Hello Hive.

Today it was necessary for me to visit how to sew this traditional Outfit Called "Iro" This was absolutely necessary for me because as modern fashion evolves we seem to forget our culture and traditions.
Iro and Buba are the native wears common to the Yoruba people in Nigeria.
Iro is the blouse which though it seems very simple, it can be a bit confusion to cut and if due diligence is not taking while cutting this one can end up making the fabric not useful for this purpose again.

I needed to call the attention of a traditional seamstress here to look into what I was cutting and the whole process was like learning how to cut fabrics all over again.
The design is not so common among the youths anymore, only our mothers seem to enjoy wearing iro and Buba.
I will love to preserve culture and wouldn't appreciate a lost design of this our traditional wear.

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To cut this I needed
Fabrics.
Chalk
Scissors
Taperule.

First we have folded the fabric using our desired length.
The normal neckline for the blouse is 3.5" width and 4" depth and in some cases where we are making clothes for someone thicker, a 4" depth and width can be used.

After cutting this I haves used the remaining fabrics to cut the desired sleeve as well.

And moved to sew the blouse using a specific guide and instructions from my traditional seamstress.

This knowledge is something I cherish so much this day and hopefully I will add some modern touches and embellishments to a traditional outfit.
Maybe this will make the youths of today desire to wear and preserve this culture as well

In order to get this down perfectly I decided to do a slow fashion sewing the blouse with needle and thread. In olden times it was possible for our mothers to sew a complete outfit using needle and thread.

This took me 3hrs for sewing while using a machine will have taking just 30mins.
While learning to sew with needle and thread we get exposed to different kind of stitches and traditional knowledge of fashion we know nothing about.

It is so important for me to keep this knowledge because I believe that our orthodox fashion can also be enhanced with modern touch and still keep this tradition . This blouse is meant to be worn with a wrapper called Buba and I have ideas rolling in my head regarding how to add finishing touches to this that will wow everyone .

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