My $48.00 dress

We have a formal event coming up in November and I have been wondering what to wear. I went shopping with some friends and we found all sorts of beautiful dress. The problem was they were all expensive and smallish. (note to self: Do not shop with size 2 friends!)



I had heard you could get anything made by the many tailors here in Doha. So yesterday some of those same (size 2) friends went with me to the fabric souqs (markets). I wasn't seriously looking for fabric. We were just looking for fabric to make a cape for someone's husband (think Nacho Libre). Out of mere curiosity, I asked the guy how much fabric I would need for a dress (I had printed a picture earlier). That was all the encouragement he needed to start pulling out bolts of fabric to tempt me. He succeeded and I ended up buying 3 meters of a beautiful crepe silk for 25QR meter(about $7.00/meter). With fabric in hand we decided to go visit a tailor one of the ladies had heard about, just to get an idea on pricing.



When I showed him the picture and fabric and asked for a price, he started measuring. So, I just went along with it. He asked some questions about the dress and helped me choose one dress over another. When all was said and done, I asked again for the price and he said 100QR. I couldn't believe it and asked again in case I had misheard. I had heard him alright...he is charging me 100QR or about $27.50 to make a dress for me. Altogether the dress will cost around $48.00. I may have all my clothes made from now on.