When life gives you lemons…upcycle!

This project stemmed from an ironing mishap. The pallu of a South Indian silk sari was damaged beyond repair by a too-hot iron. What was left was about 5 yards of beautiful rose pink fabric that we upcycled into a high-waist lehenga. For a modern, figure-flattering look, we created a wide waistband, supported with buckram, a stiff fabric used to create structure in clothes. We lined the lehenga with santoon, an inexpensive fabric often used to line lehengas to give them a more full look.

Unlike heavy net lehengas, the delicate silk allowed us to create a lightweight skirt that is perfect for a daytime party or a night of dancing.

A tale of two cholis

As a refashionista dedicated to reducing waste, I love creating versatile outfits. A simple but high-quality lehenga, like the one we created, is a great closet staple that can be dressed up or dressed down to fit just about any occasion.

For this particular lehenga, I worked with a tailor to create two different choli tops — a loose crop top for a more casual look and a sequined choli for a party look.

Since both types of choli fabric had gold elements, I selected simple gold trim for the bottom of the lehenga to connect the pieces. To complete this look, I took a basic, ready-made gold dupatta and worked with a tailor to add the same gold trim to the long ends of the dupatta for a cohesive look.

The finished looks

For a glammed up look (see image on left), I pair the lehenga with the sequined top and the dupatta. To finish this look I pair it with gold chandelier earrings, lots of pink and gold bangles, and my favorite pair of gold heels.

For a casual or daytime look (see image on right), I pair the lehenga with the looser crop top, bangles and gold wedges. And, for this look, you can skip the dupatta altogether and just wear the lehenga and crop top for a comfortable, no-fuss outfit, which is particularly fun if you’re attending a garba or mehendi ceremony.

Recap

What we upcycled: a damaged silk sari and a ready-made dupatta

Additional material needed: 4 meters pink santoon fabric to line the lehenga, 1.5 meters fabric for each choli, trim for the lehenga and dupatta, and buckram to create the lehenga waistband

The finished products: a high-waist lehenga with two cholis and optional dupatta

Tips

• Rather than creating new choli tops, see if you have an existing choli or an interesting sari blouse that you could pair with your upcycled lehenga.
• Mix & match! Transform the look of a plain lehenga by pairing it with a printed or embellished top. Get creative and see what lehengas, blouses and dupattas you already have in your closet that you can mix and match.
• Save that sari border! When upcycling this sari, we ended up not using the sari’s original border, but I’ve saved it for a future project. It could be used as a dupatta border or as a border on a tunic, skirt, or salwar kameez.