How much fabric for a gharara?

Why it is worked out in two parts

A gharara is fitted from the waist to just below the knee, where a seam joins it to a wide, flared lower section that falls to the floor. The seam is usually covered by a band of lace, border or contrast fabric. Our gharara style page shows the look.

A sharara is different: it widens from the hip or upper thigh in one piece. Because a gharara keeps its upper legs narrow, the two halves are measured and costed separately, and the flare all sits below the knee. Our comparison of sharara, gharara and palazzo explains how they look side by side.

The upper legs

Measure from your waist to just below the knee, typically 56 to 64 cm (22 to 25 inches), and add about 8 cm for the waist finish and the knee seam. The upper legs are cut like short straight trousers, so on 44 to 45 inch fabric the front and back pieces go one after another: about 1.25 to 1.4 metres in all. On 58 to 60 inch fabric about 0.7 metres is usually enough.

The lower panels

This part uses most of the fabric. First choose the flare of each leg, meaning the distance round its hem. The panels are cut as strips across the full width of the fabric, each about 60 cm deep for an average height (knee to floor plus seam and hem), and each strip gives about 1.08 metres of hem on 44 to 45 inch fabric. Count the strips each leg needs, double it, and multiply by the depth.

Wider fabric saves less than you might think here. Strips are counted whole, so a 60 inch width often removes only a strip or two from the total. Taller women need deeper strips; every extra 5 cm of knee-to-floor length adds 5 cm to each one.

• Modest, about 2 m round each leg: 4 strips, about 2.4 m, so roughly 4 m in total.
• Classic, about 3 m round each leg: 6 strips, about 3.6 m, so roughly 5.25 m in total.
• Full, about 4 m round each leg: 8 strips, about 4.8 m, so roughly 6.5 m in total.

The knee band and the finishing

The band covers the join on each leg. A strip 8 to 10 cm deep cut across the fabric is usually long enough for both knees, so 0.1 to 0.25 metres covers it. Many people use the embroidered border from a suit pack instead, as our article on using neckline pieces and borders describes. Sheer fabrics such as chiffon usually need lining in the lower panels, which adds a similar quantity of lining fabric, often with a little less flare.

The trouser piece in a standard unstitched suit is rarely enough for a gharara on its own. Our guide to a suit that is short of fabric covers ways to add a matching or contrast fabric. You can send your own fabric through Stitching Only, or ask us to supply it with a Fabric + Stitching quote; either way the quote states the quantity before anything is cut.