DIY Embellished Dupatta Tutorial

When it comes to weddings dupatta plays an important role especially for brides. Infact these days brides are opting for the double dupatta drape where in one dupatta is draped around your waist like a saree and the second dupatta covers the head. All bridal lehengas come with just one dupatta but you can ask your vendor to accommodate a light second dupatta within the cost or by paying a little extra. But not all stores allow such customization and so you will have to end up making or designing the second dupatta yourself .


Adding a DIY element to your wedding outfit is always a good as this lets you explore the creative side of you and also adds a personal touch to your outfit making your special day very unique. Here i will help you design a simple dupatta which is embellish with kundan stones.

when i went shopping for my Cousins nikaah ceremony i ended up loving a blue lehenga anarkali but the problem was this suit set came with a piece of plain net as dupatta . I wanted to buy a suit with embellished dupatta for the nikaah because i would be required put the dupatta on my head during nikaah ceremony and there was no way i was using  plain net chit to do it. But i loved the lehenga anarkali a lot and i decided i would design a dupatta for it myself and purchased it.

These days even the most ornate anarkalis come with plain dupattas and if you plan to wear them at religious dos like a nikaah or anand karaaj then i recommend you get a dupatta done because when the dupatta is on your head most of the work on your dress is hidden and all that is visible is your dupatta.

First step when designing your dupatta is to decide on the fabric and colour you want to use. i used this Georgette fabric becuase it was the first time i was doing stick on work and i dint know how it will turn out on see through fabrics like net or chiffon. as for the colouryou can match your outfit or go for a  contrasting colour if you are designing a double dupatta for your lehenga. I decided to play it safe went with the colour of the net dupatta which came with my lehenga anarkali.
It is very important to get fabric in exactly same shaded as your dress if you decide to match your dress. my anarkali was in a very tricky shade of blue which isnt easily available so i decided to get it dyed.

The next step is to shop for borders or laces. Borders are what makes a diy dupatta exquisite so shop smart here. Adding more than one layer of thin borders is also a good idea. go for borders ingold, silver or copper according to the work on your outfit and add a thin strip of velvet lace in contrasting colour if you want to make it look more heavy . I found this perfect simple lace in gold with pink borders and grabbed it since my anarkali had gold work and pink accents in it.
Next shop for plastic crytals or kundans in the shape you desire and some fabric glue to stick it on. you can also add latkans to your dupatta.


Now get the lace stitched  on the dupatta from your local tailor or you can do this yourself if you have a sewing machine. since i dint want a very heavy dupatta and i was trying this for first time i used just 2 meters of lace and got it stiched on just one side of dupatta. But i really do suggest you to do it four sides as it will look really good that way.




after the lace now it is time to work on the main dupatta.  choose a pattern you want to put on your dupatta and then lay the dupatta on a flat surface to facilitate easy sticking. I suggest you put your dupatta on a layer of cloth like bedsheet or something and not directly on the floor because excess glue tends to stick on the floor leaving glue marks on it.

The patterns looked all jumbles and the spacing wrong when the glueing was happening but after the whole dupatta was done it did not look odd but if you want perfection then use a chalk to draw patterns. 

The last step is to stitch on the latkans preferable four short ones on all four sides and tada done!