Floor length duster

That’s what happens when the duster is more elaborate than a dress! As a matter of fact, this duster got made somewhat unintentionally. The first culprit was this salmon pink fabric which I got from Fabworks online store as a side purchase – at the time I was buying coating, suiting, lining, and was not that much into light and flowy fabrics. This one with stars and moons was on sale and I figured – bet, it could turn into a beautiful duster. And grabbed 3 meters of the fabric. At that point I recalled seeing a beautiful duster pattern by Mimi G, which I went on to order. And when everything arrived, I though – hey, that’s a great opportunity to practice and make lapels for the first time. Have been planning to start working on all sorts of coats and jackets, so making my first complex lapel on an expensive suiting fabric seemed not that great an idea. Instead, I tried with this light cotton, and now I have a lovely garment that I will be happily wearing at home – we aren’t going anywhere any time soon, are we? 🙂

Simplicity pattern by Mimi G S8985 that I used for this project, is really well thought through, I very much liked working with it. Along the way I referred to the video sew-along on Youtube, that Mimi G has for all her patterns. The most tricky part of this project was of course bodice – lapels and then sleeves. Honestly, I would not have been able to make lapels without video tutorial – instructions are ok, but not as clear as it is described on video. I had to fiddle a bit with those internal lapel seams and even redo some portions of them, but actually lapels went better than I had expected.

The only real change that I made in this project was installing narrow ties to be able to wrap and close the duster. In the original pattern the duster is closed by one button, which did not appear stable enough for me. And I believe the ties also make the duster a tiny bit more posh 🙂 I also lengthened the duster a little bit, wanted it to be almost floor length. In fact, it is not too practical – when I walk up the stairs at home, I step on the skirt all the time, so have to keep it in my hands in order not to trip. But again – it looks beautiful, so I will ignore certain impracticality!

Unexpectedly, or actually, somewhat expectedly, sleeves were quite a peculiar part of the process. The problem is that you have to vertically install elastic when the sleeve is already closed. This makes for a lot of fiddle with sewing through a very narrow sleeve opening – visible in the left picture below. Initially I was planning to use very narrow elastic, however was unable to sew it on neatly, therefore decided to take a little bit wider one. And I love how the sleeves turned out, they look so festive! The elastic at the waist also works very well. All in all, it is a beautiful and a little bit chic design for something that is only a duster.

For this project I used Simplicity pattern S8985 by Mimi G which I cut in size 10, and cotton fabric called Celestial pink salmon, which I bought from the Fabworks Mill shop online. I needed some 2.5 meters of the fabric – from the leftover am planning to make cozy pair of shorts to wear at home. Other notions were: 7mm elastic and thread. This duster cost me 24 EUR. It was made at the very end of January, 2021.

I just love how this garment turned out. It was a nice intermission between garments meant to be worn outside. And indeed, the lock-down continues, so I see less and less point in sewing clothes that go straight into the closet. Maybe not on cold winter evenings, but certainly on warmer spring and summer days, I am sure I will enjoy wearing this duster and stay cozy at home!

Let’s all stay healthy!

~Giedre~