Pleated Belt Shalwar w/wide leg-Part 3

Asalamu alaikum,

After finishing up all the pleats we will now attach the belt and finish up our shalwar.


Step 1
With the right sides facing sew a half inch seam in the belt pieces of your shalwar.
Step 2
Fold over the seam allowance and sew a line of stitches 1/4 of an inch away to secure the seam allowance.

Step 3

With the right sides of the legs together, sew the center back seam of your shalwar.

It should look somewhat like this.

Step 4

Take one end of the belt and place it on the top of the leg pieces, the right side should be facing each other. The belt should be half an inch to the left of the center seam(this will be the center front seam allowance of the belt).

Pin the belt in place all around the legs, the center back seam of the belt and shalwar should be roughly at the same point.
What it looks like when you have finished pinning in place. The centerfront of the belt should over lap by half an inch for the center front seam.

Step 5

Sew from the center front seam of the legs around the shalwar and back to the front. Then sew up the center front seam of the belt, stopping 1.5 inches from the top(to leave a space for the drawstring.

Here is the belt attached to the legs.

Step 6

Now sew a line along the bottom of the belt to secure the seam allowance, it should be facing upwards.

Step 7

At the center front seam of the belt, fold the seam allowances away from the center by 1/4 inch and then fold the over 1/4 inch again. Sew a line down one side across the center seam and up the other side, this will be the opening in your drawstring casing.

Step 8

Starting at the openingyou made above, fold the top of the belt over by 1/2 an inch towards the wrong(inner) side.

Step 9

Fold it over by another inch to form the drawstring casing, do this all around coming back to the opening. Pin in place, and then sew a line of stitches all around on the bottom of the casing.

Step 10

On the wrong side of your shalwar, fold the leg in half and measure out along the hem from the fold 7", and mark, this is your foot opening.

Step 11

At the center crotch seam mark up 1/2 inch.

Step 12

Keeping the shalwar folded in half mark a lin from the foot opening to the center crotch seam, one inch away from the edge of your fabric. Do the same on the other leg. Sew the seam, starting at one foot, going up the leg to the center seam, and then down the other leg.

Now your shalwar is completed, give it a good pressing and it is ready for wear.

Front view of the finished shalwar
Back view of the pleated shalwar.

End of Part 3 for any questions please leave a comment.

Pleated Belt Shalwar w/wide leg-Part 2

Asalamu alaikum,

After you have sewn your leg pieces together, we will start the hem of the legs.

You will need two pieces of heavy weight interfacing or buckram. They should be 1"x16".

Step 1

Center the buckram on the wrong side of the bottom of the leg opening, about half an inch up from the edge.

Step 2

Fold the half inch of fabric up over the buckram, you can sew one line of stitches along the edge to hold it in place if you like.

Step 3

Fold the buckram up one inch, so that is completely enclosed in the fabric, if you have not sewn a line of stitches to secure it then you may like to pin it in place now.

Step 4

Sew anywhere from 2-10 lines of stitches running perpendicular to the bottom of the leg opening. The minimum is one line at the very top edge of the buckram and one at the bottom.

A bit difficult to see but on this shalwar I sewed 6 lines.

Step 7

Place the two leg pieces with right sides together and sew only one of the crotch seams, this is the center front.

Step 8

Make a "knife pleat", pinch about one inch of fabric on one side of the center seam and fold it over towards the seam, pin it in place.

Step 9

Do the same on the opposite side of the seam.

Here is what your first two pleats should look like.

Step 10

Continue making knife pleats(they should be overlapping by about 1/4 to 1/2 inch) that face the center seam until the distance between thecenter seam and the center of the rectangular center leg piece is about 5"-6", so the total width of the center pleated section should be 10"-12".

This diagram basically shows what you are trying to do, the center of the leg pieces should fall from your hip bones in a line down the front of your legs, so the area between points A and C should be roughly the distance across your hips, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10"-12"(can be more if you need it but not less).

Step 11

Sew a line of stitches to secure all the pleats in place, it should be between 1/4 to 1/2 inch down from the top edge.

On this shalwar I have made nine pleats on either side of the center seam, total of 18 pleats across the front.

Step 12

Now to make the pleats on the back side of the shalwar-lay it out flat, and make knife pleats that face away from the center back seam.

Step 13-
Pinch one inch of fabric, and then lay it flat, facing away from the center back seam, pin in place.

Step 14-

Make several pleats, until the distance from the center front seam to the center back is half the width of your belt. Do the same on the other side of the shalwar. On my shalwar I made 3 pleats on either side of the back seam for a total of 6 pleats.

Step 15

Sew a line of stitches to secure the pleats, in the same way as you did for the front pleats in Step 11.

Here is what you should have so far, the two leg pieces sewn together with a large section of pleats in the center and two smaller sections at either side(this will be sewn to make the center back seam).


End of part two, if you have any questions please leave a comment and let me know.

Pleated Belt Shalwarw/wide leg-Part 1

Asalamu alaikum,

Your first step is to find your measurements. This is the same as the measurements for the simple shalwar. For this shalwar it is best to use fabric that is 45 inches wide, you will need a piece that is at least 2.5 yards. If you are unsure of having enough, get a bit extra. It is possible to make this style of wide leg shalwar with a narrower fabric, but you have to be very careful in the cutting.

Step 1-Measuring
To start you will need to figure out some measurements, if you have a shalwar that fits you then you can measure that. If you do not have a shalwar, then you need to do a bit of math. Measure from where you want your waist band to fall to just below your ankle. Take that number and subtract 7 for the belt, the remainder is your desired leg length. To the belt you need to add 2 inches of height, 1.5 for the drawstring casing and .5 for the seam attaching it to the legs, so the total height of the cutting for the belt is 9 inches. You also need to add 2 inches to your desired leg length, .5 for the seam and 1.5 inches for the hem at the foot. So for example if your measurement for the total height of your shalwar was 38, that would be a belt of 7 inches(9 cutting) and a leg of 31(33 cutting). For the width of the belt you measure your hips at their widest and then add at least 6 inches for ease (although you can add more if you like), plus 1 inch for seams.

Step 2

Fold your cloth in half the long way, place the cut side to your left and the fold side to your right. You are first going to cut the main leg piece. Along the selvage closest to you measure from the left corner down the total length of your leg (for the 38" shalwar, that would be 33"). the width of the rectangle should be 14", if you prefer a wider foot opening you can make it slightly wider.

Step 3

The width of the next piece should be at least 20", measure up from the main leg piece along the cut side. From there measure down 9", this is the crotch seam measurement.

Step 4

Make one diagonal line connecting the crotch seam to the bottom of the main leg piece.

Step 5

From the bottom of the leg piece measure out 9".

Step 6

Measure the same width as for Step 3 (in my example it is 20").

This is what your pieces should look like-

Step 7

Cut along all the lines, and separate you pieces, you should have two main leg pieces, and four outer leg pieces(two left facing and two right facing).

Step 8

From the extra pieces, cut two rectangles for the belt. They should be 9" tall by half the width you calculated in Step 1.

Step 9

Arrange your leg pieces as above, and sew together with right sides facing.

End of part one, if you have any questions please leave a comment and let me know.

Finished shalwar tutorial, and what comes next?

Asalamu alaikum,

I have finally finished the second belt shalwar tutorial! This shalwar has a wider leg and a slightly looser feel, which I personally prefer.

It was pretty easy to get the cutting/sewing and all the pics, the difficult part was the uploading and trying to explain what I'd done! But finally I have finished, and have scheduled the posts for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of the coming week. It was a very pic heavy post so I split it into three parts. Please do excuse my horrible dark pictures, Tariq has just fixed the tube light in my sewing room so I hope in future it will not be so dark. :-)

Also I am considering what to do next, tutorial wise, and I had an interesting idea. I am planning a tutorial of necklines, but I was thinking what if instead of one big tutorial, I broke it up into smaller pieces? It would be similar to my "Friday Feature", every week(or maybe every other week), I could post a different style or design. I think it might be better this way, give me a weekly deadline.

So- comments? questions? suggestions? requests? Let me know what you think, if you have any thing in particular that you would like to see a tutorial on.

Saad's Kameez, plus three!

Asalamu Alaikum,

Usually I sew clothes just for my niece, as most of the extra cloth that I have in my fabric stash is from ladies suits. A couple months ago though, one of my sister in laws was cleaning out a closet and found a piece of cloth that was supposed to be for a man's shalwar kameez(about 7 meters, some sort of blend) and as no one was going to use it she gave it to me to experiment on.

I ended up making a little kameez for Saad, and then three more, one for each of my nephews!
Cute Little Man, all ready for Jummah(Friday prayers) with daddy!

I still need a bit more practice, as I had a couple small issues while working on it but they all turned out well for a first attempt.

Thumbs up, mama!

I have been doing more sewing than knitting or crochet lately, due to the heat I can only do the knitting at night before bed when we turn on the AC. I do have a couple of knit/crochet WIPs to post and lots more sewing too, inshAllah I'll be posting more in a day or two.