Fabric For Middle Eastern

Yes; 2 posts in 2 days. Don't get overly excited. Since Greet has pointed out that A) we live at the same latitude as Cairo and share very similar temperatures and it would behoove us to look at alternate clothing from the chilly European regions; B) we live in a kingdom that has quite a few Middle Eastern themed events; and C) cotton is cheaper than linen and wool, I decided I should at least put together a rudimentary set of Middle Easter Garb. So I found the perfect soft white gauze for my bottom most pirihan and some lovely aqua cotton/linen ($2 a yard, you can't go wrong) for my Salwar. I thought I had the perfect fabric for a top layer pirihan, but I've just discovered that it has a huge hole in it after washing it. Was probably there when I bought it and I just didn't see it :( I'll pattern it out and see if it can be salvaged, but I don't think so. It may become a loose fitting caftan. But I do have a piece of teal cotton (which I really don't want to use for this outfit as it will be too much blue IMO) with some open work in it that I may use instead. Not sure yet.

Soo I got to thinking about my fitted caftan and have been poring over pages and pages of ME garment pages, including extant pieces, fabric descriptions and weights. (Greet, what was that I said about not having a real interest in learning anything about ME garb except to get a basic set made?) So I have a vague idea of what fabric would look like. Armed with this new found knowledge, I go to JoAnn's to see what I can find. And I found the following:



So from top to bottom:

1. Is a cherry red with small rondels with daisies and a bit of a floofy leaf swirly thing that isn't too obvious. The rondels are the part that caught my eye and while I think it would go well with aqua and orange (or teal) and black.

2. Is sort of a nice creamy color with blocks of leaves. It's fairly simple and frim the 5 foot rule you cant really see the "countrified" grids behind it. It's sort of boring. But would work if need be.

3. OK, this is probably my favorite. It's a deep fuschia with pink daisies (no, there's no theme) and goldenish ovalies. The ovalies (yes; that's a technical term, it's why I used it twice) are what really gave it a ME look along with the continued repetitive pattern in the daisies.

4. This is the aqua color for my pants

5. This is the lovely orange gauze with the hole.

I have some black cotton and I don't think you need to actually see a scan of the white gauze. I mean it is white. And gauze.

OK, so, which of 1, 2, and 3 looks best? I'm ready to go to JoAnn to lay down money for this. And it is all on sale or I have a 40% off coupon. Help me spend more money :)