Man's Caftan in Black

 

I have sewed!  Shocking I know.  Hubby needed a replacement caftan for the one I had previously sewn.  This is my third from this pattern which is based on the first one I had bought for him in the 80s.  The first three were brown and the original had gold and brown tones in it in a striped manner. 

Since I hadn't been to a fabric store since pre-Covid I had to pick out fabrics from my stash.  It had to be something with enough fabric, not girlish, and not printed.

There were three choices:  a cream corduroy which I ruled out because I'd probably be washing it every week; a cranberry corduroy which I really wanted for myself; and a black denim.  I let him select and he chose the black.  That leaves enough for me to make either a jacket or slacks for myself.

Then I had to find fabric for the bands.  I really didn't want to use something which would mean cutting up a piece which wouldn't leave enough for me to make something for myself.  I found this small piece of weaver's cloth in the stash.

I'm not certain why--but possibly because I've not made a garment in awhile--this caftan caused all kinds of problems...stupid stuff mostly, so I'm going with "user error"!  It's really an easy pattern so there should be no excuse for it.  Guess I was just out of practice..  It was mostly undoing what I had stitched.  Sigh.

I didn't want to use topstitching on the bands so put it on the denim next to the bands, so I had allowed for the underside of the bands to be caught by this but it didn't always work this way, so had to "unstitch" portions.

There was a lot of changing of the top and/or bobbin thread.  This was not really necessary as mostly it wouldn't show but I wanted it to match.  At the very end of the project, on the ends of the hem bands I gave up changing threads because I wanted it done and at this point hubby was asking if it was finally done yet.  LOL

Hubby is pleased with it and says that the denim feels warm and comfortable plus doesn't wrinkle much.  Yay!  The denim is a medium weight, I would guess.

I've been calling the trim cranberry but it's not really that color.  What color is it?  Thoughts on that?  I see that I probably should have shaped the band around the neck for a better fit.  Next time!

It felt good to be sewing again.  :)

Close up of bottom of side bands:

The very last sewing step:

Here's the link to the caftan I previously made 

https://gloriastitches.blogspot.com/2012/05/mans-caftan.html 

Seventy-Year-Old Cups

 When I see these cups I am reminded of my wonderful aunt.

When I was a little girl and we'd visit my grandparents she would stop by to see us, grab a cup of coffee using one of these cups.

There are numbers on the bottom which are for the design.  I have two each of three.

On the bottom is printed "Made in Germany".  Thus, these cups would have to be from pre-war (that's WWII) or just a few years after the war.

Auntie would have been too young to purchase them before the war, so after; or my grandparents had owned them which I highly doubt as these were not the usual type of item they would have bought.

The cups couldn't have been brought back by my uncles because neither was anywhere near Germany during the war.

I am amazed that these seventy-plus-year-old cups are still in great condition, with no chips.  The gold on the rim and on the cups is still there.

They are not used often because they can't go in the dishwasher nor in the microwave.  Since my dishwasher is not working and I've been handwashing, I do grab one of these for my cuppa.

Here's to you, Auntie.

Update:  I've been told that these cups could be older than from the 40s.  They could be the 30s or even the 20s.  If that is true, then where did they come from?  There is no one left to ask.  I'll have to do some researching on them.