Constructing an Elegant Entari (part 1)

So I miscalculated my silk measurement. It was not 5 yards of 45" silk as I thought, but 4 yards of 55" wide silk.

Is it a problem?

The Fuchsia of Doom strikes again! 

Well, yes and no. It really has to do with the draping I can get out of this. Chances are, because I'm so short, that it won't matter. I'll swim in it like I'm meant to regardless. Will it be constructed as I hoped originally? Well, lets see.

The "pattern" or mock-up, or lining, whatever you wish to call it, as it's serving all these functions right now, measures 70".

Oooh, super long and..... Not as impressive or appealing as I originally thought it would be....

Now, the more I look at 70", the less I like it. It seems just.... too much. So the logical solution was to decide on 60", but 60" really made it look like it was just a matter of "this entari is borrowed. It's made for someone taller". It also made the long flowy (at the time 45" long) sleeves look, well, ridiculous.

65" seems to do it about right. It's just enough length to make it look intentional, that 10" that missing from the selvage cut can be added in the trim aspect so that I can cut the fabric from selvage to selvage, and I can "hide" the seams with the appliques.

But I'm not really digging the idea of how that will look. However, it seems the only good option, as cutting it lengthwise then causes issues of material for the border (which it appears is created on it's own then added) and the sleeves (which need to be 20" around and however long I fancy, but more likely less than 45")

So I went ahead and started cutting and ripping (my favorite method to produce "straight" lines selvage to selvage that I picked up in the Garment District)

The sleeves after some debate are now a yard long. I'm going to go ahead and make the trim on them, instead of as a separate piece, so they'll need the additional inch of length I gave them to accomodate for that.

I now have two front pieces, the back piece, and two sleeves. I need to trim the lining/mock-up/pattern pieces to fit, and now I need to make the trim.

 The right is the herringbone/braid style trim on the first extant example.... the left is my feeble attempt at copying it.

I also have this pretty hot pink jacquard ribbon stuff which I actually bought it purposefully for this entari, but I'm not sure how I feel about it now.

The ribbon in question is top left, but I think you could have guessed that.

Not using the jacquard ribbon wouldn't be a complete loss. I do have hot pink shot with white silk, and in enough to create an angrakha or very full kurta, both of which would greatly benefit from the added trim.

I'm not sure, I guess I have a while to think about it, after all, the ribbon would be one of the last things sewn on.

Anyhow, I'm off to work on this trim bit (it's very important I finish it before I begin to sew the rest of this robe). Hopefully I can pull of the pretty curvy shape of this one.

Not quite scalloped like our first extant example, more wavy. I like this one better.

Well, until next time I guess, wish me luck with this, scallops and waves are not an easy task, but they're what's really going to make this "pop".