Threads - for people who love to sew

Sari Fabric Kimonii

I always keep an eye out in my local charity shops for fabric, and this was a length of sari fabric which I picked up for £3. It looked beautiful, but was rather a nightmare to sew, the waft was a much thicker, heavier thread than the weft,which was almost invisible, which meant that when I cut out the pattern pieces, any pointed shapes such as the curve for the crotch were almost unraveling before my eyes. I had to over lock each eadge of each pattern piece before starting to construct them, just to make sure I had something to sew!

Even then, I found that if you pulled on the over locking seam, the whole thing would lift right off the fabric - oh dear!

I finsihed it anyway, using the gold border as the hem of the trouser legs, thus avoiding the need to hem - this nearly worked except when I got to he side back section, which was taller than the fabric was wide. I just cut a little piece to patch in, which worked fine.

Putting the top section together I had a bit of a brain storm and found that I had sewn the sleeve seam to the center back edge, which created a most amusing mess - but as I have a feeling this will fall apart fairly easily anyway, I just cut the seams apart and got them in the right order.

Still, it looks very pretty, and as long as I don't put too much pressure on those seams, which I am wary of despite using a flat feld seam ( or my version of it), then I think for a summer evening it would look very nice.

If you use this link - you can see what I came up with when I swtiched from sari fabric to slinky jersey to create a very pleasing Kimonii.

Don't know what a Kimonii is? It's a garment I invented which is an all in one wrap around trouser suit, you can see examples of the kids version which is where I started, on my website www.kappuke-ki-kidswear.co.uk.

Pattern or design used: My Own Design - Lady Kimonii