India {Wearing my Saris}

I picked up my blouses from the tailor yesterday and set about the task of learning how to wrap a sari. My sister-in-law will tell you it's very easy. HA! That's what she thinks. When she showed me how to wrap and pleat the sari, I was thinking to myself "how will I ever master this?" How do you know how big to make the pleats? Which way do they go? I have to make two sets of them? This was more complicated than I thought. After several failed attempts on my own, I went back for more help. Turns out I was making the pleats the wrong direction - no wonder I couldn't figure out how to get them to drape down my back. The size of the pleats determine how easy it is for you to move in your sari, so you want them to be large enough to walk, yet not so large that the sari doesn't hang properly. It took me a better half of the day to get it right one time, but I did it! Practice will make it better. What do you think??

Hand woven silk sari

Traditional Kerala Sari (Cotton)

Machine woven silk sari

India {Sari Shopping}

Last night we went shopping for saris. The store we went to had three floors and I was a bit overwhelmed. Saris can range in price from about $5 to over $10,000 depending on the fabric and embroidery. Since I won't be wearing mine daily-only special occasions - I was looking for a dressier version in silk. It's a good thing I already had a color scheme in mind, it's easier to get side tracked by all the gorgeous fabrics. Once you know what type of fabric you are interested in, you take a seat and your sales clerk starts pulling various saris from the stacks and stacks of them lining the wall. Some are basic with only two colors on them, others are very elaborate and even have jewels stitched on them. It's easy to see why shopping can take a while. My husband said his mother can easily spend 5-6 hours looking at saris before making a decision - I thought the 30 minutes I took was long! I ended up going with a peacock blue and gold hand made silk and a burgundy/green/gold machine made silk sari (it's amazing the price difference between hand made and machine made!). After I made my selections, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law showed me the traditional saris worn in Kerala (where their family is from). They are simple, yet beautiful. They gifted me one and I can't wait to see what it looks like on me. Now I need to get the blouses that are worn under the sari stitched (they come as part of the sari now so they match the colors exactly and you take them to a tailor to have them stitched to your measurements). As soon as they are complete, I'll post some pictures of me wearing them! 

Machine made silk sari

Handmade silk sari

Traditional Kerala Sari

Of course I had to buy some silk scarves and another pashmina (I don't have a green one yet) for myself too!