Voile Sarees - The Softest Cotton Sarees Of All

Voil Saree Introduction:

Voil Sarees derived from the French word 'voile'. Voile in french means a light cotton fabric used to make dresses and light weighted attires. Voile is synonymous with being soft, usually made of 100% cotton. In India, it was patronized under Chola Dynasty which was a golden period for Artisans in the field of Arts, Handlooms and Agriculture.

How are Voil sarees made? How has it evolved?

The cotton is obtained from the fully bloomed cotton seeds which makes it very soft for weaving. Hence, it gives the softest texture to the voil cotton sarees.

Over the generations, the designing part evolved by bringing in different techniques like block printing, tie-dye method - shibori, wax printing, screen printing, digital image rendering on sarees etc.,. All these new gen techniques are taking diffferent forms and it is changing the very look of how Voile Sarees were considered as a daily wear to making it a selection for festive wear! A long way journey up the ladder of fashion!!

Initially, the voile sarees were dyes only in vibrant colours like Red, Yellow, Green, Blue than in lighter shades as only these shades stayed on the fully matured cotton threads as they were plant-based dyes. Later on, as technology developed harmless dyes gave way to new palette of lighter shades. Now, you can find Voil Cotton Sarees to be in any colour you can imagine.

How to wash and maintain the Voile sarees?

Unlike other cotton sarees, Voile Sarees need not be starched as they are very soft even in their rawest form. They are very baby soft and unlike other cotton saree they need only effortless maintenance.

• Soak the Cotton saree in lukewarm with a little salt for not more than 15 minutes to prevent colour bleeding and it keeps the saree colour vibrant, fresh as new.  
• Use only mild shampoo (softening shampoo works best) or mild detergent to wash. Always avoid Machine wash to preserve the cotton saree
• Mild spray of water during ironing sarees 
• Refold these from time to time to avoid fading on the creases.
• Dry in shaded area and avoid direct sunlight to prevent colour fading
• It's best to store cotton sarees in an airy wardrobe.

How are Voil sarees designed?

For artisans, working on Voile sarees is the trickiest. As they are very soft cross weaving them with thead buttas or thread borders are very tricky and is rare. Such kind of weaving takes more than 7 days to weave one saree.

Most common designs seen on Voile Cotton sarees are the Floral motifs which was a traditionally a representation of the native flowers which were grown in TamilNadu. Nowadays, the younger generation is more focused on comfort than style. Voile sarees and Voile Cotton is gaining new trend now as they are considered comfortable, easy to maintain and beat the heat kind of attires.

What makes Voil stand unique than other cotton fabrics?

 Moving on to how the voil fabric is woven, it is called the plain weave construction. It is just like the basket weave. The grid-like structure in the fabric is formed by the horizontal cotton thread (weft) floating over the vertical cotton thread (waft). 

A QUICK TIP: If you want to test the softness and the authenticity of the Voile Fabric, slightly scratch the fabric across the grain. If the threads starts separating then, the voile fabric is loosely woven and the real voil fabric should be densely woven. 

We at Knot N Threads have a variety of Voile Cotton Sarees for you to spruce up your wardrobe!! 

 Voil Fabric around the World