Caftan the Buffet Slayer

This past weekend I experienced the exciting combo of having my birthday and a good friend's wedding occurring on the same day, so I decided to treat myself by making a new outfit to wear for the occasion. I already had a stash of dressmaking patterns and fabric, so I chose one pattern that I had wanted to make for a while and a corresponding length of fabric and whipped something up!

Regular readers will know that I am a lover of all things vintage, especially vintage fashion so I was really pleased to find that I had a vintage fabric that suited the dress that I wanted to make, which was Simplicity 8505A - a reproduction vintage 1970s caftan:

The fabric was gifted to me from a friend and I'm not entirely sure when it dates from but my best guess (from the colour pallet) would be 1980s / 1990s... but other people have said 1960s / 1970s so who knows:

Vintage fabric from an unknown era
If you'd like to vote for which decade this fabric comes from then please leave a comment below! It's slippery, sheeny synthetic fabric (polyester? not easy to cut or sew) and luckily I had about 6 metres of it; enough to make the belted caftan from my pattern. 

Anyway without further ado, here is the finished caftan (just in case it's not really obvious - I am attempting the pose from the illustration on the pattern)!

Me!

I've been watching a lot of 'The Golden Girls' lately and I felt like I was not-so-subconsciously inspired by their fashion on the show:

Blanche Devereaux

And the fabric just happens to have that great tropical / Miami / jungle pattern, which fits so well with that style! I really like how the caftan turned out; it's got a really great drapey feel and is super comfortable but also has a bit of shape to it - so even though it's not something that I will have the occasion to wear very often I will look forward to finding excuses to wear it! Like any kind of event with a buffet or bottomless brunch. Plus since I had all the materials I needed to hand already it cost me no additional money for a whole new outfit :) 

Thank you for being a friend! 

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