How To Copy a Caftan - What An Australian Sewing Circle Taught Me

I have many caftans.


My Australian circle taught me to copy a caftan. A Malay style caftan with a V-neck.

Place your old one on top and draw around it. Or place the old one underneath and mark where you cut or seam with a clothes peg (called clothes pin in the USA)

The two seams run up the side, several inches in. One way round, the seam set a few inches in created a double flap of fabric at both sides.

Turn it inside out. Your flapping edge has disappeared. Less room to move.

V-neck
The V-neck is at the front. It is edged with a strip. The trick is to get one end to fold inside the other. You may have to jiggle this around or try it out with bits of newspaper strip on a v shape cut out of newspaper. It seems impossible. Then suddenly you get it.

Mark a and b, and c and d, or front and outside and inside. Or make or draw v shapes and match up the notches.

How long does it take?
It takes only five to ten minutes to sew along one shoulder at the top of the dress. (Plus another five minutes if you count laying out the garments, finding matching thread and needle and needle threader, cutting thread, threading needle, tying knot in end of thread.)

Allow a second five minutes for sewing the other shoulder.

How long it takes to hem up the long side depends on your fabric and decisions. I leave an armhole at the top, of course. I also leave a gap below the knee so I can run up stairs and sit with my feet apart under a desk without risking pulling apart the seam.

I talked about this recently at a Braddell Heights Advanced toastmasters International meeting online.
At Toastmasters International meetings we usually include table topics which are impromptu speeches which were sometimes selected from the table in in-house meetings. My table topic was: Describe something you did for the first time this year.

I have done many things for the first time, but I had to find one which was different and original and visual. I chose to describe making a dress by using a large scarf to copy an old caftan and create a new one.

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• About the Author
  Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
  I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.
  
  Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.
  
  I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg
  Or quicker to type and easier to remember:  tinyurl.com/BHACOOL
  
  useful Websites
  https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs
  https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html
  https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html
  https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts
  https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
  translate.google.com
  duolingo.com
  

New Wallpaper?: Start Again or Paper Over The Cracks and Preserve History?

In my previous post I talked about laying a driveway and laying a carpet. Now I shall discuss wallpaper and lino for bathrooms and kitchens.

Wallpaper
I had a quotation for putting up wallpaper. After starting, the workers decided they had to strip off the underlying wallpaper, and the underlayer, and re-lay lining paper. More time and expense.

They claimed that if they put the new wallpaper on top, the old wallpaper would come away from the wall. They showed me the seams.

I said: "I don't have the time nor money for a longer job. Stick down any loose corners with wall paper glue."

Since the worker was expected at another job shortly, he agreed. It worked out just fine.

History of Wallpaper
At the same time I read a newspaper account of an old home where the owners discovered as many as seventeen layers of wallpaper from different eras. They were able to restore a home to the Victorian era, using the old wall paper or by copying the design.

Preserving Walls
Another building, a church or chapel, was renovated. Under the later wallpaper and cladding, they were able to reveal a priceless medieval painting.

To my mind, a building has its history, which it is important to preserve.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please save links to your favourite posts.