♥ Diraac Fabulous ♥

A. I started this site, as I have been sewing the diraac dress sets for nearly five years now; to much acclaim; and always wanted to offer them to a wider audience.  My main aims are to offer diraac sets that are comfortable, beautiful, contemporary and affordable. I also have something that is completely unique around the world; 'ready made' diraacs, traditionally diraac sets always come as fabric requiring you to have them sewn; or to sew it yourself.  I sew the sets for you; so you no longer have that headache!

A. Becoming a site member is nothing to do with the store; but more to do with places on the sites where you can comment. On this particular site you can post on the guestbook; if you're not a member; but not anywhere else. This is to avoid spam. If you do post something on the guestbook, the site will automatically send you an invite to join the site.

A. It is occasionally possible for me to do custom diraacs to your specifications, depending on circumstances.  Please allow a minimum of 4 weeks notice for plain diraacs, 8 weeks for special and highly embellished styles. Usually custom items are charged at the typical price I charge for a ready-sewn set; plus an additional charge; usually between £5 and £20, depending on the style and any embellishment required. There are also new styles of diraac such as butterfly, bahraini and others that can only really be made to custom order because of the precise nature of the measurements involved.

If you would like to see about the possibility of a custom order please use the 'contact us' form here, or email at diraac@hotmail.co.uk

A. Diraacs are cultural dress and have no religious significance; in the countries where they, or almost identical garments are commonplace, they are worn by those from other faiths as well. In my humble opinion if you're looking for something modest and comfortable, yet pretty and dressy; the diraac is a good choice whatever your faith and culture. 

At the same time some diraacs clearly do not conform to the Islamic (or any religious) dress code for use in public, use your common sense and discretion.

A. The vast majority of the raw materials for my diraacs are sourced within the UK, mostly from small businesses within the London area. Of course; the UK no longer has much of a textile industry to speak of so most of the raw materials used for the diraacs are originally manufactured outside of the UK. If I know the country of origin of a fabric; I will let you know in the product listing.

Similarly; with the aim of keeping prices reasonable; I tend to buy my fabrics from outlets, markets and online; so often these fabrics are not actually marked with their exact composition. As a dressmaker for many years; I can usually tell the composition by feeling the fabric; but if I am not 100% sure I will describe it as a 'blend' including the fibres in the fabric that I am sure about.

A. I consider myself to be a very qualified seamstress, and have 9 years of experience. At present I do not have a serger/overlocker but with most diraac sets the only 'raw' seam is the one at the back of the underskirt. A few modern diraac fabrics also have raw selvedges. In those cases I will usually finish the fabric in some other way; either a French seam; rolled hem, a small neat zig-zag stitch; or I will use the overcasting foot on my machine. I never cut corners or rush my work. I have a high-spec, computerised machine which gives far neater, more hardwearing and even results than most home or even industrial machines.

A. No; at present I do not use Swarovski® Stones. As someone with many years of fabric experience, I can tell you I have only once seen a 'designer' fabric that uses the genuine Swarovski® hotfix crystals and that costed over £100 a metre; the majority of the time they use high quality, but 'generic' crystals usually from the Far East. To the untrained eye; it is difficult to tell which are swarovski® and which are the high quality generic crystals; especially with the clear crystals. Swarovski® stones are very expensive; while it may not seem there is much difference between a small pack of Swarovski® and the same in the generic stones; it really does add up.  For some of my embellished designs I use around 5000 crystals; if I used Swarovski®; the cost of the embellishment alone could be hundreds of pounds; and that would not include the cost of the fabrics and trims for that set. As one of my primary aims is to keep my diraac sets affordable; that is a 'no-go' for me.

A. With the pre-embellished silk chiffon fabrics; the rhinestones very rarely come off (even if you want to remove them; i.e. to sew a hem; they are pretty firmly stuck!). Although my technique for applying rhinestones fixes them a lot more securely than ironing-on; occasionally one or two may fall off after a time and some fabrics and types of satin trim are just more prone to this. To deal with this possibility, wherever I have embellished a diraac myself, I will include a small ziplock bag with a few spare rhinestones in the relevant colours; and instructions on how to fix them with a household iron; so you can keep your diraac set looking new! I don't know any other diraac seller in the whole world offering such a service...

A. Although diraacs are a genuinely free-size item, and suit all sizes and shapes; its true that for the very petite or plus sized, alterations may be required. On my store listing for each item; I will list the measurements it has been made to; and the range of sizes I expect the set to fit. If you fall outside of these measurements; or just prefer a different fit- for example, you want the underskirt to only come up to the waist and not be empire line as usual, then I offer alterations on all items for a fixed additional fee of £5. I do not put the elastic in the underskirt before a set is purchased so it is easier to do any alterations if required.

The alterations that can be offered are length and waist size on the underskirt, and shortening of the overall length on the diraac (dress part) of the set itself. It is not possible to lengthen anything; change the sleeve diameter; or the neckline. Please specify if you require alterations when ordering and I will bill you via paypal. I am trying to work out a way to offer this automatically as one of the shipping options. Please request specific measurements you want the alterations to meet; as I cannot go on guesswork.

If alterations are not specified; I will send the set with the default measurmeents and cannot be held responsible for any misunderstanding in this regard.

Sets or seperates that have been altered cannot be returned.

A. I do not currently sell abayas or plan to sell them. It may be a possibility in the future; but there are tens if not hundreds of sites selling abayas; but only this one offering these unique products and services. I do sell housedresses and hope to offer more soon. 

A. Silk is a natural fibre; and like other natural fibres and products; it is affected by adverse weather conditions or slight differences in climate. Due to these factors; in the past year or so wholesale silk fabrics have become considerably more expensive, sometimes two or three times as much with some types of silk fabric. I think this is one factor that has led to more synthetic fabrics being used for diraacs generally.  The cotton fabrics and synthetics I use are top quality; and the synthetics have the feel of silk (even my expert in the market couldn't tell the difference) but with a number of advantanges. One; they are far easier to wash and care for; two; they don't snag or develop holes as easily as their silk equivalents, and three, silk fabrics simply are not available in anything wider than 54" and even that is a rarity, most silks come in 36 or 45" widths. Whereas synthetics are available up to 66" wide so you get that really dramatic 'wrist to wrist' look.  The synthetics I use are not cheap; one store in London was selling identical polyester satin to the type I use for nearly £60 a yard (sad but absolutely true), and even in more modestly priced places; they usually cost around £8 a yard or metre. With my contacts I was able to get a good deal; so was able to keep prices down without compromising on quality.