The sacrificial dupatta

I finally found a choli pattern that accommodates larger sizes and was dying to try it out. The sewing bug was nibbling at my psyche and in cahoots with the beledi bug. Needless to say, little of the fabric I have was appropriate as a sacrificial lamb, since I had no idea how the pattern would turn out, and what tweaks it might require. Enter the dupatta.

This dupatta came with a lengha choli set and was elaborately decorated with mirrors, shells, metal beading--the works. The problem was that it was too elaborately decorated, and the dangles and doohickies snagged all the time. I laid the pattern out so that the ends of the dupatta, which were darker blue, would form the ends of the sleeves and have a nice gradient effect. The centre of the dupatta had a nice pattern which became the back of the choli. Bias binding? Well, the bias binding I had purchased seems to be missing, so I lopped off some of my satin shower curtain (which was too long anyhow) and turned it into custom bias binding. A few hours of sewing later and my prototype was completed. I discovered that I am not even close to requiring the largest size, and had to take it in--a lot.

The new choli was a big hit at class, and was easy to move around in--I had absolutely no problems with movement, no matter what isolations I was performing. The photo above was taken after class--if I look a bit breathless its because I was!

Here is a close-up of the choli--the best I could do without a timer on my camera. Eventually I'll line the entire top, but for now it makes a very cool dance top, since the fabric was originally a very thinly woven dupatta. I actually like the choli a whole lot more than I ever liked the dupatta.