The first caftan is done. It was a pretty easy project, it just took me a long time because I only worked on it a little bit each day, and I dawdled. I would say that I spent about 4 hours on this, and would have finished it in 3 except for a bunch of stupid mistakes and frustrations in the home stretch this evening. Even then, if I had used faster techniques and just sewn more efficiently, it would have taken less time.
As I said before though, it is not a contest.
I think it turned out really well. It is very loose on top, which I realized from the pattern dimensions, and with some fabrics I might want to take some of the bulk out of that area and cut a smaller size, probably an 8. With this drapey knit it is fine. Also the sleeves were long enough, even with a couple of inches chopped off — I have short arms what can I say . The shoulders are so wide that the sleeve seam is about 4 1/2 inches below my shoulder on the arm, again, nice on this thin drapey knit but not necessarily in everey fabric.
Actually the sleeves would have been long enough but I had trouble getting them hemmed without either stretching out , or not being stretch enough to push up, or just not looking right. I redid them so many times, I wore a hole in the fabric and had to cut a bit more off. Then I just put elastic in a casing so they would stay up at my elbows and pushed them up. The fabric does not have enough body to be a push up sleeve unless I made it very tight, which is not the case with these sleeves.
In fact, the sleeves are too wide and I have made a note to narrow them considerably at the wrist. In a knit they would be nice, even a little long, if they were narrow because then you could get a rippling effect at the wrist. In a woven, I might have to put in a button so I could have them more closefitting or I might make them shorter, bracelet length maybe and a little more fitted. I would have narrowed the sleeves down on this caftan, but then I though I would like them longer and I just didn’t feel like adding the extra fabric. The caftan is really nice as it is and I love wearing it.