The Sari Gown

When I was in Bath in September for the Jane Austen festival, I met Megan who had used saris to make gorgeous Regency gowns. Inspired by that I decided to look for a sari of my own when I returned to London for a few days after the festival. This is what I bought:

The sari itself is about 5,5 m long and 107cm wide, half turquoise gold-spotted crepe-type fabric (I think), half golden yellow, sequined organza with a sequin border running around the edges. There's also a sari blouse, which I have made into the gown's bodice. Before cutting up the sari I decided to wear it in its original form, you know, just because :) I looked up for some sari wrapping tutorials in Youtube and here's the result:

The blouse needed (and still does, as I found out after attaching the hem :P) some serious taking in at the back. I intend to make a drop-front gown with an open robe on top of it, the turquoise part being the gown and the organza part the robe. The gown itself came together very nicely, though, as said the bodice still needs tweaking; I should open the neckline some more and take the whole thing in at the back, again. I didn't really need to cut the hem at all, only to separate it from the organza part and sew the shorter ends together. The hem piece was already edged with the sequin border, so that worked out well, too.

The sari blouse is slightly large on me.

Here the hem is just pinned on, I lifted it higher when I actually attached it.

The fabric is fairly thin and here I have no petticoats on, just the shift. The hem is a bit wonky as it was only pinned on.

The organza part of the hem. This becomes an open robe.

Close-up of the sequin border

I'm making the open robe after Janet Arnold's pattern, though I decided to make the back piece of the robe bodice separately, because the sari is narrower than needed for the pattern to work (i.e. I haven't got enough for the pleats to work right at the back). It still needs adjusting; maybe I should press it a bit so that the pleats would fall better and not poof out so much.

Preparing to cut the open robe. I drew the bodice pattern after Janet Arnold, but decided to make the back bodice separately.

This is the wrong side of the organza, but it's embroidered with turquoise, sequined flowers and little pin-wheels.

Trying on the gown and the robe with a belt cut from the left-over scraps of the border.

This still needs some work, somehow I look like I was pregnant or about 10kg heavier than what I am. Also the gown needs a bib front and the neckline just isn't working.