New year's resolutions and a little shopping.

Well, during the past weeks I unpacked (again) and came to the unbelievable conclusion that : I HAVE TOO MANY CLOTHES !!!!!

It is with tears in my eyes that  I have decided to...sew for other people. I know, it's awful.

I have begun with a very simple polar jacket for the husband. I bought the fabric for him, 3 years ago . Yes, three years. And the worst part is, that he really needed a warm jacket while we were living in Germany, hehe, and now we live in the south of France. Oups!

I chose burda young 7734. Not a really good fit for him, I've had to trace between three sizes. We'll see soon enough if it turns out ugly or not. I think anyway, that I will have to stop using commercial patterns for him. The sizing is really wrong for his stature. Lucky man, he will get made to measure clothes.

 The fabric is a double sided polar, in two shades of blue, to go with his eyes. I am so thoughtful. Sometimes.

Meanwhile, it's the sales, and I couldn't avoid going to the fabric shop to have a look. I have found three interesting things half price :

 A very classic and quite soft blue and white cotton. Will make a shirt for my man with it. Yes I will! I hope.

 A viscose flowery piece of fabric. I am currently transforming it into a Downton Abbey, inspired shirt.

And another piece of viscose with a border. Again for a shirt for me. I know I said I would sew for other people, but I can honestly say that I can use a few other shirts, plus I don't have a job, have pity. I need to buy fabric!!
 

Here is my little stock of fabric for the winter (if you can call that warm weather winter). I think it is not too high.  And it is mostly, for shirts. I need shirts, I want shirts, what's going on with me and shirts ??

But this year is not going to be all fun sewing for other people and shirts. I have some serious taking in to do on quite a lot of clothes, because I lost a few kilos before the summer, and now all my pants are too big, and some dresses, and shirts too!

A happy sewing year everybody. And lots of shirt making, lots of it.

What I did last weekend

I decided last weekend that I "needed" to visit some fabric stores, other than my beloved Toto soldes.
So I embarked on a 10 minutes bus trip and voilà! Ecolaines is a creative shop, for people who sew, knit or quilt, or who do all of those things at the same time!

They have a large selection of sewing books, and because we are in Brittany some of them are about traditional Breton wardrobe. Very inspirational I find, especially if you are attracted by embroidery like I am. Sigh, when I am going to find the time to do all the things I want to? I really want to make a dress with traditional embroidery, we'll see.

I bought a few things from the quilting department. There were so many choices of marking tools, I almost lost it. What made me laugh is that I finally bought a french curve (don't know the name in French), and it was from an Australian brand! The instruction were also written in English, how non-french is it?

I spotted some plaid, but retained myself from spreading them on the floor and rolling on them while shouting: MY PRECIOUS! I am so proud of me...

I had planned to only buy shirt making fabric, and I stick to it. I only bought enough for one shirt (more about that later). The selection is nice but I have to say that the fabrics were more expensive that at toto soldes, and I found a bit hard to find what I wanted, also, there were too many kid's fabric! Or is there? Maybe it would make a nice shirt?

But it is still a good place to shop, they have a nice selection of laces, and the inside of the building is nice.

I also went to another store where i found some knit fabrics! I had never seen any in France before. But they were... weird? Ugly? In your face? Decide for yourself:



Can you believe I have been back in this city for almost 6 months now and I have never taken the time to go there?
I am so going back in Spring, for now I am on a shirt making spree. I will try to show you very soon; I promise I will be a better blogger in 2015, I will get organised!

Salut

Fabric shopping

Dear readers, bless the Stoffmarkt Holland market !

No I didn't take this picture, for the simple reason that I totally forgot my camera... I'm such a lousy blogger, I know. But hey, that was a "me day", and I only thought of bringing money, a list of things to buy, bags to carry my precious, and my husband to be my slave of course.

I was overwhelmed! "fabric, cheap, must buy everything!!"

I arrived there by 11, the place was completely packed. Women everywhere, pulling fabric from piles. I could barely see what was on display, but then by the time I had walked around a little to have an exact idea of what I was dealing with, people begun to leave for lunch, and it was PARADISE.

Knits, printed cotton, this is what you will find the most. Merchants are specialised. You can choose by price. Some booths only sell fabric at 2, 5 or 10 €/m, some of them are a bit more expensive, but not that much. 

This is what I bought:

Those are simple fabrics, it's not a fancy fabric market, but it's enough for what I do.

Knits:

I got a little bit carried away by the navy print. I'm Briton and it's really a basic in our wardrobe. But not in Germany apparently. There was a big pile of those in different colours, but no one touched them! Unbelievable! It got buried under other fabrics, but I came to the rescue, and it felt so weird, in Brittany, this pile of fabric would have disappeared the minute it would have been put on display! And now I think I should have bought more :D

Your eyes don't fool you, It's the same colour, but the stripes have a different size. Don't judge, I'm away from home, I will buy everything I can find here, that reminds me of Brittany.

Lining for my summer dresses. It's a nice soft and light cotton, I took 3m.

Solids:

It wasn't planned, but I thought I could make myself some mini dresses or whatever, it was 2,50€/m, how could I resist ?

drapey fabrics:

I thought I could make myself some sexy soft tops for those beautiful summer days I'm sooo longing for.

Thick cotton:

For shorts and pants, goes with everything.

Haberdashery:

Bias, bias and some more bias. Can't find any where I live. I picked some in satin, mostly in white. And a selection of various colours I like. My head was so completely empty because of the choice of fabric and the crowd, that I couldn’t remember what fabrics I had in my my stash to match the colours. All in all I think I did well!

If you're like me and you are starving for fabric in your corner of Germany go to stoffmarkt holland, it's every week end in a different city. It's really worth the trip. You can also find there leather, fabric for your house or for quilting. Paradise I tell you. 

Be aware if you are utterly deprived from fabric shopping, that this experience can be dangerous, I had to fight against people cheating in lines an I also smashed  a charming lady on her forehead! I was diving for the floral knit under a big pile, but only had  one hand free, and I pulled too hard... She didn't seemed to mind, she must have done the same to someone else!

I am currently washing everything and I begun a little summer dress that I will line with my soft cotton. What a bliss. There is only one thing missing: the sun!