Mommy and Me Caplets

First off I would like to preface this project with the knowledge that I have been sewing mainly straight seams and channels, so this projects was mostly me just practicing with my seaming and creating a reversible garment.  This is a pretty straight forward, not difficult at all kind of project.

This project came from my love of everything 1950s.  I had been seeing more and more posts of caplets being sewn or knitted all over the internet and wanted to have a matching set for myself and my daughter.

So I decided to take the plunge, however, finances were low so I went to my local DAV Thrift store to see if I could find some fabric there.  After thirty minutes of searching their remnant fabric I was coming up empty.  I, at that point, decided to take my chances at some other thrift shops.  On my way out I found a matching set of two light creamy yellow brocade looking curtain panels and one large single medium brown curtain panel that was similar in print.  I then went back to the fabric section and picked up a brown floral print fabric that I originally was going to pass on to make my daughter's reversible.  I figured using the curtain panels was worth a shot.

The matching set was going to be for my daughter, so I set to work on that first.  I ripped out all the seaming along the top where the rod goes through as well as the bottom, then cut four matching panels of the curtain and the floral fabric.  (As is - they were of two different lengths even though they were a matching set, almost a two inch difference.)  It came out nice, I think.  I stitched up two panels separately, then sewed them together so that there was the floral print contrast up the back.  I had enough of the contrast fabric to make a second sash to double it up with the brown ribbon I used.  It gave it more depth and tied in the contrast fabric better.

Both caplets are in the photo, adult version on bottom, child's on top.  Detail on the design of the fabric is hard to see, but both are shiny.  The child version has a damask type look and feel, while the adult one has a more upholstery look.  I attached a hair clip to the adult one to show how the look can be altered.

The adult one was super simple.  The panel as is was perfect, so all I had to do was feed the ribbon through the curtain rod pocket at the top.  (Yeah, this was a cop-out, but I was more interested in sewing the child sized one to begin with - this project was more about experimenting with making a reversible caplet garment than a caplet for me.)

These were fun to make and cost me roughly $5.00 to make both.  That included the purchase of the curtains, fabric and the ribbon used for the drawstring (which was bought for 98 cents in a bag with other ribbons at the thrift store as well).  I already had thread on hand.  I had to purchase a leather needle halfway through sewing the child caplet because the needle I had been using was used for a while before starting this project.  However, it still did not make the cost go over the $5.00.

I would love to hear comments on this project.