How to Make Pochampally Sarees?

What is art silk saree made of

A saree lover can never have enough of the glamorous Pochampally sarees. I am sure that you must have at least one of these pieces in your wardrobe. Did you ever think about the journey Pochampally travels before reaching you? Sometimes, I feel amazed by the process that converts unattractive threads into clothes. By now, you must be intrigued by the Pochampally saree-making method. So, let’s jump into knowing “how to make Pochampally sarees?”.

Making of Pochampally sarees begins with converting silk or cotton threads into warps, tying and dying them, and printing the designs on graph paper. The weavers put the yarns in desired configurations on the loom and complete weaving to produce Pochampally sarees.

What are the Raw Materials?

You must be thinking about the prerequisites you should have to start making Pochampally sarees. Like any other process, Pochampally saree-making begins with collecting raw materials. Once weavers have all of them at hand, they kickstart weaving masterpieces. A Pochampally maker needs to have the following entities beforehand.

  • Cotton and Silk Threads: These yarns will make a Pochampally saree base.
  • Dye Stains: You need dye stains to implement desired patterns on your Pochampally saree.
  • Cycle Tubes: Weavers use cycle tubes to tie the warp yarns before dying.

Besides the above materials, a weaver requires tools and machinery like weaving loom, dyeing machine, fly shuttle warping wheel, reed, spinning machine, reeling machine, spools, and spindles to make beautiful Pochampally sarees. Once you have everything with you, it becomes easier to weave a fantastic garment from scratch, provided you know the process.

Hang on! Did the process intimidate you? Don’t worry anymore! I will share the step-by-step process to make a gorgeous Pochampally saree below. Stay tuned!

What is the First Stage of Making Sarees?

Now that you have learned all the steps in Pochampally saree weaving, a common question might be hitting your mind. Are you worried about how to start making Pochampally sarees? You must consider the first stage if it’s a yes! But what is the first stage in Pochampally weaving? Let’s take a look!

Also known as Pochampally Ikat, the Pochampally sarees begin with yarn processing. Like any other garment manufacturing process, Pochampally sarees weavers refine the warp and weft to make them ideal for the other steps. As the threads make the base of Pochampally sarees, any mistake in the first yarn processing step will ruin the show of the final product. Also, the quality of Pochampally sarees improves as threads get better in the beginner stage. 

How to Make Pochampally Sarees?

The six yards of luxury holds extensive hard work beneath. Weavers spend hours and hours selecting suitable yarns and process them in the loom. A family of four weavers takes around 10 hours to produce a Pochampally saree. But, how do weavers create these pieces? Let’s take a look at the Pochampally saree weaving process stepwise.

Before anything, here’s a video for you that explains the Pochampally saree process in detail and comprehensively.

Step 1: Selecting Yarn to Get Started

The weavers select desired yarn to make a Pochampally saree. They can go with either cotton threads or silk yarns. Among silk, Mulberry, Neeru, Mogaa, and Tussar are the most preferred options to create a Pochampally silk saree.

Step 2: Innovating Saree Designs

A weaver should have innovative designs to implement on a unique Pochampally garment. So, the next step involves thinking of a saree design and collecting dyes to create them.

Step 3: Warping to Prevent Thread Breakage

The next stage is thread warping. Weavers warp Pochampally threads of 6 meters to create uniformity and ensure they do not break when weaving the saree rigorously. It’s an essential step that determines Pochampally tensile strength after manufacturing.

Step 4: Tying Warps Using Cycle Tubes

You’ve guessed it right! Our warps proceed towards the tie-dye technique next. Do you remember the designs we decided on previously? Weavers print the designs on graphs and tie the warps accordingly. They use cycle tubes to wind the warps tightly and prepare them for the dying process.

Step 5: Dyeing to Impart Colors to Pochampally Saree

Now comes the fun part, dyeing! Manufacturers boil the dye and immerse the tied warps into dyes to color the sarees. They stir the entire configuration rigorously to ensure that the colors stick to warps rigidly. Finally, they take the threads out and squeeze the extra hues responsibly.

Step 6: Untie to See Patterns

Manufacturers untie the dyed warps to find the desired patterns after drying them. They remove the cycle tubes carefully and verify the expected results. The Pochampally saree patterns are almost ready by now.

Step 7: Arranging the Yarns

The previous design graph comes to great help in arranging the yarns after the tie-dye process. Weavers refer to the pattern and configure the threads to replicate the design carefully.

Step 8: Dressing Yarns in Order

Pochampally saree manufacturers take the yarns in a bundle and join them according to the design graph. This step ensures that the threads don’t intermingle and misconfigure when conducting the weaving process.

Step 9: Subjecting to Weaving Loom

The saree base is ready and all set to go under the weaving loom. Manufacturers subject the threads under hand-driven or power looms to produce the final Pochampally saree. 

Hours of consistent efforts turn into delightful outcomes! After a laborious manufacturing process, a Pochampally saree finally gets ready. The pleasant sarees depend on a weaver’s careful approach when refining the yarns and dyeing the warps. Also, it relies on the efficiency with which a manufacturer follows the design graph. With so many considerations and tons of effort, the deliverable has to be as beautiful as a Pochampally saree!

No one can turn their heads away from the elegance of a Pochampally saree. What makes them so excellent? Essentially, the process, hard work, and innate creativity that lies behind making a Pochampally saree. I hope you found your answer to “how to make Pochampally sarees?” and enjoyed recollecting the legacy manufacturing process.