Thursday, May 22, 2014

New-To-Me Indie Pattern Designer: Kate & Rose


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?

3 comments:

  1. 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!

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  2. The 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
    How lovely that you got to visit Budapest in your younger days, I bet it was fascinating. xxx

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  3. 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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