Following on from my first HOW TO MAKE A DHOTI FOR KRISHNA post, I have put together a very simple guide, with some ideas and explanations about the reasons for pleating, and how and where to pleat.
This really is the worlds easiest dhoti… or maybe I should say, realistic dhoti, after all there are some dhoti which are just a sarong and that is probably easier style.
It’s also extra fun because I have temporarily in my custody this beautiful Krishna deity I painted! Isn’t He lovely? Syamasundar Krishna in all joyous happy beauty. (If you are painting deities then please check out my tips on painting deity forms)
As long as you know how to sew and hem a simple rectangle, then this DIY tutorial is all you need to get started on making your own clothes for Krsna! If you have your deity standing in front of you then you can easily work out the length you need to cut.
I love it if I have Krsna in front of me it makes sewing for Him SO much easier! In general I would allow 1/2 of waist width for the front pleats, 3cm extra for the back pleat, and then 1.5 times waist width for the length to pass between Krishna legs and fold into the back of his dhoti at the back.
Always sew on your braid before you do your final stitches to secure the ends and add your press studs!
If anything in this tutorial is unclear, please refer to my step-by-step tutorial which is detailed with images! Here’s that link again
There’s a whole catalogue of Krishna videos on my YouTube channel which you may or may not follow – not everything makes it’s way to my blog, we’ve diversified across social media platforms, hah! Please subscribe and follow me on YouTube & Facebook! I promise to keep it Krishna conscious! I don’t promise not to totally obsess over art, Krishna, deities, and more 🙂
Summer is so easy! Just lovely breezy dhoti & nice light shawls. Once winter rolls around I start wishing I had more shirts for my dear Lords, so I have come up with a really simple shirt option.
This set is basically a sleeveless vest option and there are a variety of fabrics you can experiment with.
For this tutorial I used quite a flexible but heavy thai shot silk fabric (given to me by a very dear friend, thank you!).
I have also made longer looser versions in a sheer fabric which look really lovely on, they work really well and nicely, almost like flowy shawls.
The beauty of this pattern is it’s ease. It suits a beginner skill level, and there are no tricky sleeve insets in sight!
after measuring the shoulder to waist height of your deities, double it so that each fabric strip will fold tidily over each shoulder. Hem both all the way around as needed.Once you have hemmed each strip of fabric, create pleats in the centre so that the neckline is narrower. Stitch across your pleats to secure them in place.Now leaving enough room for the arm to pass through the hole and the top to sit around the shoulder, carefully overlap the fabric and stitch down, securing each strip of fabric into a half of the topInside out, note the seams and stitching so you can understand how to do it.Turn the tops in the right way and test on your deities. These little sleeveless vests can be pulled together tightly for warmth, and belted, or they can be left open and flowing. The thai silk I have used for this set actually sits really nicely and is moldable, but I have also made versions where I have put velcro at the back so it closes securely.The finished garment set with little tunic tops
I posted this set off, so couldn’t share a photo of them on.
This was the first type of top I made for my own deities, and it really is the foundation of long sleeve top patterns I will plan to share later on.
Try it in light fabrics! Add braid, add trims, have fun, and share your pics I would LOVE to see your creativity.
Be sure to let me know if my tutorial is lacking, I might have to work on improving it. Hopefully you’ll get the idea of how to construct these easy deity vests.
One of the best hints I can share for sewing deity garments is hemming using the rolled foot!
You can buy an attachment for your sewing machine, if it hasn’t already come with one. I use it on nearly every set of deity clothes that I make – the teeny tiny seams are a dream!
There ARE tricks to using it, and a lot of my friends over the years have asked me to show them to use it, and I would LOVE to do that, but sociable as I am I rarely get out, and it’s hard to find the time – plus, how am I going to help my New York, Vrindavan, or Polish friends? So, this is how my friends, this is how.
One note that I would add, is that you can hold your fabric up and slightly over. You will learn to do this naturally to solve the frustration of unpicking your seams, but hey I’d love to save you from that frustration entirely.
Now that I have just revisited that tutorial I realise that it can actually be used as a trick for curved seams, which someone asked me about today (here, this tip’s for you!)
Ok so you have an EXQUISITE fabric that is ridiculously slippery to sew. One fabric like that is this STUNNING Devore Velvet Silk with peacock pattern that I bought in a fit of enthusiasm, in 3 colors. Seriously, it was almost impossible to sew these into pretty shawls.
So after ruining half my fabric & a lot of research on how to stiffen fabrics which are prone to slide like this beautiful silk I found a LOT of information on using a gelatin bath to temporarily stiffen. Ok- so not going to happen! So While I did have ideas of using Agar-agar I still haven’t tried that. What I used was starch. I starched the fabric heavily, and ironed it dry, and THEN stitched it.
It worked pretty well! Stabilized the fabric enough to get relatively straight seams out of it.
This is a great DIY tip on understanding your thread tension on sewing maching. I can’t tell you how often I have been puzzled by this and just fiddled and hoped… But especially if you are trying to stitch using gold thread or switching between sewing heavy weight fabrics and light floaty fabrics, this is essential. I always wreck my tension when I sew deity turbans (because I sew right through stabilising xrays and fabric and quilt wadding!)
there are lots of different styles of deity garments (of course for different deities too! Krsna & Radha /Krsna Balaram/ Gaur’s Nitai/ Jaganath deities.. this tutorial is for a pleated dhoti which passes between the legs to secure at the back of the waistband. You’ll need to make sure that your deities have enough gap between their legs to pass up the back pleat of the dhoti.
Deity form needs gap between legs to pass up dhoti back pleat
I really hope that this tutorial will assist you in making your own deity garments. It is geared at beginners who have some sewing experience, as I don’t think I’m practical enough to do a tutorial while I teach you to sew! I’m personally fairly disorganized and love to have a pattern to copy, I don’t think I even have my deities measurements written down anywhere because I always have a big overflowing basket of their laundry I can just pull a sample garment from, and I have my favorites.
You can watch a few more DIY tips if you want some ideas about the various methods I use to create this simple dhoti pattern. View here.
There’s so many styles and they all give such a different vibe! People have preferences for different lengths/ fabrics/ you name it! Right now I love lots of summery bright colors, simple braids, and abundant fresh flowers. In summer time I have some nice just below the knee length dhoti for my Nitai Gaur deities, but they also have some longer just above the ankle length dhotis.
Making garments for your deities is such an adventure. Most of the early sets I made for my deities prior to installation I no longer dress them in – lately their garments are uber-simple, sometimes even without braid, simple, cool, and so comfortable to wear. Always, always easy to dance in!
Remember you are making these clothes for their pleasure, so even your humble attempts, if not perfect, will be a nice start.
Offer your Lords a mirror to enjoy their own beautiful reflection after you have dressed them 🙂
Before you start:
Measure! You’ll need to measure you deities waist or hip (where you want the dhoti to sit) . Measure the hip to ankle – choose your length at this point. (You can go anywhere from knee length to ankle).
Ok so you have measured, now you can select your fabric
& I’d like to offer some words of wisdom here: I use mostly fine silk (silk charmeuse) or sometimes very nice polyester or cotton fabric. I’ll do another post on fabric types some other time, but for now please try your first dhoti garment in this style using a very light fine fabric so it drapes nicely and is not difficult to sew. For this tutorial I am using a light-weight cotton, such a pretty print!
You might like to make a sample dhoti first, to save special fabric for when you have worked out the perfect sizing. This is a very non-scary way to proceed, especially if you have bought a silk fabric which averages around $20 a metre!
Ready to start:
Select suitable fabric, cut with seam allowancepleat a fine set of pleats in the front, to see how much pleat allowance you will have, on top of your waist measurementJudicious use of pins while you work out the appropriate lengthTest on Krsna remove the excess fabric which is not needed to make the pleat at back
Back pleats will look like this, and will have a press stud attached to secure
Cutting out your pattern – So generally the overall waistband length will be 1.5 x the waist band length. Allow extra pleats in the front and don’t count on them as part of your waist band measurement. This can vary depending on the curviness of your Lord. If you have your deities right in front of you then that is the easiest way to do it. Sometimes you may need to add in a pleat to the back to allow for a curvy hip on Krsna or Nitai Gaura deities.
Hem your basic rectangle. I like to use my miracle foot, the seam it gives is as fine as a hand rolled seam could be.
Add on your braid. You may wish to have braid simply down the front, or around the hem. Consider that if the braid is very think it may interfere with the way the fabric hangs. You can handsew or machine sew the braid dependent on the amount of beadwork on the braid or other factors like time. In general they sit best if hand-stitched but I often sew them on, after accounting for the affect the braid will have on the pleating or the folds of the cloth.
Note where the pleat side is – it shouldn’t be on the crossed leg it should be on the straight leg side.
Stitch your pleats down, I like to make them fine and stack them in the front, with three pleats.
For fastners, you have a choice – you can either use Velcro (it’s SO easy to put them off and on with velcro and also allows for some room, you can adjust the tightness a little bit, but it will pull the silk if you are using silk, and if you aren’t super organised in your deity garment care it can pull other elements like shawls or other dhoti. The other option is to use snap fastners – they sell varying sizes of these, and depending on the weight of your fabric you will chose the appropriate size. They’re very time consuming to stitch down, sometimes it takes me just as long to sew on the snaps as hemming and putting together the whole dhoti! Still, they’re long lasting and they won’t damage any garments.
You’ll need to have fastners at the waistband, and one in the middle of the waistband at the back and on the pleat that passes between the legs and snaps on at the back.
Completed Krsna dhoti! You can tuck the pleats between his legs a little. On the deity, please create the pleat on the leg which will be straight, so that it can tuck tidily between his legs and the other crossed leg has the section which will pass between his legs and up the back to pin at the back.
things to be careful of:
position your press studs in the right spots like don’t get confused on the inside & outside – if you check the end of the video you’ll notice I stitched the button on the back pleat on the wrong side!
Pleats! I can’t over emphasize this – pleat side should be on the straight leg so it can tuck between the bent leg on Krsna. It doesn’t matter so much on deities of Lord Chaitanya & Lord Nityananda, as their standing postures can vary.
keep it easy! Use a rolled foot on the sewing machine to hem.
Beading needles work best for stitching on the press studs
