royal palace (kraton), which will give you some idea of the quality standard to look for. There is also a small batik workshop in the grounds of the palace.
After that, the batik shops are clustered in Jalan Tirtodipuran (which is the neighbourhood with most of the hotels, not co-incidentally) and in the southern end of Jalan Malioboro. There are several workshops that can show you the batik process in action. Some are using natural dyes for at least part of the dyeing, and I was able to see dyeing with indigo and with engkudu (morindia citrifolia). These colors give the characteristic blues and toffee browns of Yogya's traditional batik designs. In Malioboro, Mirota Batik is a very entertaining emporium, something of a Yogya institution as far as I can tell.
Would-be batik shoppers wanting the real thing will need to study the textiles to distinguish between real batik and cleverly-printed imitations.
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File comment: sample of batik for a sarong, on display at the royal palace
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