Help with 4 yr old sari request please!!

[saggers]

DD (4) has requested a real sari for Christmas. That's all she wants. I know they are hard for young children to put on, and I've found some beautiful ready-made saris online, but only in America, and they won't ship to the UK. Can they be bought in this country at all?

please?

They don't do sarees for children but do have lehengas. Would that do, maybe?

www.utsavsarees.com/store/category.aspx?cid=9&type=Kids%20Lehenga

whereabouts are you?

Thank you. I'm in Liverpool. It has to be a sari,I'm afraid...

there must be millions of asian clothes shops near you!
go into one and ask them for their advice: nto only will they help with the size of fabric etc, but they'll also teach you how to wrap it.

There are a few shop near me, and I know people who can help wrap them, but I specifically want one that is ready to wear.Thanks though.

oh.
sorry

could they make one up for you?
and stitch it and put a zip in?

Hi - am I too late for this?

I'm wondering - will DD really be able to work out whether it is a real sari or not at age 4?

I'm Indian in origin and always coveted my mother's saris when I was little. My mum managed to convince me that my lenghas (the outfits that small girls and quite a lot of adult women wear) was exactly the same thing but smaller for little people.

The lengha is basically a pretty skirt and matching blouse. They are usually very colourful and embroidered (my favourite when I was a kid was pink and green and covered in sequins, very OTT!). There is a matching piece of material (which is like a sari) which you basically wrap around you. It is much shorter than a sari (and hence easier to wear) but to an untrained eye looks just like a real sari. If you DD wants you to you can pin it to the blouse and skirt and I'm sure she wouldn't be able to tell that it wasn't a "real" sari.

BTW, a lot of the Bollywood actresses you have seen in photos, TV etc probably are wearing lenghas, not saris. They are very popular, even with adults, as they are so much easier to wear.

Just to convince you here are some pictures!

lenghas

My DD has just grown out of her salwar kameez from Nepal which I'm happy to send you instead of giving it to the charity shop.

If that is what she really wants, you gcould make a real event of it and go to an area with Asian shops and either buy her one or get one made. I cannot belive there are sari selling shops near you that don't sell kid's clothes. Or I'm sure they would make you one.

If you take her with you, she could maybe also get some child sized bangles and bindis. My daughter adores all that stuff (we're white European) as does every other little girl I know. Then you can go and eat pakora and drink lassi. I might invite myself along...

I think the problem is going to be the real sari bit. In almost all parts of the UK with even a small Asian population there will be a shop that sells Asian clothes, including kids' clothes, but Asian girls just don't wear real saris.

They are made of several metres of material and it's just not physically practical to wrap a full sari around a four year old and so instead girls get lenghas to wear. The lenghas are just as pretty but shorter lengths of material and with a much prettier blouse and skirt that is meant to be on display (for a sari, the skirt is always plain as it shouldn't be seen and the blouse may have some decoration but it's usually just on the sleeves).

Like this?

or this?

or this

Sorry if they aren't what you want but I had a lovely 'sari'