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The genesis of my tryst with upcycling sarees is paradoxically linked with death...it is the result of an organic chain of events which started from the time my sister Yashodhara passed away on January 1 this year, to the present. 

My sister was one of the most elegantly dressed women I have ever seen. Her taste in sarees was impeccable and inevitably all heads turned when she entered a room. Even people who met her just once never forgot her, such was the strength of her personality.

Throughout her life, many of our family members and friends would jokingly say: “Please leave that saree for me!”

So when Yashodhara passed away, my sister Aparajita and I began gifting her sarees to those who had cherished them.

As the number of good sarees started dwindling, there were still many claimants left. It was then that I hit upon the idea of reconstituting Mejdi’s sarees. I discovered that the trendy new term for this process is called upcycling.

I have been using long forgotten borders lying at the bottom of Mejdi’s cupboard and attaching them to other sarees which are intact but have no borders to speak of. Then there are sarees where the pallavs are damaged and torn. Here, I have carefully chosen fabric which complements the colours and patterns of the saree. The challenge of trying to integrate several disparate elements into a seamless whole intrigues and excites me. And in doing this my eternal quest for beauty and perfection seems to have found its niche.

This whole exercise gave me so much happiness that I began to wonder what would happen when I finally ran out of my sister’s usable sarees.

That is when I had an epiphany. Why not use my upcycled sarees to generate funds for charity?

My parents both died of cancer and I have always wanted to contribute to the cause. But I have never had the kind of funds to donate which would make any significant difference to the cause.

I received my first donor about 10 days ago. It was gifted to me by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, filmmaker and member of the erstwhile royal family of Dungarpur. I set to work immediately on and created two sarees out of Shivendra’s gift.

Each saree is a challenge.. sometimes a single saree can have elements from 2-3 other sarees and some fabric as well. The challenge is to put them together to make them a seamless whole.

Luckily, Shivendra and his wife Tisha were delighted by the result of my efforts, and are planning to give me some more sarees.

At a time when less and less women are wearing sarees, I wonder how much demand there will be for upcycled sarees. Be that as it may, I will continue to make them. Because I firmly believe that the saree is the most graceful and flattering attire for an Indian woman. If Radhika Nag’s alluring image results in at least the sale of one saree, I would consider my job is done.

Someone suggested I call my initiative A Touch of Joy. I rather like the name. I hope you all do, too.

The starting point: Divide this saree (above) into two parts, by cutting off the border and pallav from the saree, which becomes the first part, and the balance, being the body, the second part.

Next step: Choose a separate saree which will become the foundation for one of the two planned upcycled sarees. I chose one of Ma’s tussar sarees depicted above, because it had purple motifs that would match the border.

Third step: Add complementary borders and fabric to the body of the original saree, making it upcycled Saree 1.

Last step: Place the border and pallav on the tussar saree.

In this particular case, the entire pallav had to be created because it was too short and narrow to create any impact. So, I added zari borders and green fabric and placed it within the existing parameters of the tussar saree pallav.

Basically, I add various diverse elements, but make sure that they all blend together into a seamless whole.