How many metres of sfifa for a karakou?

This is the calculation that costs the most when it is wrong, because a missing braid cannot simply be bought again: the next batch will not be quite the same tone.

The short method

Measure the outline of every piece the braid has to edge — front, back, both sleeves, the neckline, the slits — and add them up. That is your bare length.

The three margins everyone forgets

• Corners. Every sharp corner eats a few centimetres in the fold. On a classic karakou, count about ten corners.
• Joins. A braid is joined somewhere discreet, not where it happens to run out. Leave yourself enough to choose where to cut.
• The pattern. If the braid carries a repeating design, a clean join means aligning the pattern — so losing up to a whole repeat at each junction.

The rule we use in the atelier

Bare length, plus 15%, rounded up to the metre. On a wide-pattern braid, plus 20%. What is left over always gets used: sfifa offcuts end up as loops, as belt carriers, or on the matching clutch the customer asks for three weeks later.

And if you get it wrong anyway

Order the whole amount at once, in a single order. Two orders two weeks apart are potentially two shipments — and that is exactly where the tone shifts.