Getting back to Bridezilla sewing now…

These goodies arrived 2-3 weeks ago and I’ve been frantically planning my outfit and any sewing that needs to be done. First, some reviews of my shopping experience in case anyone else is interested in ordering from these online Indian shops. Some observations that apply to all shops…

These choli blouse + lehenga skirt + dupatta shawl designs frequently come as unstitched blouse fabric + partially stitched skirt (with one seam left to do so that it can be sewn up to your size) + fully stitched shawl. Some shops offer stitching services for the blouse and the skirt. But of course I prefer to do the sewing myself to ensure a good fit & stitching quality that I’d be happy with. Even for those who don’t sew, I’d recommend have them made up locally so the tailor can ensure a better fit. Us sewers know how the same measurements alone don’t guarantee a good fit as the body shape may be different – eg wide all around at the bust or a big bust on a small frame with narrower than expected back! Plus if you’re employing a local tailor you might be able to see example of their work before committing to their service, so you can be more confident the stitch quality is satisfactory.

The other reason to order unstitched version is that the items may arrive faster. If the shop have to stitch them up for you, not only do you have to factor in stitching time, at busy time of the year there may also be a queue. The seller will of course try to keep you sweet pre-sale, but after your order has been placed, you might have to chase them for status updates if your items is in the queue to be made up.

Having said that, not all designs lend themselves to this option. Sometimes the embellishment is very specific to the shape, size & fit of the garment. The pattern pieces need to be determined before the embellishment can be customised to fit. These probably will be the more expensive designs, like a few hundreds pounds to over £1000. All three that I ordered were just over £100 each.

As for fabric quality, it can be hard to be sure you’re getting real natural fiber like silk. Sometimes the shops will label something as “Art”, short for “artificial” or “faux”. But in general there doesn’t seem to be a clear distinction between type of fabric vs type of fibre used in the fabric. This applies not just to online shops. When I checked out a few brick-n-mortars in London, they also didn’t know there are “silk georgette” vs “polyester georgette”. The ones that make a point of sourcing natural fibre will probably shout about it & reflect that in their site menu categories. But in general, I think it’s best to assume man-made fibre. Then you may be pleasantly surprised if it turns out to be natural fibre if that is important to you! I haven’t done burn tests on the one I got. So I’m assuming man-made, especially with all the affordable bling!

Haya Creations
Indian/Asian outfit online shop

www.hayacreations.com

I fell in love with these two Nakkashi designs and found Haya Creations which seems to sell the originals. Some shops show you photos of the original designs, but don’t mention the designers. So there’s no way to tell if they are selling the originals or copies, and more importantly, if copies whether they’ll look anything like the originals. Haya Creations does mention the brand name & the brand style number. Thankfully what I received also has the brand’s packaging.

Ordering process:

• Haya Creations doesn’t seem to offer stitching service, which of course is fine by me.
• I choose PayPal as payment option, but it isn’t entirely integrated into the checkout process. I received an email after placing the order with a link to PayPal to complete the payment. So don’t panic if this happen to you. Just wait for the email.
• I ordered on a Friday (London time) & package was sent the following Tuesday. I would have received the package on the Thursday, but there was miscommunication about the delivery address. Haya called me long-distance (via WhatsAapp) the following Monday & gave me the tracking number & contact number for the courier (UK Mail). The package was delivered the following day. All in all it took just over a week from India to UK.
• I was also expecting to have to pay import taxes, but I wasn’t charged any for my total purchase of just over £200.

Nakkashi Indian/Asian outfit designer & manufacturer

Now the Nakkashi designs themselves…I originally wanted to buy directly from Nakkashi’s online shop. But their PayPal payment option wasn’t set up properly. So I couldn’t complete the purchase on their eshop.

I think both lehengas may be relatively “mass-produced” rather than made to order or made as an one-off as some Indian/Asian outfits can be. Maybe that’s why both came with all three elements – blouse material, skirt, shawl – stitched / tacked together (see photos below). Perhaps this ensures each package has all the bits that its suppose to have. It is a bit of a hassle though to have to unpick these temporary seams before I can start sewing. I’d much rather the bits come as a loose kit – like bra kits do. But the designs are fabulous. For me to have to source all the bits & do the embellishment myself would be just as much hassle if not more.

In terms of quality, I’m assuming these are man-made fibers. Thankfully most of the fabrics don’t feel very plasticky. And while the skirt & shawl stitchings are not perfect, they don’t affect how the outfits look. So I’d say the marketing photos are fairly accurate. And given the affordable price I think they’re good value for money.

Nakkashi Royal Prestige 5033
unstitched choli blouse + part-stitched lehenga skirt + finished dupatta shawl

The colour for this one turned out darker than in the photos, a brownish flesh tone rather than antique gold. But it’s still nice. The only complaint I have is that the panel skirt doesn’t have an extra lining to protect the sequin stitching, so one might snag on the sequin threads. The skirt has a layer of soft netting on top of the sequined chiffon fabric. So I’m assuming the top is meant to have the same order of layering. The shaped trims for the front & back neckline is basted to the soft netting, and the straight trims for the hems also basted to the edges of the blouse fabric. The marketing photo doesn’t show the back, but the top has a deep U back that’s not too open. So this one should be OK to wear with normal bras. The shawl is shimmery chiffon. The floral trims on the skirt & shawl are velvet with metallic embroidery. The stitching on this one is OK.

Nakkashi Royal Prestige 5036
unstitched choli blouse + part-stitched lehenga skirt + finished dupatta shawl

The colour on this one is spot on. The panel skirt embellishment is on the top layer soft netting. So the threads in the back is protected by the orange lining / underlay. The shawl is chiffon with sewn on sequins. Both again have velvet trims with floral metallic embroidery. The stitching on this one is slightly twisted in places, but isn’t bad enough to show up in photos. So only perfectionist need to have these fixed! The blouse is dupion with sequin & metallic thread embroidery. Again, the marketing photos didn’t show the back. I scratched my head a bit when I first saw the shape of the embroidery, trying to figure out how it’s suppose to look. I think it’s meant to have a triangular cutout with neckline & below bust centre back closure. The cutout looks fairly large. So it’ll be hard to find a bra to wear with this if one needs proper bust support. Even the normal low-back bra extender won’t help as the top is cropped, so the extender looping at waist level will peep out.

Samyakk
Indian/Asian outfit shop

www.samyakk.com

I fell in love with a Gajiwara design and found Samyakk which sells something similar. Again, unlike other shops which show you designer photos then sell you a copy that may or may not look like the original, Samyakk shows you exactly what you’ll be getting. But you do have to look through all the photos on the product detail page, because sometimes the blouse fabric is not the same as the generic one shown on the mannequin. Where it’s different they do include a photo of the actual blouse fabric. But because the image menu only shows 3 thumbnails at a time, you have to use the arrow links to browse through all the product photos.

Ordering process:

• Samyakk does offer blouse stitching service, but of course I didn’t opt for this, so can’t really comment on how this work or quality of this service.
  
• I choose PayPal as payment option & this went through during check-out as expected.
  
• I ordered on a Friday (London time) & package arrived the following Tuesday via DHL. All in all it took less than a week from India to UK. If you requested stitching service it’ll take longer. Presumably how long will depend on how busy it gets – there may be a queue in addition to time required for stitching. So plan ahead!
• I was again expecting to have to pay import taxes, but I wasn’t charged any for my total purchase of just over £100.

Samyakk GC755
unstitched choli blouse + part-stitched lehenga skirt + finished dupatta shawl

This is similar to Gajiwara GS7384 lehenga choli (the first photo above), but with blouse fabric that’s the same as the skirt rather than a different but coordinating design. Also the Samyakk skirt is a panel skirt that’s fitted through the hip, whereas the Gajiwara skirt looks like it may be variations of the circle skirt, or at least panels that flares out higher up. I had wanted to get the Gajiwara version, but I couldn’t find a shop that can confirm they sell the original. And when I asked Gajiwara on Facebook, their response came too late – after I’ve already placed an order with Samyakk. Also they wanted me to call them long-distance & I felt uncomfortable with that, especially since I’m not sure if they would speak fluent English.

So the Samyakk version…This seems to be an one-off design. It’s no longer available on their eshop. The 3 elements are not stitched / tacked to each other. The stitching is better than the Nakkashi ones. But there are still stray threads, which is understandable on these easily snagged embroidered fabrics. Again I’m assuming man-made fibres. The blouse material is just a piece of metallic embroidered net + two-sided metallic fabric + metallic ribbon trim. The shawl is soft net with glued rhinestones with metallic ribbon & leave pattern trims. Now the skirt, this one is more elaborate than the Nakkashi skirts. At the hem it actually has 4 layers – metallic embroidered net + two-sided metallic fabric + stiff netting + lining. The netting is stitched to the lining which also has wide stiff fused interfacing. The whole thing is quite bulky & heavy! No wonder this outfit came in a big box and a clear zipper storage bag. The skirt also has the metallic ribbon & leave pattern trims. The hem on this & the shawl also have mini metallic ball edgings…which I’ve already stepped on & broke a few! I guess they must be gold painted plastic. Oops. The skirt comes with a waist tie in a lovely loosely knitted metallic cord with gold coloured (possibly plastic) latkan tassles.

The verdicts

I love all three garments / fabrics, despite the possibly man-made fibre content & less than perfect stitching. They’re lovely designs. I did try sourcing material from scratch. But it was so much effort, time, cost, & I couldn’t even find anything that looked similar never mind better quality fabric.

None of them when you break them down into their component fabrics & trims are too fancy to repurpose for less-than-special wear. So for a bit over £300, I’ll definitely get more value out of these than from a white poofy number. And they all feel more special than just a “nice dress” for such a special occasion!

In fact, I’m already tempted to buy more… 😈