Another Deer & Doe Nenuphar + Balinese vintage handwoven fabric

This is a length of fabric purchased in Bali a few years ago.  I knew immediately that I wanted to do something pretty special with it.  This type of fabric is narrow, woven on hand looms, and the piece I chose is quite old.  The shopowner was loathe to sell it, in fact, and did point out the holes.  It was sold to me as a tube hand sewn together, with indeed a number of holes and worn areas.  The quality of the fabric was obviously much better than some of the newer pieces.  I believe that these weaving skills are being lost as they were village traditions which are not being passed on to new generations.  

The challenges I considered: 

-the holes, obviously

-better not be an item that will be damaged or need to be washed too frequently

-not a lot of yardage 

I chose the Nenuphar pretty early on, but wanted to do a muslin first (which is here).  The fit of the muslin was perfect so I didn't need to make any pattern adjustments.  

The other caveat is that I decided to fully underline it to support the fabric.  AND I wanted the collar in a matching fabric.  I decided that the ruffle at the bottom should also be a matching fabric.  My first attempt to get matching fabrics totally failed and it was another year before I had success, as I kept forgetting to take my scrap with me to match. 

The underlining is lightweight cotton-silk, and the supporting fabric is heavier but also a cotton-silk.  The back ruffle is doubled, though I was meaning for the top layer to be higher, I didn't realise how high the hem would go and I had to hand sew the hem so I wouldn't accidentally also eat the second layer of ruffle. So it's hard to tell there are two!

I also hand sewed the collar down.  I'm thankful to Alabama Chanin for making this into a normal seeming process instead of an exception.  It's also really nice to have the control that hand sewing gives - invisible stitches, plus everything is exactly where you want it! 

I'm really pleased with the final product. The two layers give it a surprising amount of heft.  I couldn't quite pattern match both pockets so I tried to just go with the theme on the second pocket and it's nearly as invisible as the first. For larger holes, I stitched over them together with the underlining for support.  I feel like I achieved my goal at respecting the origins of this amazing fabric, while creating a wearable garment.