A friend asked me to refashion this fantastic caftan that she had inherited into something more comfortable for our tropical climate.
A high collar = not so good in the heat.
I unpicked the little decoration from the front and set it aside: it might make its way back on.
Love those patterns! It came from somewhere like Singapore. It has birds, elephants, trees.
I started by taking the collar off, because I thought was going to change the neckline to a round one and it would be in the way. Rather than cut it off, I unpicked the stitches in case I could reuse the pieces.
It took a while, because the garment had been quite well made. But I didn't want to rip anything, so slow and steady it was. I watch a lot of background TV when I sew! Or musicals, they're good to sew to.
These parts could be useful in creating a new neckline.
Onto the sides, and I'll leave the neckline for last.
There's lots of spare fabric on the sides, which can be cut down.
There is already a seam that runs from under the arms to the hem, and the dress fits my friend with this seam, so I don't have to re-size or do anything too tricky.
My plan was the cut a seam allowance outside this line and then fold and hem the full length of the dress. But I'll need to cut out the top so that I can hem it at the same time. Bring in another dress of mine to use as a pattern. We're about the same size, which always make it easier.
I simply pinned around the dress...
...and then realised that I had fabric pencils and replaced the pins with that! The pink circle is the belt hole from the caftan.
It looks like a different dress already 😁
Because the extra fabric from the caftan was on the outside of the dress, when I trimmed it down I needed to fold the fabric down and sew it flat to the dress,
A bit of manoeuvring around the machine.
Onto the collar: I left the original shape and used the support fabric that I had picked off to re-create it.
More and more promising! Excuse the creative chaos in the back...
Though, because the caftan wasn't quite centred, my shoulders did end up uneven.
It also gapes quite a bit under the arms. The blue is where the underarm line should be.
The solution? A cute little triangle shoulder fold, that serves the double purpose of making the shoulders look more even and lifting the underarm of the dress. I do this to some singlets and dresses that I buy, because I often find that the arm holes are too big.
Very happy with the top half of the dress.
And with the final dress!
Because I lifted the shoulders it is a little it isn't as long as the original caftan, but that was floor-length and I usually find that I trip over hems when I'm around the house. Especially if you have stairs!
And there you have it: from caftan to house dress. Very happy friend, who has a few more of them for me to do too!
I'll have to think of some other patterns for the top 😊 #lovelypennypatterns
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