A couple of years ago I bought some vintage silk saris on ebay, they averaged about £12 each so six yards of beautiful silk for very little outlay. One of them was a gorgeous charcoal grey ombre with a dark grey check pattern and gold embroidered daisies. The daisies were along one edge as a border and also in each square for the first yard or so.
The main length of silk with a border on was made into a skirt in June 2016, however I have to admit I’ve hardly worn it, mainly because I didn’t have a top to go with it!
One of the classes in a local show is to make something from something else, in other words, sewing a recycled item. It also has to have been made in the previous twelve months, which would exclude the skirt. However if I made a top to go with it then the outfit would have been completed this year!
I had about a metre left of the gold daisy end, it had a pretty border along the edge as well. I decided to make the shell top from the Great British Sewing Bee book, mainly because it’s nice and simple so I could keep as much of the daisies intact as possible.
I wanted to use the border around the hem but there wasn’t quite enough to do the front and back, so I carefully positioned the front so the daisies were nice and central and the border was along the hem. For the back I used the main fabric border up the centre back, this had the added advantage that the edge was already finished!
It was pretty straight forward to stitch, I had to remove a few beads from the centre of the daisies near the seams, I french seamed the sides and used a black lining to face the neck and armholes. I turned up the back hem so it was level with the front and just stitched a narrow seam.
It’s actually really nice to wear and doesn’t look as Bollywood as I thought it might, I’m not usually a glitzy person! It’s a bit big across the back so once the show is over I might do some alterations. I think it will look just as nice with a slim grey velvet skirt, so that’s another project added to my to do list!
thecraftycreek 
Gorgeous. Subtle. It so sophisticated.
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ooooh I love it!
front, but especially back!
and doesn’t look too big at all. It looks lovely and cool with the matching skirt/ A job very well done!
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Thanks Claire, it gapes quite a lot at the back, I’ll takea bit in and adjust the button!
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Oh I just love this…it looks fabulous! You did awesome!
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The back of your top is so clever and the colours are lovely.
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I love sari silk and you were so lucky to find such a lovely one! If you left it as is, tucked it in so the sash on the skirt shows, it would look good too. Only thing is you would lose that lovely border at the hem. You are so clever.
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I love this look. Elegant and sophisticated! I think I need to check eBay!
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Very pretty, and it must be lovely and cool in the hot weather you’ve been having.
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Oh, that fabric is gorgeous! And you’ve put it to such good use!
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What a super repurpose. Good Luck at the show.
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I live this! It’s such a lovely fabric, you’ve repurposed it well.
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Wow! All that from a recycled Sari! Let us know how you fair at the show 😊
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That’s a lovely outfit, and it looks wonderful on you.
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Lovely!
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