When you talk of Jamdani, you usually refer to the beautiful hand-crafted sarees that are worn by women across generations and handed down as a precious heirloom. In fact, very recently the weave has moved beyond the sarees and entered blouse, dresses, and even home linens and decorative textiles. This has also given a boost to several DIY crafts where one can repurpose their old jamdani’s on their own and create something new. While turning your old weaves into a blouse, top, handkerchief, table runner, table mats etc are very common, here are four DIY projects other than apparels and linens that should be on mind while repurposing.
Seeing jamdani batuas and potlis are not uncommon but have you ever thought that they can be re-usable gift wrapping fabrics? Using the Japanese technique of fabric gift wrapping, you can cut the Jamdani into different sizes, wrap your gift in it and use knots or ribbons to secure it in place. You can also add in tape to secure a greetings card or use brooches to do the same. This would ensure that the fabric is repurposed and there is no strain on using paper wrappings.
You can really unleash your creativity while trying your hands at making DIY Jamdani bookmarks. The easiest way is to layer the fabric on cardboard by pasting it. You may also stitch a few layers together to attain a certain thickness. If the fabric is light in colour, you can use a marker to make additional artwork on it. If you are a book lover or part of a book club, this can be a great ice-breaking exercise, gifting choice and a way to make customised bookmarks.
This can be done in more than one ways. First, the jamdani can be used to make the book cover. Ditch the old newspaper or brown paper wrapping and opt for a classy-looking fabric wrap. Second, Stitch your way through to make a book sleeve or book case which is big enough to hold a book, a notebook, pen/ pencil and a bookmark.
While greetings card is a story of the past, there are still a few people who maintain this tradition regularly. Replace sending a one-liner text through chatboxes by making your own greetings card, complete with a persoanlised message inside. Take a blank card and sketch out the design first. Now cut pieces from the jamdani to fit into the design and paste them. If you have more than one colour in the jamdani or more than one unit of fabric to repurpose then you can explore slightly complex designs too.
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