Deepavali Sewing - my outfit ..

Lots of Deepavali Sewing this year.

Outfit for Adithi , One for me and Two for my sister.

Made Sister's outfit first and she is yet to mail me proper pics. so cant share them as of now. made them in a hurry , in a span of two days, one dress a day and managed to send it back home, just in time as surprise gift for her. love you little sis :)

Now let me show my Deepavali outfit, which got delayed due to impromptou Pirate costume. since i was running out of time and had to sew something up fast and had decided to use the Mysore Silk fabric i had been hoarding for 4 years now !!! I had to make a quick and wise decision, use a tested pattern and ensure that fabric is done justice with.

Decided to use the same pattern i had made for my sister's second outfit . It was manipulation of darts to get a yoke shape. Altered it to fit my measurements. so the pattern was ready. Next challenge was to get the right lining for the fabric as silk was very think as is the nature of mysore silk. Luckily got the exact shade of color, lining fabric and got started. Made bottom on a day and top on next day.

Bottom is simple Churidhaar with lots of extra length to give gathers at ankle. The silk fabric is so nice as it feels as if you are wearing nothing .

Top is the Yoke kameez, where in i used bottom fabric for contrast and added the zari which was available in the top fabric.

The zari is Original Silver zari !

This kameez is one i will treasure and hopefully give it as ämanat to my darling daughter when she grows up as one of the outfits that her mom was proud that she sew !

Added the zari to the side slits of the kameez as well as bottom hemline at the front of the kameez.
This was the most difficult part and surprisingly took more than an hour to sew.

One thing i wish i had changed in this outfit was that in  a rush of using the pattern i had drafted for my sister , forgot to alter the neckline depth at the front, it is too up for my liking, but still comfortable enough so no issues.

Funniest tid bit in sewing this outfit was, that in the mad rush i had forgot to make drawstring for the pant and on the day of deepavali as i was trying to wear it, i realized the folly and made one drawstring using scrap bottom fabric , and wore it hot off the sewing machine ;)

In love with this traditional Churidhaar Kameez, what about you?

Here is a sneak peak of Adithis Deepavali Dress, for which a separate post is coming up soon...

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First outfit from Pattern Magic 2

I have been inspired by those wonderful outfits made by the talented Carolyn from Homemade by Carolyn using Pattern Magic 2 book; ended up buying the book a good 1 year back! somehow managed to make an outfit the 'flip turn draped effect' top in January , yes its been 2 months and i did not manage to wear it, since it is hot sizzling summer in Chennai and i can't bear to wear the shiny satin top; was testing this fabric for a prototype and it turned out good!

Since i could resist sharing the top, managed to do an impromptu photo shoot and used the services of my darling daughter as a photographer (please excuse my sober looks and unkempt look!, this just was not a proper photo shoot!)

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At Cross roads on new year!

I have called it the cross-roads, coz the pattern at the yoke and the bottom half of the top criss-cross with contrasting pieces to make it look like cross-roads, can you visualize the same are am i too much into dreamland, anyways i liked the design and it looks way better than how it would have if I stuck to the original print alignment along the lengthwise grain!

Sister gifted me the material for my b'day (which was 6 months back!) at last i decided to make an outfit for me. The fabric in lengthwise grain had the sand color print on top with about 6-7 of maroon print at bottom . Since i thought i will look ordinary design, decided to use the top fabric in cross-grain! kind of a risk as i am meddling with grain as some fabrics, notoriously lose their shape in cross grain and some crinkle, but decided to take the chance and wow, i am glad i did!

I had been to my Aunt's place to wish her a healthy, happy year of 2012 and as you can see was lost in thoughts during the photo-session!

Used the pattern draft for Sister's Pongal Outfit and altered it to my measurements. The toughest part was to use 2 contrasting bias strips and ensure that they connect the yoke neck at right places to get the complete contrast look.

Pants are churidhaar pants, oh the fabric is pure cotton, so comfy and perfect for chennai weather (even in winter!) Phew! Cyclone Thane brought down the temp a week back, but now things are back to square one and we are having yet another warm winter!

Petal sleeves in the kameez add more zing to it and the fact that i have put on more weight helps the fit of the petal sleeves, i must be on the other horizon where there are few people, who are thrilled to bits and are elated when they pile up some kilos!

Here is the story behind my added kilos:  I went for my DD's vaccination for DPT booster dose and while we were waiting for the doc, decided to check the weight and to my pleasant surprise it showed 50kg! yay! at last ... i went up to 55 during pregancy 5 years and came down to 42 for long time and then about 3 months back hit it up to 45 and now ... thank you god! I wanted to be 50kg ever since i heard the song from Movie : Jeans - picturised on Aishwarya Rai (only Rai then!)... 50kg Taj Mahal enakke enakka (means 50kg Taj Mahal is all mine?) oh i actually did sang that one to my hubby dearest yesterday? Don't get me wrong, i am NOT comparing with or aspiring to be Aishwarya Rai Bachan! but have always wanted to look bit more fleshy than skin and bones that i have been all these years!



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'Purple Princess' Lehenga Choli - Photo shoot

The snaps shared over here at first were the ones which were actually taken at last in the comfort of my home!

Now on to the 'Happening Photoshoot' which i scheduled with Sister (The Ace photographer, no pun intended, she is very good at photography), as i decided to make the snaps look more professional and appealing, you readers deserve some nice snaps and so do the outfits i painstakingly design and create!

OK, without further adieu here is how the photo shoot unfolded:

Planned Venue: Exhibition near SRP tools, it is open till June 5th 

There is a replica of Taj Mahal, which is the main (& only one for me) attraction over there which has other kiddo things giant wheel and so on ...

So why was i here, to have a look at the replica, well yes , but more than that i thought this would be the perfect backdrop for the photoshoot of my 'Purple Princess Lehenga' which made its debut appearance at my cousin's wedding (alas without any proper snaps of the lehenga!)

I was very apprehensive as I entered the exhibition wearing this outfit. Outrageous right! But i wanted to snap it in this background! So somehow managed to get over the initial jitters. The crowd present there also did'nt help. My sister & me reached there around 4:45 pm (exhibition opens at 4 PM) thinking that there won't any crowd till 5:30 PM, but to my discomfort there was a bustling crowd already gathered there!! No family outing it was, with lots of boisterous crowd around (you know what i mean!)

Here are the snaps, The first one to cover the TajMahal set basically, from the long shot it looks really as close as possible as any replica can, but upclose you feel cheated! But who cares! I came here for some nice backdrop for the photoshoot, which was available.

Now on to more snaps of the Outfit - Front & Back View in BORING poses
( I was too nervous to pose!)

Next snap was taken on the side view of the set (there was lesser crowd and hence a better pose!)

Still not convinced with the above set of snaps, we decided to move to a location where i feel comfortable (more importantly where there will not be any onlookers!)

Guess where did we head next, on to one of the busiest roads in chennai, OMR - IT Corridor and guess what loads of people buzzing past us, few hardly noticed us, leave alone bothering us! So here i was relieved and my initial jitters gone, i was ready to be caught snapping!

I had overcome the 'photo freeze' stage and was more at ease now, the below snaps show them don't they

The below one was taken at the National Institute of Fashion Technology Bus Stop !

Here are the design close ups !

Back Neckline

Design on Skirt Yoke using 1/8 inch sequin trim! (made this all in machine itself without any embroidery hoop, lazy me, actually i was in a hurry to finish off the outfit in 2 days, remember the wedding rush!)

Petal Sleeves

BTW where is the 'Purple Princess' - Here she is .. he he he ..!   :)

Details of the construction of the skirt and top will be covered in the tutorial (coming up next week!, watch out)

Purple Pongal !!!

"Pongal" is the Harvest Festival Celebrated in Tamil Nadu and it falls on 15th Jan, i.e., Saturday.

I started 'Pongal' Sewing with my Dress for a change, normally i reserve it to the end, for which my poor wardrobe is the proof. I have resolved for the year to revamp my wardrobe and make it as stylish as ever.

This fabric has been in the blocks since my last b'day (which falls in July) and at last got life!

Belt - It is actually Reversible , will post a pic of the reverse while wearing it

Flower in the Belt

Dress _Front View

Pleated Yoke at Front

Dress Front View

Dress Full View at Front  - Action Shot will be much better ! trust me!

Sleeve Up Close!

Back View