I got a little carried away at the Value Village sale yesterday. I made two trips there (on foot) and came home fully loaded both times – a bulging knapsack on my back and three big fat bags weighing me down. I had to stop and rest my arms and shoulders a few times on the way home. If I’d had a car I would have gone to the other Value Villages too, so it’s a good thing I don’t have a car.
What did I get? Well. Sometimes I get a little obsessive about things. And sometimes I can’t make a decision, so I buy both things I can’t decide between. Yesterday I got a little obsessive about Indian clothing. You know. Saris and stuff. It all started in the fabric department, when I saw some gorgeous silk material that I couldn’t live without. And at half price, it was pretty cheap – one was $7 and the other two were $5 each. A woman nearby asked me what I intended to do with them. When I told her I was making a crazy quilt, she appeared visibly shaken. She said I mustn’t cut up the saris for that purpose. First of all, she said, the fabric was too thin for use in a quilt, but more importantly, it was too exquisite to be chopped up.
So. I have a practical and an ethical dilemma, which I will deal with later. (I have another ethical dilemma too, which is this pretty little girls’ dress that I wanted for the fabric. Is it wrong for me to buy it for fabric when some little girl could be wearing it? I need fabric for my crazy quilt, and since I don’t sew, I have no stash of scraps, which is what people typically use when making a crazy quilt.)
I digress. I picked out dozens of shirts and sweaters, but no pants because I didn’t want to line up for the dressing room and pants never fit if you don’t try them on. You can eyeball the fit of a shirt with reasonable accuracy, but not pants.
Then I found a rack labeled “Ethnic Clothing.” With the saris fresh in my mind (and in my cart), I went through this rack with great enthusiasm. There were nine Indian outfits. I don’t know the proper name for them, but they generally included expandable baggy pants with a drawstring closure, worn with a matching dress slit to the hip, and a long wrap-around shawl-type piece which I think is called the sari. I didn’t want to try them on, and I didn’t know which ones would fit, and I couldn’t decide which ones to buy, so I bought them all. Yes. All nine of them. Even the ones I didn’t much like. (But they were half price! They ranged from $3.50 to $13 apiece.)
This purchase of course led to other dilemmas, like how would I get them home, and where would I put them, and what would I do with them and where would I wear them, and what in God’s name is the matter with me anyway?
I mean, when I go to Indian restaurants, I often admire the lovely clothing worn by the Indian women. But while I like Indian clothing, it has never even occurred to me before to actually acquire or wear any myself. I wear jeans. That’s who I am.
I tried all the outfits on when I got home. Some fit, some didn’t. Some of the pants were missing their drawstrings. Those big baggy expandable pants make perfect sense for all-you-can-eat Indian buffets, but I’d probably feel like an imposter if I wore them to an Indian buffet.
Anyway. I think I’m all set for the next nine Halloween parties.
WOW!!! Great haul!
Here’s the thing if you want to work with silk you can but it is a VERY involved process. You need to do French seams on every single piece to prevent fraying. Cut the pieces bigger than you need by about an inch – use pinking shears and only cut what you can finish – don’t leave cut pieces of silk to work with later!!! Essentially you are going to go around each piece doing a 1/4 inch on the sewing machine hem. Once you do the hemming they won’t be able to fray. But that is a lot of work if you want small pices in your crazy quilt. The other issue is that saris tend to bleed dye for a long time. My advise is to soak each sari individually in white vinegar before you work with it at all, and then always always always add vinegar to your wash water when you launder it.
I ADORE those outfits by the way – so comfy and festive.
It’s your purchase to do what you wish, BUT I think old neckties would make an interesting crazy quilt. I too seem to be bitten by the quilting bug – or at least, the buy-material-to-quilt bug. I chose cotton flannel, on sale. What gets me, though, is I don’t even sew.
The outfits are called salwar (pants), kameez (tunic) and dupatta (shawl) and often referred to as a Punjabi suit. They are actually becoming more common because they’re easier to put on and wear than the sari. Less elegant though!
I agree with the woman in the store – those saris are too beautiful to cut up. I say wear them…well, maybe not as everyday garb (I’m a jeans gal myself) by I bet they’d look beautiful over a swimsuit at a beach or by a pool.
If you wear a sari (or Punjabi suit) when you are not actually Indian, it might look like a costume. And if it feels like a costume to you (even if it doesn’t look like one), you won’t be mentally comfortable wearing it unless it IS Halloween. I feel this way myself, even about Western outfits that aren’t “me”, like flowing pants and tunics and stuff. I love them but I can’t wear them. I think part of it is that I’m not tall enough for flowing tunics.
I am still wiping the tears…this was just “so you”.
I wear salwar kameez often, and I’m not even vaguely East Indian. I love these flowy, feminine garments and even had several tailored for me in the Middle East. I have several neighbors who are Pakistani or East Indian, and they *love* it when I wear them. I’ve received many compliments from people of all ethnic persuasions.
I say: Be brave. Wear them if you love them.
I totally would have done the same thing if I had found that stash at VV. With regards to the sari silk: quilt away. It’s yours. I’ve seen quilts made of it before, and they are lovely.
I wore an emerald green punjabi suit to my friend’s wedding reception one time. It was so beautiful and comfortable!
I am so, so jealous.
A few years ago I decided I wanted to decorate my room with saris across the ceiling, for a tent sort of effect. Then I went on ebay, expecting to be able to pick up a few for cheap – holy crap, no. The only ones I could find for relatively cheap were hideous and not even remotely silk. Those are a find and a half.
I agree re: ties, though they’ll be more expensive to round up. If you have a Salvation Army nearby, maybe they will let you pick through the things that are too destroyed to sell normally? That way you can get the material for cheap and not have to face these kinds of ethical dilemmas.
I’ve always thought the flowing Indian garments looked so feminine and soft and beautiful. And the colors. I’ve never been brave enough to wear them but I’m learning to be. I’d wear the pants and dresses. They’d be lovely in the warm weather.
The colors and material are just beautiful. I would of done the same as you, and bought all of them also. I would keep them and wear them and not use them for anything else. Now, I am going to look at the Value Villege also.
I think they’d make a great quilt! And same with the little girl dresses!
Value Village had 9 Shalwar Kameezes?! those are so hard and rare to find used! or new even since the two shops that had them on the racks closed and I only know of tailoring options in town now.
You must have spectacular timing. They look gorgeous! I have one like the blue one rightmost.
And Sari silk tends to be slippery and hard to handle for an experienced sewer (according to MIL). I have crazy quilts but they use velvet, thick sort of sofa fabric and some thicker cotton. That doesn’t mean that it would have to be so of course.