I'm sure you've noticed I've been leaning towards more DIY and mixing-and-matching of outfits these days, and the same thing applies here - rather than replace my whole wardrobe I've been altering someof the pieces. One of the things which I've decided to do is alter the hemlines of my kameezes - shortening them to make them more fashionable and wearable by today's trends.
I thought I'd quickly show one of the outfits I've altered, to show just how easy this is - this is a kameez that I shortened recently by literally measuring and cutting along the bottom - I started with a a simple one in my wardrobe so that it would be easier to do (and I'd be less upset if I ruined the outfit!). I also used a light, plain outfit which would be easy to work with because there would be no embellishment or laces in the way.
The main process of this was pretty easy - it literally involved cutting the bottom and them hemning it over, while neatening the stitches and tidying/cutting the loose threads. In the past I've usually gotten my mum to do my alterations, especially since I don't have a sewing machine myself so I can't operate one property but this one I did myself as my mum's hands aren't what they used to be as she gets older.
In this case I used a sharp pair of scissors to cut and loosely hemmed with some needle and thread at the bottom, before going over it again with smaller and stronger stitched. Took me a while but I managed to do it!
This is the end product - I was quite please with how straightforward this ended up being, and it helped that the material of the outfit was easy to work with, and it was quite easy to sew with as well.
This is me wearing the outfit, which perfect for a sunny weekend! The outfit itself already had straight trousers with it which added to the 70s look it ended up with (the 70s look wasn't intentional but it worked!)
I also wanted to show examples of other kameezes I have shortened in the same way to make them wearable - this Sana Safinaz Eid outfit and also this Agha Noor kurta, which I got my mum to shorten for me. Some of them involved more work because I had to remove the borders on the hem, cut the kameez shorter then re-sew the borders and laces back on and neaten it up, but overall it was fairly easy to do. It's also amazing how different the outfits look when they are shorted, they look and feel more playful and slightly more casual.
Outfits from left to right: Sana Safinaz, Agha Noor, Khaadi
Evaluation:
The alterations wer faily easy to do, and it's amazing how much a kameez can be transformed once you alter it, not to mention the savings it made on my purse to alter my outfits rather than get rid of them and buy new ones.
I did play around with styles a tiny bit - the blue Khaadi outit above was like a hi-low style kameez, with the front being short while the back was still the same length, which I liked (and which I put on my instagram account and got a few positive comments about!)
I haven't tried it with a dress style outfit yet (like an anarkali) because I'm not sure it would work, but I definitely want to play around with more hemlines, and see how they look at the end. I've also been looking at whether I should take a few sewing courses (or Youtube lessons!) to make more of my sewing skills - and will let you know about this as I progress!
