Reusing old sarees and dupattas in wedding

saree : Label Urvashi Srivastava

A Budget-Friendly Option!

We all have these beautiful dupattas and sarees stored in some corner of our closet and we wonder what to do with them every time when we are set on a mission to arrange them. Don't we? Some of us are even having a trunk of the melange of these 6-yard pieces of our beloved grandparents. Why not bring these beautiful pieces in some excellent creative work!

Weddings are perfect to utilize them in clothing, decoration pieces, packaging and gifting options. The best part is that these ideas are pocket-friendly. Big fat weddings have raised the expectations of Indian brides to a greater extent. Somewhere we all want those quirky haldi & mehendi functions which usually comes with heavy price tags. 

Let's first discuss the clothing options we can have with old sarees and dupattas but here's a little tip first, always considered it as a piece of cloth instead of something old and let the gates of your creativity open.

A) CLOTHING OPTIONS

1. Restyle the sarees and dupattas

It is not mandatory that you have to completely change the essence of it. I completely understand that few pieces are very close to our hearts and we literally don't want to cut them out. In that case, you can restyle them or give them a makeover. For reference, you can take a look at the pictures below.

• You can add beautiful lace, tassels or frills to it. For frills buy any matching or contrasting piece of cloth and ask your tailor to make frills out of it and add it your saree or dupatta. Designer Arpita Mehta's frilled sarees are so famous among celebrities. You can also get the pleats stitched and make it a ready to wear saree and flaunt it in your bestie's or may be in your own wedding function.

 

source: Arpita Mehta

• You can use your saree with a flared skirt by making pleats, tucking them and then draping the pallu. You might have seen the tutorials by Tia Bhuva on Instagram. Likewise, you can pair the dupatta. You can team it up with a trendy blouse piece and accessorize it with a belt or waist chain.

                     source : Tia Bhuva                             

• You can drape it on your jegging, denim or palazzo for a chic and appealing day look.

source: Dolly Jain

• You can add lace, tassels, pom-poms, fringes or latkans to the dupatta or saree to give it a makeover. It is a good idea to hide the minor damage to your clothing piece.

source: lace and latkan

2. Color coordinated outfits of bridesmaids

Coordinated outfits are the most popular among bridesmaids. Even if you're on a budget but still want that ardent, magnificent big fat wedding look then you can stand out with a little creativity and a few sarees. 

• Either you can make blouses of similar style for all the bridesmaids and team up them with different cancan skirts or lehengas or maybe palazzo. A bridesmaid photoshoot in similar blouses and denim jeans can be a super cool idea. Ideally, you can make five blouse pieces out of a single saree. Exciting right! Wait, I've another amazing idea. 

source: Bespoke Blouses Designer

• If you have different colored sarees but of the same pattern or cloth, say in the reference picture you can see all the bridesmaids in similar brocade lehengas but in different colors. Even if you have plain but different colored georgette or chiffon sarees then also you can make similar outfits. Imagine your all bridesmaids in a similar styled different colored lehengas or maybe shararas, anarkalis or dupattas.

source: Shutterdown Photography 

3. Suits, Lehenga, Palazzo

Whenever you want to shop a full flared Anarkali how many times you got disappointed seeing those heavy price tags? 

•  Pick a saree and get it stitched for yourself and you don't have to bother about the meters as the saree itself is enough to give you a beautiful Anarkali suit. Decorate the border with gota or lace. Any fabric would work wonders. You can also use piping between the panels. 

source: thatbohogirl

• I'm posting a picture of the blue palazzo outfit which I got stitched from a georgette saree. You can make paneled palazzos/ kali palazzo or flared palazzo out of a saree. 

source : Brideopedia

• If you want to make a tiered lehenga, organza and tulles sarees are a great option.

source: Anjana Label

• Some sarees are double shaded or they have a different colored pallu which can be in a contrasting color or it can be in a lighter shade. You can use the pallu for kameez/shirt/kurta/blouse. See the picture for reference. Very often the old sarees have a heavy embroidered or embellished pallu. Make a shirt/kameez out of it if you're opting for a Patiala suit or a sharara. In anarkalis, the upper part can be made out of the pallu to give a defined look.

source: diljott

• Using a phulkari dupatta in front of salwar is an amusing idea.

source: Nishat Boutique

• Dhoti pants require a lot of cloth. Getting a dhoti suit or tulip pants out of a saree is also a very good option.

source: unknown

4. Waist belts

The border of the saree or dupatta can be cut out and waist belts can be made from them. Measure your waist size and attach hooks behind the border piece. For a more detailed look, you can add fringes or embroidered lace to the belt. 

source : bespoke blouse designer

B) Decor Ideas

1. Hangings

Flowy saree and dupatta material can be used as hangings in haldi, mehendi or wedding decor. You can make flowers, or simply make tassels out of these and hang them with a gota or colorful thread or ribbon. For this, chiffon, georgette and net material is a suitable option. All the pictures for this pointer are been taken from Rani Pink.

As seen in the reference picture below, tassel ladis can be made and used as hanging decor pieces on walls, canopies or mandaps.

 

as decor pieces for walls

to give a decorated ceiling look

as decor pieces for mandaps

as buntings

 

as flowers (they are decorated with ghungroos, you can use gota or beads)

 

as ceiling decor (you can make different colored fans like this and decorate them with gota/lace)

cut out the cloth in long stripes and can be arranged like this

 

you can opt for small stripes and tie them on hoops or frames

 

bunch of tassels are used to make an artificial tree which look super adorable

 2. Drapes 

Sarees are quite long and can be used as drapes. They can be used in making canopies or draping the pillars, chairs or bark of trees. You can make curtains also. You can decorate the curtains and table cloth with tassels, mirrors, latkans, pom-pom, gota flowers etc.

 

as curtains 

(source : Rani Pink)

 

bark of the trees can be draped by using colorful sarees and dupattas

(source : Panacea Entertainment)

can be used in making canopies

(source : decor by dinaz)

 

can be used as colorful draping 

(source : unknown)

 

can be used for draping chairs

(source : Abhina Bhagat Events)

3. Table cover, pillow/cushion covers, seater covers, throws

Dupattas and sarees can be used to make covers of side tables, seater, pillow/cushion covers. You can decorate them with anything you like, be it mirrors, tassels, ghungroos or laces. They can be used as background throws for decoration purpose.

 

as table cloth 

(source:  Rani Pink)

 

as pillow/cushion covers ( you can decorate them with pom-pom, lace, gota kinari etc)

(source : chumbak)

 

as background throws 

(source : wedniksha)

 

as seater cover (and put beautiful cushions and pillows on top of seaters)

(source : Rani Pink)

4. Making Decoration pieces 

You can make decorative pieces by using old dupattas and sarees. We often see event decorators using colorful umbrellas, kites and quirky objects made of clothes or rugs. You can make these by yourself with a little creativity.

source: faarza decor

source: yodecord

5. Thal decoration

Cut out the dupatta or saree in square shape and paste the centre part of the cloth piece in the middle of the the shagun thal covering it till edges. You can decorate the hanging part with latkan or tassels for a rich look. Velvet cloth will give a royal look.

source: wedding castle

C) Gifting Options

You can use your old embellished/embroidered sarees and dupattas to make shagun pouches. Potlis can be a great gifting options though. Just take help from your tailor. You can also have colorful packaging by draping fruit tokris, dry fruit pouches, sweet thals by wrapping them with the sarees and dupatta pieces. You can make shoe bags for you new jutti pairs and heels to keep them safe from dust and scratches. Cotton and mulmul will work best for this.

 

source: unknown

source: the amyra store

source: Wrap Studio Chandigarh

I really hope you find this blog helpful. If you have any queries then write to me at dahiya.aishwarya@gmail.com or leave a comment below. For more bridal and wedding inspirations follow brideopedia on instagram and pinterest.