Behind the loom
A month on the pit loom
8 min read · Updated
The short answer
A Mangalagiri saree takes roughly thirty days on a pit loom: sorting and dyeing the yarn, preparing and threading the warp, weaving the body and Nizam border, and finishing and checking the cloth by hand.
Week one: yarn and dye
Cotton yarn between 100s and 200s count is sorted, washed and dyed in hanks. Each hank is aired until the colour settles before it is wound.
Week two: the warp
The warp is stretched outdoors, sized and threaded through the heddles one end at a time. A single saree warp has thousands of ends; one mistake shows for the whole length.
Weeks three and four: weaving
The weaver sits level with the cloth in a pit dug into the floor, working the treadles with their feet. The plain body moves quickly; the zari border and pallu slow everything down.
Finishing
The saree is cut from the loom, the fringe is knotted, and every metre is checked for broken threads and even selvedges before it is folded and tagged.