Sending your own fabric: what to send, how much, and what it saves

Most bridal clients send their own fabric, and they should — the blouse piece that came attached to the saree is dyed in the same lot, which no separately bought fabric will ever quite match. Send at least one metre. The blouse piece is usually 0.8 m, which is enough for a short sleeve but not for a full sleeve once we allow margin for the frame, and finding out at the frame stage costs you a week.

Photograph it flat, in daylight, without flash. Flash lifts the highlights on silk and shifts the colour by a shade or two, which is exactly the shade we would be matching thread and stone against. If the saree has a border you want echoed in the blouse, photograph the border separately and close.

Sending fabric removes the fabric line from the quote, typically ₹800 to ₹3,500 depending on the cloth. It does not change the handwork or tailoring charge, and it does add a small risk: if the fabric is too thin to hold the weight of the work, we will tell you before starting and suggest backing it.