Golu @ Adithi's School

We went to visit the Golu @ Adithi's School yesterday! Every year her school celebrates one festival and this  year it happens to be Navarathri! They had requested every student in montessori section to bring one doll each based on  various themes, we gave a Navathania Ganesh as the theme we got was Ganesh in Various Forms! Adithi has school till today! Her vacation starts from tomorrow.

This color Rangoli greeted us warmly. Notice the pistachio shells as border decoration! i brought back nostalgic memories of me crafting with those shells during my school days!

Golu Pic

I liked this section the best, it had people from different trades in a market, cobber, dress maker, vegetable seller, flour maker etc.,

Park and Farm

Of course, the yummy pattani sundal! they made this golu to be as much eco-friendly as possible and the higher class students had made newspaper bags to give the thaamboolam! The idea which we took to immediately and gave our thaamboolams in hand  made bags made out of Magazine sheets (Loads of my femina and vogue for years, now have some good use!)

Loved this visit!

Pin It

TATA GRANDE Blogger Meet @ Chennai

Inviting all bloggers from Chennai to the Bloggers Meet organized by IndiBloggers

I have registered! Please do join me, if you are from chennai!

Check here for more details. BTW, Blogger Kottam , the meet organized for Fashion/Craft Bloggers from chennai will also happen during later half of october, please do check this post for further details
Pin It

Navarathri Day 1 Action Shots!

Day 1 - 

I can't believe how fast this day dawned and then ended! no idea how the hours flew, the morning session was into giving finishing touches to the Golu, by covering the sides of the Golu Steps, rechecking if all dolls had been decked up (they were decked up on Tuesday night , untill 11 pm, with our entire family hands on with the task and sweating it out!)

Early morning, Adithi was excited as it was Day 1 of Navarathri and time to wear new dress and do puja!

Adithi did puja before going to school (remember she has school this year for the first 4 days of navarathri!)
Came back excited at noon, as she knew we were going to set up the Golu Park, only after she is back!

Lost in her own world of thoughts as she strikes a reluctant pose!

We set up the park! When we arranged the serial lights on the golu steps with much effort and then tried to switch it on!! guess what they did not light up! so i tried doing some electrician job of fixing it and meddle with it for sometime and then tried switching them on again, guess what happened this time, there were sparks in the junction box of the serial lights, phew , i blew off its fuse! Then had to rush to electrical shop to get new pair of light strings this time LED ones! They had to be arranged on the steps yet again! Now the golu was glowing!

This year's golu had its first casualty , as Adithi did the honours by dropping off the father of the bride from the new "Kalyanan"(Marriage) Set purchased this year! wow! great start!

My best friend and her son were the first guests to arrive and little Nitheesh sang a beautiful song to start off the golu in style!

Pin It

Navarathri Dress No. 5 - Double Circle Skirt + Top

I started off with this outfit, thinking i will do the top (which will work with an old Pattu Paavadai Navarathri 2009 collection!) whose blouse is worn out now!), on those lines, decided to make a simple Pattu Paavdai top with trim on neckline, everything went according to plan, until this happened!

I was trying to serge the armhole after attaching the sleeve, little did i realize that the bodice part was slipping onto the serged area! Now that the damage had been done, i needed to do some Disaster Recovery Sewing!

Here is the DRS steps (thank god i did not press the  panic button !)

Using twice the circle skirt effect has been on the to-do list for sometime, and this outfit made me realize it. I had enough fabric (2.5 metres) to work with and hence decided to make 2 circle skirt cut with 1/2 waist measurements, so that i would get full circle with twice the effect!

Added a belt with golden ribbon flower to go with it (check out Magda's easy n pretty tute for the flower)

Pin It

Biggest sewing lesson learnt with this outfit is not to rush through in a serger! and most importantly not to panic when something goes wrong while sewing, everything is rectifiable! provided you get over the agony, angst, disappointment and decide to - "Make it Work" as Tim Gunn says in Project Runway!

Please do check the new look Tutorials Page, how the tutorials are much more organized and easier to find now. your feedback please!

Retro Pillow Challenge - Entry

Dear Readers,

I had mentioned about Retro Pillow Challenge remember, somehow managed to sit and finish my entry. I am not satisfied with the outcome though, this is my first attempt at quilting and i wanted to do it leisurely and learn a lot in the process, but i still have 4 more dresses to make for Adithi and atleast 1 new outfit for self for this Navarathri and am left with not much of time.

Something is better than nothing, isn't it, so here is my pillow made using leftover fabrics!

Inspiration for this was from Adithi ! She is the inspiration for most of my projects and this one was no different, the challenge required us to use to squares with rounded edges along with circles and the thought that came to me immediately was the "Metal N Set work"which Adithi does at school!

took her sketches as my template and started the pillow

Used sponge like layer as batting (Still do not know where i can find batting used for quilts here in chennai! any idea! please do let me know!)

Adithi's Sketches

My Template

Shapes cut out in interfacing

Do you see how shabby the curved shape with square in center looks, all the other shapes turned out okay!

Back of the cushion, overlap flap cover

Front view - all 4 shape patterns

This linky shows up all the other Entries too

Pin It

Navarathri Dress No.4 - Twisted Bubble Dress

Bubble skirt has been in the to-do list of Sew Skirts September and decided to add a twist to it this time, and made the Twisted bubble hem skirt dress!

While i was making it, did a test fit, this snap gives an idea as to how it drapes when worn!

Action shot can only do justice to this outfit, so watch out for it during Navarathri!

Will try and do a mini tute on how to make Bubble as well as Twisted Bubble Hem skirt !

Pin It

Navarathri Dress No.3 - RTW to wear Saree for kids

Navarathri Dress No.3 is a RTW saree. I had designed and got the sequin and zari work done for this about 1.5 years back! I planned to make one RTW saree for self, and by mistake had given 6 metres to work with and hence had enough fabric to make one for my daughter (Still haven't made one for me though!)


I have used godet at C.F to get the saree pleat style drape at front! Will do a tutorial later on about godets possibly next week, rememember we still have one more week of Sew Skirts September and i plan to cover, basic A-line, Flared, Godet skirt draft tutorials and may be sometime next month will show some more, October or September, we would love to sew skirts, don't we?!

RTW Wear saree the complete set, Saree Skirt, Blouse + Shawl 

Skirt in Detail with net godet at C.F.

Blouse is noodle strap with corset style tie-back

Action shots during Navarathri ....

Pin It

Petal Skirt Tutorial - Sew Skirts September

Petal Skirt Tutorial 

We will be using the same draft as we used for 4 Panel Skirt with some slight changes 


The Changes are as follows:


The waist round will be calculated thinking as if we are drafting a 6 panel skirt so the measure  [ 0 - 3 ] = 1/12 Seat Round (it is going to be elasticated waist so we take seat round instead of waist round)


The bottom round has to be atleast 3 times the waistround as we need large bases for the petals


Once we make a draft as below

Did you notice? we do not have darts over here as it is the fullness gives more shape to the petals!


Next we need to blend at the bottom to get petal shape!

The above is the petal pattern on fold, unfold and place on fabric and cut 8 pieces.


Now we need to trace and cut the pieces (8 pieces). I started off with 6 pieces and then realized that the overlap was not enough to make it look pretty as well as modest, hence added 2 more petal pieces! So in total we need 8 petal pieces


I have used organza as top layer and satin as bottom layer and have serged them! You can just stitch them RS together leaving an opening to turn them around at waist arc.

Now place one petal on top of other in such a way that they overlap the petal under them atleast by half-way!


Remember all these should be placed to cover the petal below them only up to half-way through!

• Place Petal 2 on top of Petal 1
• Petal 3 on top of Petal 2
• Petal 4 on top of Petal 3
• Petal 5 on top of Petal 4
• Petal 6 on top of Petal 5
• Petal 7 on top of Petal 6
• Petal 8 on top of Petal 7

Note: The picture here shows only 6 petals, i forgot to take pictures after i added 2 more petals! We need 8 Petals Remember!
Now close it to make a skirt by placing Petal 8 underneath petal 1 

The skirt has an underlining layer in satin a normal gathered rectangle piece measuring seat round + 10 inches, so that when the petals move, skirt still stays modest!

Add waist band as you would for any normal skirt and leave an opening to loop through the elastic and then close it! Viola Petal Skirt is ready!

Pin It

Blogger Kootam - Calling Chennai based Bloggers !

This idea stuck me when i saw these type of get together by bloggers abroad, then i thought why can't we have it here in 'Namma Chennai", when Divya posted a comment on my interview on Of Pinks and Fairy Tales, this thought got more momentum and i shared it with her, she responded positively and hence "Blogger Kootam"was born!  Please do check it out and register yourselves if you are a fashion / design / craft / style / beauty blogger based out of chennai ! Hurry only first 30 participants for the first get together!

Come on chennai bloggers! Blogger Kootathukku oru "O Podu"!

I have requested Megha for making a banner / button for this, which she kindly agreed to ! Yay! Thanks Megha!

We are also looking for sponsors, host for the event, please do spread the word and in case any one interested in doing so, please do contact us, click on the contact button on the left side bar or reach out to the contact form at the end of each page!


Pin It

Featured Member on Burdastyle all this week!

I have been listed as the Featured Member at Burdastyle all this week. Yay! Please do check out the post here. Burdastyle has been the go-to forum for sewing enthusiasts and have loads of project inspirations and of course their fabulous patterns to boot!

BTW the little girl in the snaps above is guess who ???!! ME !!! yes, they wanted my childhood snaps and here it is, now tell me does Adithi resemble me or not, if so how much!?

Pin It

Navarathri Dress No.2 - Petal Skirt and Cowl Top

I saw the petal skirt on Burdastyle sometime back and it has been in my To-DO list for long, drafted a pattern for my DD"s measurements and made here Navarathri Dress No.2 .

Have taken pictures while i made it, so will share the tutorial soon as part of Sew Skirts September Series!

I have so much to do and such little to accomplish all of them, Navarathri preparations are also underway, planning a get together of Chennai based fashion/design/beauty bloggers ! More on this soon! So you can imagine how hassled i am with time i am left with to do all these things!!!!

As of now pics of Petal Skirt  and the Cowl Top

Pin It

Continuous Bias strip Tutorial Link

I was in awe of this type of making bias strips! Yet to try it out! But i am sure it works especially when you need long length of bias strips!

La Sewista !: Bias Strips Tute, Method #3:

'via Blog this'

Pin It

Adithi's Antics!

I do post about Darling Daughter Adithi but mostly alongside outfit posts. She does deserve posts focusing on her and only her!

At her play gym flaunting 4 panel skirt. For tute click here (god! i can't resist  make a mention of outfits, can I)

During our visit to my aunt's place last weekend, we dressed up her hair with "poo jadai"meaning braids decked up with flowers! It was fun learning the art of making the "poo jadai"by stringing flowers plucked fresh from the garden!

My aunt's sewing machine purchased in 1975!

Pin It