A project that took 2.5 months to complete needs at LEAST a two part post, am I right? 😉 It was stressful as the date approached and fittings didn’t go well, as I you read in the last post. Here’s the end of it, along with some gorgeous pictures to drool over.
In the last post we worked through deciding the fabric, patterns and fitting the blouse. Next up is the lehenga, or the skirt.
The Lehenga
Ragyi wanted was a full circle skirt with trims at the hem for the lehenga. Using the By Hand London circle skirt calculator, I determined the radius for the waist. It was easier to make a paper pattern of the skirt so I didn’t have to recalculate everything each time I made the skirt.
Waistband
For the waistband, I used the Forget-me-Not Ella skirt pattern’s waistband. The Ella skirt is a woven skirt with a flat waistband and it was perfect for what I needed. I had made one for myself here.
I did end up making a toile for the lehenga – which was a good thing. Ragyi requested a taller waistband, closer to 3 inches and needed it to be just a bit looser.
Because the waistband was so tall, I had to adjust it using slash and overlap method – to make the measurements at the top of the waistband smaller than those at the bottom. I did multiple overlaps to keep the curve as smooth as possible. And just to make sure it fit well, I redid the waistband on the toile.
On the real thing, once the waistband was attached, stitch in the ditch to keep it all together. You won’t be able to see the stitches because it’s in between the waistband and skirt, but they are there.
Hemming
When making circle skirts, it’s REALLY important to let your skirt hang. To do this, you finish construction of the skirt, but do not hem, let it hang using a hanger or dress form. After 8-12 hours (24 hrs is ideal), you’ll see that the fabric has relaxed/stretched in places. This is because parts of the circle are cut on the bias (where fabric is the stretchiest).
The easiest way to fix this, for me – without a dress form, is to hang it and use a piece of ribbon as my guide. You want to cut off and level to the shortest part of the hem. Here’s a video showing how I level a circle skirt.
Pockets
My signature style – pockets on everything! In fact, it was one of the first things I constructed. 😬 To conserve fabric, I created facings for the pockets and then the pocket body was made with lining fabric.
trims and things
When I went for the in-person fitting of the bodice, I had brought along the final lehenga skirt too. My sister wore it so I could hem it to her height. I also wanted to pin up the horsehair braid to see how many rows I needed for her liking. Ended up with 3 rows of 2 inch braid for a total of 6 inches.
To attach the horsehair braid, I created a hem facing (using lining fabric) that was taller than all the trims added up. Attached it to the bottom of the outer fabric, and attached the horsehair to the facing. Flipped the facing up (towards the wrong side) and started to attach the trims. You can see the fun rainbow serger thread I used to finish the edges. Don’t worry, it was bride approved. 😉
I also added one strip of horsehair to the lining to add even more flair.
Modern day horsehair braid is made of polyester or nylon. It’s a type of crinoline, used to provide structure or volume to a garment. And yes, it used to be made from horse hairs and cotton.
To attach the trim, I started with the bottom layer first and attached the bottom of the trim first since it has more circumference. Stacking the trims with space as I went along. The space between the trims allows for the illusion of a thicker band at the bottom without having to load it down with more trim. Good for the wallet and weight of the actual lehenga. To save time, I measured as I stitched, using my seam guide.
Some of the trims came in separate yardage and had to be joined before use. Think of it as joining bias tape- on the diagonal.
Even though sewing on the trims was just sewing in circles, it took a toll on my shoulders and back. To reduce the weight I was holding, I hung the lehenga on to my tripod using a pants hanger and let it drape over the sewing machine. Here’s what you’d see coming down the hallway to my sewing studio.
There was ONE trim that caused a lot of headache. It was the one with the mirrors. It kept rolling up and out, both on the blouse and lehenga; forcing me to hand stitch it each mirror down.
It’s all in the Details..Embroidery Details
Would it be something I made if it didn’t have embroidery? 😉
I wanted to add something from my late mother as a reminder that Mummy was with Ragyi on her big day. (tearing up while writing this)
*Storytime* I’m actually fuzzy on the details on who started this but we used to call hugs “huggies” as in Huggies brand diapers. I think my mom may have started it, mocking the commercials. My mom always gave these weird hugs that were accompanied with playful slaps to the back. Her trademark “huggies”.
Which is why I embroidered onto the inside of the lehenga waistband “Mummy ka huggies, Nanhi ke liye” (translates to “hugs from Mummy for Nanhi” (my sister’s family nickname)). I told Ragyi she was not allowed to look at the inside of the waistband until the day of the wedding. My brother told me there was a huge smile on her face when she saw the embroidery. 🥰
Then later, Ragyi asked if I could embroider something on the blouse. She wanted one side of the blouse on the back to say “the adventure begins” and the other side to have their names in Hindi.
That gave me an idea to embroidered their names in Hindi, to add as tassels on the back ties. These were embroidered on water soluble fabric which melts away when wet, leaving just the thread behind.
And because I think this is the only picture or the back, while it was worn, I had to add it here.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this journey. Was there something you didn’t know before, share in the comments! Okay, enough blabbering. Here are the pics!
Happy anniversary Ragyi and Vineet!
This is just amazing, your so brave to tack it in the first place. Such a lovely make & your sister & rest of family looks fabulous too. God bless 🙏🏼🤗