In case you missed it, I recently celebrated my birthday! I had a great time partying with friends and family and showing off my latest Minerva make. My friend group is obsessed with White Lotus and the luxurious caftans worn in the series. While I haven’t seen the show (yet), I’m no stranger to the beauty of an elegantly-designed caftan. I think the first caftan I ever made was a Seamwork Micah, which is stunning, but since it’s made out of mermaid sequins, it’s far too heavy for chilling by the pool in July. This time, I self-drafted a caftan (although it was heavily influenced by the Gemini dress from CrisWoodsSews – buy her pattern) and made it from this stunning ombre sunset Silk Hammer Textured Satin from Minerva. It’s so gorgeous and flowy, but it’s sturdy enough to survive hours of partying, chlorine-soaked bums and late-night pizza!
Despite my delicate, dainty appearance (😆), I am tough on clothes. I rarely wear white because I spill. I try to avoid dry-clean only fabrics because I know I’m not doing that. I’m a dog mom (and multiple dog aunt), so I have to be careful when it comes to delicate fabrics like silks and satins. An excited schnauzer doesn’t care if their nails snag your fine satin skirt; they just want to love you.
That’s why I love this Silk Hammer Textured Satin from Minerva. It takes the luxury of 100% silk satin and uses the unique texture to beef up the strength of the fabric, easily hiding any puppy-inflicted snags. To launder, I machine washed on the delicate cycle and dried lightly on a low temperature. The fabric came out clean and the color remained perfect. Due to the time crunch, I used my serger to finish the seams, but I think French seams would be lovely. I chose the color Caribbean Crush, but there are a total of 35 stunning color combinations.
When it comes to the design of the caftan, I knew that I wanted it to be belted, I wanted to use as much of the fabric as possible and I wanted to have a super simple silhouette so as to not disturb the gorgeous ombre. So, I took a few measurements and just started cutting. I made this in the feverish few hours right before my party, so the whole thing is a blur. I do know that the belt openings came from the Gemini Dress by Cris Woods, which is why I highly recommend buying her pattern. It’s a beginner-friendly, low-waste pattern that I really enjoy.
