Sewing Away II

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Green Kaftan

with black laces 

 It was difficult to capture the entire kaftan on camera ; hence the folds, etc.

When I first stitched this kaftan & sewed on the store-bought lace along the sides, the neck looked quite barren & needed something. (as seen in the penultimate image).
Hence, tatted up a single-shuttle, rings-only edging that I like. It does not exactly go with the triangular peaks of the side lace, but I did not want to take away focus from the side laces. The final result didn’t turn out that bad.

I used size 20 Anchor Mercer Black thread for tatting.

I don’t have the exact source of this edging pattern (it is one from my old collection), but in an earlier post I called it “Dancing Clovers”.

Sewing

For this kaftan, I deliberately cut off some inches from the side of the fabric, in order to shorten the width. Despite a beautiful drape of entire width, the long ‘sleeves’ snag at door knobs !

Secondly, I sewed on the lace at the sides some distance from the fabric edge for 2 reasons :

The lace lost some of its appeal if nichéd along the very edge. The short green strip gave a much better appreciation of this beautiful lace.

And, the extra fabric was folded & seamed in After sewing on the lace, such that the sewing line of the latter was completely hidden within.

Another alteration I made was to inner stitching line. Instead of keeping it straight throughout, I gradually went in towards the waist & back out. Unexpectedly, this has created such a lovely shape, that even though a backing was added at the waist for string/belt (the parallel sewing lines are visible in pic above, shown by white arrow), it is No Longer required ! The kaftan drapes so well Without any gathering at the waist ! And since the neck is broad enough, it is easy to slip on.

Ending with a pic of how I sewed on the "Dancing Clovers" edging to the already-sewn neck line, using an embroidery hoop.

Motif #23 for 25 Motif Challenge