Today Tilly of Tilly & the Buttons fame has a wonderful interview with Kati of the new pattern line Kate & Rose. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it! Kati's observations and motivations were beautifully expressed and she put into words some things that I have felt but haven't been able to articulate (especially about the role of craft in women's lives).
Kate & Rose offers two things: garment sewing patterns and embroidery designs. Kati's aesthetic is very much inspired by the embroidery traditions of Kati's native Hungary.
I loved visiting Budapest when I was in my early twenties, and I was particularly enchanted with the textiles: embroidered blouses and fabulous tablecloths and folkloric ribbons and folk costumes. At that age I had no dining table to cover, so I didn't know how to begin to select a cloth. I bought a blouse but ended up giving it as a gift. I do still have a few ribbons and a folk costume jacket (which is brocade with a cartridge pleated peplum and weighs approximately one ton!) from that trip, but how I would love to have a more wearable garment!
Kati's garment designs are conceived to work either as a field for embroidery or without embellishment. My favorite of the patterns is the first, the Roza Blouse & Dress:
An embroidered version:
Here it is made up in a quilting cotton, using side ties to overcome the fabric's lack of drape (what a great idea!):
I took a quick look on Pinterest to find some images of the types of blouses I saw on my visit to Hungary. I love them, but I think Kate & Rose's version is definitely more wearable, at least for me in the here and now.
I hope my ardor for making one of these blouses keeps burning long enough to get it done, because I absolutely love them!
Kate & Rose offers three other patterns: the Giselle Dress (which is making the rounds of the blogs; it is gorgeous but wouldn't particularly suit me), the Zsalya Top & Dress (would suit me even less) and the Mariska Skirt (awesome and I could see myself making it). I'm enthusiastic about this new line with its unique identity and point of view. What do you think?
I'm completely losing track of all the pattern companies out there, too! I also loved discovering Kate & Rose since I adore the Eastern European folk aesthetic - not sure if I'm up to doing all that embroidery, though. But it's totally beautiful! I must go look at you pinterest examples; thank you for the tip!
ReplyDeleteThe blouses you've shown are absolutely beautiful, I love them. And I really like the Giselle dress. I am hoping to crack on with some sewing this week, I'm slacking
ReplyDeleteHow lovely that you got to visit Budapest in your younger days, I bet it was fascinating. xxx
Beautiful blouses! I like embroidery and there is a white blouse embroidered with blue cornflowers in my wardrobe (I showed it in my blog last year, if you are curious it is here http://local-moda.blogspot.com/2013/04/blue-roses-skirt.html ). Though I would wear any of the blouses shown here but you are right, the ones from Kate&Rose are more casual and more suitable for everyday wear.
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