Charlie Caftan

I’m so excited to be able to share my new Closet Case Patterns Charlie Caftan in action in Greece! It’s very much inspired by Margot from The Good Life (I am from Surbiton after all!) and Abigail’s Party – sorry to all my international readers, these are very 1970’s British cultural references!

One of my favourite things about this outfit is the gorgeous handprinted cotton fabric from India. Fibers to Fabric kindly got in touch with me and asked me if I would like to choose some of their fabric to make my next project with. When I had a look at the range of gorgeous prints I knew I had to use some of it for my upcoming holiday. I chose a blue watercolour print, which also comes in other colours at their Etsy shop. The fabric is so lovely – it’s soft and cool, almost silky in texture, so perfect for a flowing garment like a caftan. It was lovely and cool in the heat in Greece, so perfect for holiday wear. It’s easy to order online and despite coming all the way from India it arrived really quickly to the UK. I’m very tempted to buy some of the other prints for more summer dresses!

I cut out a size 6 after some debate over finished garment measurements. On reflection I wonder whether I could have gone a size smaller as it’s quite big on the top without the ties done up? This is my first Closet Case Patterns item so I wasn’t sure how their sizes came up on me, so I thought it was best to be sensible. I always trace my patterns from the tissue paper so that I can reuse them in different sizes and because the tracing paper is much sturdier than tissue. My pattern pieces were huge and rather unwieldy and I had to spend quite a while wrestling with them. The front bodice piece in particular is rather delicate as it has a cut in the side where you eventually insert the centre bodice panel . However, the tissue pattern suffered a few casualties when my cat thought it was a den made just for him and bashed a few paw holes in the sides!

More info on my blog at www.julesmadethis.wordpress.com !