Costume: Saree Blouse

Over a year ago, an Indian coworker was heading back to India for a visit.  When I said how beautiful I thought the fabric on sarees are, he said that his wife would be there for a month and loved to shop and could pick something up for me.  I sent along some cash and she came back with two BEAUTIFUL sarees.

 

Fabric that comes with saree.

The only issue was that neither of them had a blouse included.  I found out that it is normal for the saree to  come with a bit of matching fabric, but the expectation is that you will have it custom made by a seamstress.



The two sarees sat in my closet for a year until another Indian coworker said we should both wear our sarees for the company Halloween party.  For me, the idea was that I would get to wear a beautiful and exotic costume.  I told her that for her, it was just wearing clothes, which seems a bit like cheating.

Time to make a blouse!  I was really nervous about the idea of cutting into the fabric because you only get one shot.  Though my research, the blouse styles are really different and just about anything goes. Styles fall in and out of fashion like any clothing.  There is no way for me to know what is in style at all.  I decided to detach myself from the idea of being considered fashionable in India.  Just not going to happen.


 I found this pattern.  Simplicity 5359.  Since I was in a hurry, I ended up paying full price.  Grrrr.

The two examples in the pattern are fine, except I am wearing this to work and I thought they showed too much skin.

Top for Vogue 2960

I made the top half of one of the retro dresses (Vogue 2960 red retro dress)  to see if that was a better top.  It was quick and fun to do, but wasn't quite right.


I even tried to make my own pattern and eventually settled on a hybrid of the three options.





It turned out ok, but fabric has no give at all and it was difficult to get a good fit.  If I bend move around too much, the blouse rides up and the bottom half of the girls are out to say hello... not good.  I wished I had a better pattern for it and am REALLY happy safety pins exist.  I seem to be having yet another problem with fitting in the front, but luckily this is covered up when wearing the saree.  Only the back is really shown.




The back of the blouse was disappointing because the embroidery on it was uneven, so it was impossible to make the sewing look even.













Here I am at the Halloween party at work. Yup.  That is a real cube farm in the background.  I work in a cube.  All day.



I watched a few youtube videos on tying a saree and thought I was doing pretty well, but two Indian coworkers took one look at the job I did and offered to re-do it within seconds of seeing me walk in the door.  I guess it was really bad.  They said I needed the saree to be over my shoulder at all times or it was not elegant and they re-tied it so I was able to get the little fish-tail mermaid thing in the front. I was glad for the help.