salwar kameez, please

Each day I wear a traditional Indian salwar kameez suit to the center complete with salwar pants, kurta, and dupatta. If they fit well, it's like wearing pajamas. If they don't fit well, it can be quite uncomfortable. I recently had some made that are just perfect! Here's how it went:

My friend Anju told me she wanted to take me shopping for new suit fabric. Meet Anju:


She's taken me under her wing and become sort of like a mother to me, always reminding me to wear my dupatta, cover my head, be sure I know where to get off the bus, sit in the front of the bus, how to say things in Hindi, etc. I'm extremely grateful for her motherliness as I miss my own mama so much. So sweet Anju asked if I wanted to go fabric shopping. Of course I said yes! She helped me buy fabric that is traditional to our state. It's made by taking fabric and tying it in tiny knots to create a pattern. After the knots are tied and all the patterns created, the fabric is dyed. It looks like this when purchased (you can click on the pictures to view a larger version):


See the little knots made with thread?



After purchasing the fabric, you unwind the thread knots and the pattern is exposed, leaving white designs where the fabric was knotted and protected from the dye:




See all the thread that was around the knots???


At this point, you can see part of the pattern, but the fabric is doubled before it's knotted so you need to pull it apart.




Once it's all been pulled apart, the complete pattern is exposed:






The final step is to find a good tailor. Anju helped me with this, too. She took the fabric to her tailor along with one of my suits and had it made to match the size. She brought it back to me a few days later and all for about $10 (including fabric and tailoring) I now have this:


Isn't that awesome?!

PS - The kiddos told me it looks a little like Tinker Bell's outfit. I'm ok with that. :)