Exquisite Adornment, Extraordinary Appeal Of Booties On A Saree

By Author: menaka poonam
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The Booti has been traditionally used as a feature of adornment, meant to beautify and add to the appeal of the fabric on which it is present. For a larger canvas like the saree, the even spread of the Booties on the plain or light design backdrop, marks a radical change from ordinary or average to unusual and appealing.

Hand-woven Booties are thread woven to form shapes or designs. These are then affixed to the saree through some form of thread work with care through needles of different sizes. The size of the butti and its local spread determines the type of needle to use.
Traditionally meant for royal, princely families a lot of pure gold and silver was used to make up the Booti. Today gold or silver coloured thread or zari is used to adorn most of sarees that appear in the market.

The mango with its shapely feature has always been the most popular motif to adorn the fabric. Flowers, geometrical patterns, birds, animals, leaves, everyday objects are some of the other popular buttis.

The bigger version of butti is called Butta and occupies a significant and noticeable portion as compared to the ...
... smaller booti. The ‘asharfi butti’ which resembles a gold coin was once used only for adorning regal Chanderi fabrics. Even today it fascinates and adorns many a fancy saree and provides a distinctive attraction.
Nowadays Tested Zari or synthetic fibre Zari is used for making buttis.

Hand-made Buttis are permanent in nature i.e. they are very durable. Interlaced they do not lose the original shape and structure throughout the life of the saree. Also very fine quality thread is made use of so that the original shape and appearance of the motif remains intact always. The stitching in of the butti is such a skilled art that it never comes undone.

In comparison, synthetic fibre buttis lose their shape and structure after some time. The weaving of the synthetic buttis through the power looms also leaves much to be desired.

So fine is the hand weave that the naked eye can more or less distinguish between the hand woven butti and the one woven on a power loom.

Sarees like the Chanderi Saree for which the Booti forms an essential feature still make use of hand woven or handloom woven Booties. Also gold coated, silver coated or copper coated Booties are part of the elegance that many a Chanderi saree displays.
Buttis once only hand-woven on the fabric, have been significantly replaced by gold-printed ‘Butti’ prints on the silk fabrics.