Two out of three ain’t bad…
At the beginning of the year I set myself several challenges (reSEWlutions). One of them was to sew my own outfit for my brother-in-laws wedding. I didn’t realise at the time that I would be making myself a Sari, but I didn’t let that stop me.
Making a Sari isn’t quite as easy as buying a pattern. The full outfit is made up of three components; a skirt/pants, a top and the sari wrap. After a fair amount of searching I could only find a pattern for a traditional sari ‘top’. Not a pattern that included all three parts of the sari. So I decided the best option was pick out my own patterns for the top and skirt. Whist the main sari piece I made following a free tutorial.
Since I’m a beginner when it comes to making clothes I learnt quite a lot making this outfit. Although probably the biggest challenge I was up against was time. Even though I started designing and researching my outfit at the start of the year. I ended up working right up until the last moment to try and get it all finished. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to make my own top and had to be satisfied with a store brought one instead.
There doesn’t seem to be any ‘hard and fast rules’ when it comes to saris. The amount of fabric used for the main piece can vary in both length and width. There is also a lot of freedom when it comes to the boarder trim and embellishments. I found this free tutorial which gave me a good guide to follow. Although there were some noticeable gaps in the instructions – like how to attach the boarder/trim? Particularly around the corners? Also how to deal with raw edges? In some areas I ended up having to freestyle as I went.
And – I finally understand what Patrick (GBSB) means when he says ‘you picked the wrong materials’! I was half way through making my sari before I realised that I hadn’t picked the right kind of fabric. I fell in love with this Jacquard Taffeta, but it’s much heavier than what would normally be used. This initial wrong step also led to me picking a trim that probably wasn’t appropriate either.
But in the end I managed to get together a sari that I could really be proud of! Even though I had to do an emergency shopping trip to find a top that would match. And all the problems thrown up by not using the most suitable fabric. It turned out better than I could have hoped for – I just love the end result!
