Making Nicole Akong’s Beach Kaftan

Last year I did a collaboration with Nicole Akong for a kaftan cut from beach towels (read about it here, order the pattern here, and here are three ways to style it). Nicole had gone on holidays and whipped up a kaftan to take. When she got home, people asked for the pattern and she asked me to do one. It’s a very low waste pattern.

At the time, I was short on towels to test the pattern and discovered that it made a good dress in regular cotton fabric.

I happened to think of this pattern when my older teen asked me to make her a dress/nightie. She is unwell and has given up getting dressed each day as it uses too much energy. Instead, she wears night attire all the time but is getting sick of wearing the same old ones. She likes nighties that look like dresses in case we have visitors. She also prefers:

• a low underarm and neckline so it doesn’t cut in.
• knee length.
• no pockets, which is fine by me.
• 100% cotton, unlike the b&w gingham sample above which is unfortunately polycotton and has “sweatbox tendencies” (Teen: Mum, my armpits are like Niagara Falls!).

Thus armed with the all-important design brief, I cut out a knee-length kaftan in some striped cotton, medium neckline. The fabric came from the op shop a long time ago, and may have been a curtain.

It was all a very straightforward make, and quick to sew as it has no zips or buttons.

The stripes had to be matched but only at the shoulders and cuffs, and the stripes are wide so it wasn’t hard.

We were a little worried the stripes would look a bit “Extra in a Nativity play”, but on finishing it we now think it’s more “Après swim beachy.” Whew!

She liked it, wore it, and even offered to model it for you.

Cheers!