The Elusive Caftan-How I made a $750 dress for less than $100

Y’all my taste. It’s out of control. Sewing has spoiled me rotten. I like real fabric. I like dresses that fit. I like unique pieces. I like French seams. I like hand embroidery. I like trim, lots and lots of trim. I’ve been looking to purchase a caftan for about a year now and this is what I found people…this…

So when I stumbled upon the Vintage Vogue 7295 pattern on Etsy…I jumped on it. I found another one here, if you’re interested. The used pattern I received was SO good. The previous owner had made some solid alterations and clearly loved the pattern. It was neat to see the changes that she made. One of the changes was to add side slits at the bottom of the dress, I did the same. I’ve decided used paper patterns may be some of my favorites to sew…they’re already cut out, marked on and altered 🙂

So, let’s talk about this fabric. When it ran across my instagram stories it stopped me in my tracks. It’s blue, it’s floral, it’s a steal and it’s seersucker….it’s all the things I love. I ordered two bundles to make this dress and interlined it with a pima cotton batiste. This seersucker is a poly/cotton blend so pre-washing it was a must in order to be able to line it with cotton and prevent weird shrinkage in the future.

Small aside: I’ve recently learned that the name of the style I like is “grandmillenial” as in Grandma Millenial. Apparently there are enough young, grandma-style loving, millennials like me that we now get a label. Who knew?

I used a polyester guipure fabric from Farmhouse Fabrics for the trim. I cut the lace apart and dyed it with Navy ritz dye to get it to match the fabric. To be honest, I dyed the fabric for a different project and then didn’t use it, so it was a very happy accident when it matched the floral seersucker. FYI dying polyester requires a different type of dye than regular old ritz. Its called Ritz DyeMore. I attempted to use the regular ritz and failed miserably….

To add the lace to the fabric around the neckline and sleeves, I tacked it on by hand. For the bottom, I used navy thread and machine stitched it on.

All in all, I am thrilled with the way this caftan turned out. With the total cost of fabric and pattern coming in around 70 dollars, I think I’ve achieved a look similar to my 750 dollar caftan but wayyyy more my style and wayyyy more affordably.

Happy sewing ya’ll! This is a short one, but far too long to add to a caption on social media. Have any of you all had any luck with vintage patterns like this? I’m ready to give another one a try!