Mirror work Hand Embroidered Cotton Nandsundari Saree 003

Nandsundari sarees are an initiative taken up by us to give a new product to the weavers of Delhi. Project Nandsundari was initiated after reading a report on the dying handloom sector of Delhi. These weavers were relocated to the Nandnagari and Sundernagri area of Delhi’s outskirts sometime in the 70’s. These weavers had been weaving yardage, bedsheets etc on order basis. 

As time passed their orders diminished, not a very skilled lot neither a well-known product to show off, lack of work compelled them to move on to other professions and stop weaving. Today very few weavers can be seen working on handlooms in this area. As I visited the place in 2018 we realised more weavers had moved on. A sad but real situation. 

We started this project with one of the master weavers in Sundernagri in May’17, encouraging them to make sarees. Overcoming various problems related to the product, weaver skills, material and cost of production we have come a long way. The sarees are a comfortable wear, can be carried for the day, graceful with a good drape. Weighing between 500-600gms, we are still making them on handlooms using reed of 36count. The warp used in these sarees is 2/40 cotton. We have been experimenting with the weft yarns. 

We have till now used singles 20 cotton in the beginning to singles 40, 2/20 and 2/40 count yarns in the weft. 

We have also used kala cotton yarn from Gujarat for the weft and results are beautiful.

Since our concerns with the quality of weaving have mostly been resolved we are now trying to get into designing the sarees by using more colours, arranging the stripes, experimenting with borders etc. 

we have also introduced embroideries on nandsundari sarees mostly worked by girls having neurological challenges associated with an NGO- AADI in Delhi. We at present have three girls working for us on nandsundari saree embroidery project in addition to the staff from AADI without whose support this ambitious project would be impossible to achieve.