Kurta Shoulder Alterations – with Tucks

This free tutorial post is about making even or uneven shoulder alterations in oversized Kutra/Kurti/Kameez by adding tucks based on individual style and design, thus giving suitable style tips.

Hello Friend,

Happy Deepavali to all the Indian Readers 🙂 May Goddess Laxmi bless us all. Let us celebrate Eco-friendly Deepavali this time and every time 🙂

We were talking about alteration of ready-to-wear garments like Kurta since last two weeks. Hope you have read the shoulder alteration with darts tutorial last week and I hope you have liked it. Today’s post is the second one in the series.

This Kurta alteration method uses the extra shoulder width to add tucks at the shoulders. This beautiful hand-crafted Kurta of block printed cotton is by Karigari shopped through Mynthra.com and cashkaro.com about which I had written in my arts blog.  It was of L size and mine is S. I wanted loose fitting and hence, the tucks I have added consumed slightly less than the extra width I had noted. This photograph of mine is taken at Ellora Caves by Venu, my hubby. Please excuse the creases that I forgot to set before getting clicked.

Kurta Alteration by Tucks – Style Tips

Tuck on Solid fabric

Tuck on Large Overall Print

Tucked shoulder style looks great on solids. This style can also be added on Kurtas with small or large overall designs. Tucks go well with rectangular neck design as that of mine shown in this post. But avoid adding it on Kurtas with emphasising large designs at the neckline and shoulder. This method is also for Kurtas with well fitted armhole and for Kurtas with sleeves as it doesn’t involve armhole alterations.

Difficulty level: Medium

Time required:

• To measure and mark 10 minutes
• Single tuck hand tacking 15 minutes + machine stitching 15 minutes
• Single tuck hand tacking 15 minutes + hand stitching 60 minutes to 90 minutes

Tools Required:

• Measuring Tape
• Marking chalk
• Scissors
• Hand sewing needle or a sewing Machine

Kurta shoulder fitting for even shoulder with tucks:

1. First step is to measure the shoulder. Two sides can be measured separately if needed more accurate fitting. Say, shoulder is 34cm wide i.e, approximately 13.25 inch wide. This means, for an ideal even shoulder, each side is 17cm (6.6 inch) wide.
2. We have to measure the Kurta/Kurti shoulder. Remember to measure the two sides separately. Say, left side is 20cm and right side is 20cm
3. Note down difference in measurements of each side. In this example, Kurta/Kurti has 3cm extra width at both sides.
4. Since Kurta shoulder widths are even, we will take tucks to cover up the extra width.
5. Then, we have to mark the shoulder centre point between neckline and shoulder end.
6. Next, we have to take a tuck with 1.5cm width (total consumption 3cm) at this shoulder centre point. On each side, two tucks will run along the length of the garment parallelly. These tucks will be parallel to the centre front and centre back lines.
   

   Shoulder Alteration – with Single Tuck

7. Tuckscan be taken off centred (near to the neckline and away from shoulder point) too. This will result differently. If at all I would have to add tuckstoanyofmyKurta in future, I would be trying this off centre tuck.
   

   Shoulder Alteration – Off centred Single Tuck

8. Tucks can be hand stitched or machine stitched. I have used short running stitches on my Kurta.
9. For multiple tucks, we can divide the shoulder width into many halves so that the dividing points will be tucks’ locations. When adding more than 1 tucks, the tuck sizes reduce. Say, when Kurta has 3cm extra shoulder width each side, we can add 3 tucks of 0.5cm width (total consumption 1cm) each. The following picture shows slightly off centred triple tucks:

10. 

    Shoulder Alteration – Multiple Tucks Method

This is how my tucked Kurta looks like:

Note:

• Refer to Taking Measurements for taking shoulder measurement accurately.
• One or more tucks can be added.
• Tucks can be used when equal amount of fabric is to be concealed on each side.
• Number of tucks on each side should be equal.
• Beginners can draw the fold lines with marking chalk and hand tack the tucks before stitching them.
• In special cases, tucks can be added for uneven shoulder too. Say, if Kurta shoulder is also uneven (left 20cm and right 21cm) for a person with left shoulder 16.5 and right shoulder 17.5cm, then each shoulder side has 3.5cm extra width. In this case, tucks can be added.

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Feel free to drop your valuable feedback for this post, it strengthens Tantu. Few more tutorials in the series are yet to come.

Take care!

Bye until the next post!

Yours,

Sindhu

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