How to Tie a Sarong Knot

Series Summary

A sarong, or pareo, is a large sheet of brightly colored fabric worn around the waist or shoulders by men and women throughout the world. Particularly popular in southeast Asia and the Pacific islands, sarongs are about a yard wide and two and a half yards long, frequently brightly colored, with detailed patterns, and tie dying. In many parts of the world sarongs have also become part of the women's fashion industry, being used as bathing suit cover ups, skirts, dresses, and even halter tops.

In this free video series, our fashion expert will demonstrate how to tie and wear a sarong or pareo. She will demonstrate several ways to incorporate sarongs into women's clothing, including using a sarong as a long skirt, a halter top and a jacket. Using step-by-step instructions, you will learn how to tie a sarong in a cascade method, a pleated skirt, a criss cross method, and even make a handbag with your sarong. These free videos have some great ideas for all sorts of sarong fashion accessories.

Video Transcript

"Hello, on behalf of Expert Village my name is Rochelle Bartholomew and I'm here to teach you how to tie a sarong or pareo. I teach fashion at the college level and one of my classes was teaching how to tie a sarong or pareo and my students were amazed at the many different variations there are and today I'm going to teach you several ways that you can make a skirt, dress, turban, tube top or pocket book. The sarong is just a piece of material, cotton, silk, any fabric that is one yard by two yards in a rectangular shape. And they make bright colors to represent the tropics. I'm going to show you the basic tie first of all. It's a right and then tie or a square knot. Cross the two in the back twelve inches in, you're going to cross it over and drop it, and pull it through, that's a simple knot. Then you will arrange it on your hip or in front of your belly button or to the side like you had. Now to make a right handed knot you continue, you drop the top piece under the bottom and pull it through the loop you just made. That's a right knot. Again, you can wear it to the middle or to the side. That's your basic pareo skirt."