I decided the best substitute for the cloak would be a dupatta or veil. In order to make sure I make it correctly, I pretended I wanted to make an Indian outfit for Pennsic and quizzed Lakshmi about the details. To keep her in the dark, I asked her to help me fit a choli.

Once I knew the size, I bought Xmm silk habatoi and finished the raw edges with a rolled hem. Then I dyed the silk green. Laurel regalia is often forest green or maybe spring green. Not for an Indian! This was a blinding chartreuse green. The great color came from Jaquard acid dye.

Next, to decorate. Lakshmi is known for her skill with wood-block prints, especially using wax resist. I'm not that skilled, so, although I consided several crazy plans to do resist printing, in the end I decided on block printing with paint. Since I wanted Lakshmi's friends involved in making her gift, I invited Baroness Aurelia Rufinia, Lady Clara Beaumont, Lady Constance de St. Denis, and Padme to help with the printing. I planned a design of laurel leaves around all 4 sides. As it just so happened, Lakshmi had printed some fabulous saris as gifts to the Kingdom of the Outlands and had already carved a block with a Indianized laurel vine on it. Yevsha stealthily swiped it from her work room while she wasn't looking. The leaves were printed with golden yellow paint.

Between each set of vines went a yellow elephant. Lakshmi has a thing for elephants and frequently requested that she get one as a gift if she was ever elevated to the peerage. Since I have no experience with carving, I cut the shade from flexible rubber sheeting which was glued to a piece of wood. We needed two thickeness to keep it from going blobby.

Finally, on each corner of the short end that she would not be tucking into her sari, I stamped a silver lotus blossom, Lakshmi's emblem. Clara donated some green & yellow floss and Constance made tassels, which I sewed on the corners with the lotuses.

The whole thing was then pressed to set the paint and packed carefully to go to Pennsic.