A cute sailor's outfit

Sock season is over!! Youhou!

You know that I come from Brittany, and there, stripes are a must, it's always in fashion and everybody wears them. It's why last year I bought a bunch of stripy jersey at the Stoffmarkt Holland market.

 

I wanted some stripy shorts for some time, it seemed a good idea: it's cute, comfortable, perfect for summer.

Stripy shorts

I made the pattern last summer during the only warm days we had here! It is now one of my basics, it's the third short I've made from that pattern. 

It seems that this year I spent all of my sewing time matching stripes or plaid!

The pattern has just two pieces: front and back, it is just folded at the waist, hiding an elastic and stitched with a zigzag stitch. 

I used to not want to use zigzag, because it's not a very clean stitch. You can see it, it's not hidden. But I have decided to stop being silly and I have used it and I like it ! Because it works! It's just like my obsession with no darts, come on Kate, be smart!

I added a cute bow at the front because I couldn't distinguish the front from the back! Now it just needs a small pocket, I might add it inside.

boxy top

I love the top, it has that clean elegant look that I like, plus it's white. I love white for summer. The shape is a little boxy, plenty of room for the tummy. It's a nice balance to the little shorts.

 I bought the fabric in Rennes at TOTO soldes last year I think. In French we call it "nid d'abeille". It's structured and olds itself very well.

I added a military detail at the shoulders, although after checking on the website of the French marine military it seems that this kind of detail does not exist in their actual wardrobe... Maybe it's just in my head.

Anyway I like it, I even congratulate myself for this good idea :-)

The buttons are from my stash, I chose them big so that they would make a statement. The statement being: "I like gold and shinny buttons".

Thumbs up for spring! I have so many ideas, but I try to stay focused and to make only clothes that I "need". Yeah, let's be real, I already have a lot of clothes. But what can I say, I love designing clothes, making them and wearing them, I just can't get enough of it! 

Sewing rocks!

cheers

Does it go together?

 

Here are the first clothes I made this year for Spring. Unfortunately I have almost no occasion to wear them! A month ago the weather started to get really warm an sunny, but now it's just rainy and cold. Why?

The bermuda is the second I have made. Last year I made the pattern and really enjoyed wearing them by not too warm weather. They really are a staple in my wardrobe, very practical and elegant I find. I intend to wear them in town, better then shorts no?

The fabric is synthetic crepe. It's really a magical fabric: it doesn't wrinkle and has a nice structure. At first I bought it to make a top for Winter and never made it. I have already used crepe for a dress, and I really love it, it moves superbly and looks really chic. It's the kind of fabric you often find in hight end stores, because it holds itself really well.

 

The back is a bit tight... I have been training and I guess my efforts are paying off.  Have to revise my block pattern!

Construction was easy. I really love Summer sewing: shorter seams!! Yeah! I did Italian pocket and a fake velted one on the back. I like the look of velted pockets but never put anything in them!

For the top I did a simple loose shirt. I like this style, it's breezy! I thought the colors of the bermuda and the shirt would go together but I am not so sure anymore.

I wanted to have "some" design element in it, so I choose to make kind of a cowboy shirt, but without all the bias cuts, I find it too distracting for the eye, I like clean lines.

So I made some piping, always fun.

 I have to say that placing the piping on the curved line on the back was not easy, maybe because you shouldn't do it :-)

So when I stitched the front pieces I used two pieces of piping instead to make a sharper point, worked well and the result looks good.

The fabric gave me some troubles. Can you see in the picture, it doesn't go at all straight! That piece of fabric is perfectly cut on the grain, but it goes all on the side! What a pain. But the fabric is soft, so it's forgiven!

Here is my obsession for this Summer: knots, love it!! Apparently it's what's in this year, don't know, I just like it, and I will make some more. Maybe it's just my love Dirty Dancing that expresses itself?

Come on, I know you love it too, it's the perfect Summer movie! First, Summer, right? And dancing, romance, nice outfits, I really have to watch it again.

Yeah, those colors don't really go together right? Never mind, I still have plenty of time to make something new that goes with both, "sight". Where are you lovely sun?

Cheers

Spring!

 

Oh, yeah!! Spring is officially here!
At least here at Ephémère couture anyway.
In reality it's raining and cold. Barbie graciously  volunteered to launch this new season, the best season!

She is so spoiled!  Her coat is from Tara Jarmon, one of my favorite brand. I have to admit I never buy anything there because it's too expensive, but I surely find a lot of ideas!!

It's lined with a beautiful Liberty fabric, and of course has golden buttons. They are from my forgotten dress.

But as it is intended as a gift for a little girl, I also had to make a dress.

Simple and pink. I didn't want to steal the coat's thunder!

I wish I had enough fabric to make myself the same coat! I made the pattern myself, It's not perfect yet, but I'm getting there.

Voilà!! I already have made a few Spring/Summer outfits, I just wait for some sunshine to take pictures, and to wear them of course!

Cheers.

Final Winter sew: a coat!

As promised here is my last project for Winter: a plaid coat! 

WARNING: this post is loooooong! If you don't want to be bored look at the pictures :-)

I have a coat for Winter but as you can see on my pictures from my last trip to London, it's not the most beautiful one, although it is really warm. 

But I wanted a pretty one. 

I had in my stash a piece of wool fabric that happened to be large enough to make a coat out of it, so there I was, I decided to make my first coat ever!  

Am I going to state the obvious? Yes this coat is really the sum of what I seem to enjoy: plaid and purple... I really should expend my tastes!

Making the pattern was rather easy, I am used to it know. I took my block pattern added 0,5 cm all around except around the neck and did the same for the sleeves. 

The rest is just a question of taste, I lurked on the Internet to find coats I liked, shaked the ideas in my head and voilà! Plaid and leather (faux leather), I think it's current and Winter appropriate.

Concerning the sewing part I thought I would try myself with tailoring, but there was no horse hair at the shop, nor silk thread. 

OK, so no fancy tailoring. But there is not one way of making a coat, you can still have a nice looking one without using enhanced techniques. Here is what I did with the help of my sewing book.

I interfaced all the important parts : neck, coat and sleeve hem, facings, collar, upper part of the chest until the bust dart. I didn't interface the back because it's mainly leather.

interfacing the hem of the sleeve

I added some cotton ribbon to all the important seams. It's mainly those who give a nice crisp look: collar, facings and hem. I just followed my book. 

attaching the collar

I attached the collard in a different way as usual. I stitched one side to the facing and the other to the coat, then turned the edges facing the "gap" inside, pressed  and hand stitched together the two stitches so that the edges facing the outside stay on the outside. Does it make sense? The goal is to reduce the width of the edges by distributing them inside and outside of the collar.

I did quite a lot of hand stitching on the coat. I can't say it tool me a long time. Anyway I was watching the Great British bake off at the same time, so time passed on really quick!

In the pictures below you can see that there is a lot of folding and attaching the lining to other seams or seam allowances. The result is nice, you can see sometimes that it has been attached by hand. I find it really fancy: my coat is partially hand sewn! What a luxury!!

attaching the lining

Before, I added some fleece to the lining, because Winter is cold and my fabric was not thick enough.

I really enjoyed that part. It went on really fast and if I might say, really pretty. I cut my lining then added some fluffy fleece. As you can see the fleece is cut without seam allowance, then pinned.

I traced my stitching line on the lining, and simply used a wavy stitch on my machine. I had no problem with it, even with the fleece face down. I was really pleased with my machine!

I also did something funny:

It' really simple, I cut three circles of fleece and shaped them in the form I needed. It's a really interesting method because the pads are custom made to the exact measurements that you need. Us seamstresses we know that we are all different and we have special needs for our clothes.

 

How pretty are my shoulder pads! They are simply attached by hand to the shoulder seam and sleeve head. I my opinion it is a really compulsory addition to a tailored garment, it really gives the sleeve an elegant finish, by keeping it's shape.

Of course, as I make my own patterns, I have to find out how to attach all the pieces together. I usually don't need a lot of help from my book, but as it was the first time I was making a coat I decided to be serious and to make everything as good as I could so I gathered information in the sewing book make by the same person that wrote my pattern making book, and ugh...

There was not a specific chapter for coat making or simply tailoring. I had to go back and forth across several chapters, and even inside the chapters, that lazy women often doesn't explain everything, she just refers you to previous paragraphs, I hate that !! I made it through, but next time, I will copy the pages I need to make myself my own coat making book!

In commercial patterns sleeves head are often not gathered. It's an old way of making sleeves I believe. But I make my pattern the old may. So I had to gather my sleeves. It's easy on thick wool, but it's my nightmare on thin fabric.

Patched pockets are the best! No fuss, easy, fast, LOVE!

The coat is closed with a fancy metal zipper.

Can you believe I don't like to read long posts? I should have sliced it into several but I really wanted to be over with winter sewing... and also I am not good with this blogging thing.

I saw before cutting the fabric, that it seemed to be a bit thin. But I had no other fabric and I really wanted to make a coat! Maybe a solution would have been to interface everything, to give it some body.

What is done is done. Maybe if I am bored one day I will hand stitch the lining to the fabric of the coat, so that it will be one. I think it would be nice.

But I think I did a good job, I really like it and seems to be warm, although maybe not warm enough for really cold temperatures. No problem, I'll just make a new one!

WINTER IS OVER!!!

We had warm weather the past weeks (of course now it's over...), many trees have leaves and I have begun sewing for spring and summer. Can't wait to show you. Spoiler alert: there might be some purple outfits :-)

cheers!

one pattern, three pants, the last one.

 

I thought I needed some pants to go to London. Turned out I didn't, but this is another story!

As you know, I sew from my stash. I didn't really have a lot of fabric left for winter, so I went for some plaid. 

The pattern is the same that of my Chanel pants. But this time I didn't make any alteration to the original.

my original sailor's pants

Same length, same back welted pocket, 

welted pocket

same sailor's pants look.

plaid sailor's pants

It's really interesting to use the same pattern with different fabrics. The green fabric is rather sturdy, so the pants really have a sharp clean look. But that plaid one is different. It's all synthetic so I had to line it to be able to wear my pants in cold weather. The feeling is different, the legs don't behave the same way as in the green one. They don't fall straight, I think I'll have to iron them strongly.

underlining

I used a new technique for me: underlining. Basically, you cut your pattern two times, first in your fashion fabric, second in lining and then you work with the two fabrics are if they were one. I think this is a fast method of sewing, but I don't really fancy the result. It is clean but it's not as nice a when you line a garment. I like when the stitching is hidden.

But I was in a hurry, so I chose to underline. You could say that if I was in a hurry I shouldn't have chosen a plaid fabric :-)

aligning stripes

I don't know what's with me and sewing in a hurry, but it's clearly not a good mix!

I managed to line correctly the fabric, and then I realised that maybe I had cut the fabric in the wrong way...

Can you see the black stripe? Should I have put it, because it's strong, horizontally?? I am baffled. I have found explanations on how to cut and align plaid all the way trough the pattern, but no explanation on how to make it look nice!

Look at the side:

 

Horizontally it matches, but clearly something is off. Look at the hip, see how the black stripe finishes its course in the stitching line in a strange way? I makes me wonder...

I think it stresses that when dealing with plaid, you should really have a lot of fabric to be able to play with it and find a appealing way of aligning all this mess.

BUT, all plaids are different right? So,  maybe the smaller the pattern, the smaller the plaid we should use, don't you think? 

Maybe this was my problem, the plaid print was a bit to big. But, I don't really mind too much. You got to love your stuff right? Especially when you make it. I mean, it's comfortable, it's original, I like them. 

Oh, look:

Fancy buttons! Can I say it again? I love my stash!! Gold and blue, it adds a fancy note to the pants, and I'm always happy to know that I wear something that comes from my dear island.

Well, winter related post are almost over. Next my coat and then it's going to be all fun colours and no more plaid!!