Tie a Sari

How to wear a sari by a rookie

In a country of over a billion people, over 1600 languages, many religions, cultures and traditions there is one common denomination – THE SARI

When a girl is 16 or 16 she starts practising to tie a sari. When she is 20 she start wearing a sari. She may have her local traditional clothing and traditions but an Indian woman will wear a sari. It is a right of passsage and something worn proudly. This 6 metres of cloth is the statment, “I am woman.”

Here is how Suseela wears her sari.

I have tried to learn the steps and need practise. There is a video above showing how an Indian woman, Susilla, ties her sari and another 6 minute  video with photos shows you the steps broken down into segments. Use the pause button to give you a chance to digest the steps. It is easy i think but will need some practise.

What you need

Need: sari, sari top, sari bra, sari skirt (holds it together) 2 safety pins.

Trip to the tailor

You first buy the sari then take it to the tailor to get the ends sewn up and he also makes the sari top with material you have boubht. At the right is my Kootala tailor and his wife.

And now here are the steps to tie a sari by a rookie.

1. tie sari slip waistband tight, suck in tummy when tieing the string.

2.  there is a 6 metre long 1 metre high piece of material. Find the top right corner and tuck this one corner of one end of the sari at the right hip to start off

3. Keep sari material tight at right hip while turning clockwise one rotation, while wraping the sari once around body. Pretend you are standing at the center of a clock and rotate the body clockwises while  holding the material tight while turning

4. tuck again tightly at the right hip

5. now take hands along top of the sari fabric until you get to the end and they take the actual end piece (about a metre wide) in hands and fold in folds.

6. take this bunch of fabric with the left  hand and take it behind your back and hand to your right hand which brings it under your right shoulder and over to your left shoulder.

7. take a length of this end of material and place it over the left shoulder so that is hangs down to the calf area

8. if you trace the top edge of this fabric over the left shoulder and trace it back to the right you will take this around behind the back and tightly around the front of the stomach and tuck into the right hip

9. now you have a whole loop of fabric to fold into 6 or 7  – 6 inch folds with the edges of each fold aligning neatly on top of one another

10.. fold this bunch of folds over to the left at either the front of the stomach or to the right of this area and shove it down into the sari slip

11. now we go back and arrange the left shoulder material. First make sure it is draped behind the back correctly and then Let it hang down and keep putting a fold of about 5 inches – one on top of the other.

12. now we straighten these folds and pin them together from the underneath so they stay put and flat – this will be shown later

13. Pin the bunch of folds over the left shoulder also from the underneath of the sari bra to keep in place and flat.

14. now for some final tweaking and straightening of folds and such

15. ta da

Please add comments below with your tips and tricks. Constructive suggestions are encouraged – hey im just learning here. At least a half a billion indian women can do this way better.