Kalamkari Long Dress (Cold Shoulder-Back Neck)

Kalamkari Dress Design Patterns:

These days tradition is everywhere and I thought why not start my work with kalamkari long dress. You can also check out my kalamkari dress design patterns in 5 different styles.

Let’s get into the kalamkari way…

It was a kalamkari dress material I first saw, before it got so popular, with beautiful traditional village style print on it.

kalamkari material

Much later this style popped up in various angles and I started to sketch.

Kalamkari Dress Design Sketch:

Here’s the kalamkari dress design for the above material as kalamkari long dress.

kalamkari long dress deisgn sketch

Enthusiastically started cutting the material with the knowledge I had. Obviously ended up with little but manageable mistakes which was a disappointment.

Because adjusting after it is done, is a big task.

I prefer getting it right for the first time at least for the basics like basic measurements. However we can’t expect prefect fitting on the first go while experimenting different styles. That’s where doing the basics right will help us reduce the extra work.

Kalamkari Dress Design Pattern Cutting Video:

I Found the below pattern cutting video. All thanks to YouTube and Professionals guiding on pattern cuttings. It has all the details from pattern making, pattern drafting and how to draft a pattern from measurements. So, basically it was a complete pattern drafting tutorial.

After a long research on cloth and cutting patterns, I found some really good stuff on cutting patterns, different cloth types etc which also made me realize that I didn’t have the minimum requirements like pencil and chart papers, along side pencil adding an eraser and sharpener. Went out to get them with my sister.

https://youtu.be/EdJSUd71CdI

Watched few videos first. Collected all the requirements (measuring tape, pencil, sharpener, eraser, scale, chart papers, plaster, scissors and my phone with the playlist) and made some space on the floor and sat down comfortably to start cutting.

Grabbed my sister and a measuring tape, asked her to measure like in the video and noted them down.

Understanding the measurements is the key in pattern cutting. You’ve to literally imagine where that inch of addition or subtraction of the cloth is sitting on the body.

Successfully completed the pattern cutting- the front bodice, back bodice and hands with medium sized measurements.

Bodice pattern cutting
Bodice- (Front, Back, Hand)

I didn’t have a sewing machine yet then, but buying it was in the process. ‘Which sewing machine is good?’ was going on. I thought of buying a best sewing machine for home use. Then came GST. It was said that the prices are about to go up. Finally decided on Usha Stitch Magic and bought it before prices got up.

However, this material was not cut professionally as said earlier, with all the above mentioned content, but ended up looking like this. Finally, this is my first stitched dress for my sister on my new sewing machine.

Kalamkari Long Dress:

And here’s is the final kalamkari dress design.

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