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

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!

Comfort sewing

Bonjour tout le monde !

Last week I tried to make a bra, but instead of following the instructions of my book I tried to make my own pattern, and let me tell you it was NOT a good idea.

So I decided to comfort myself by making something easy and nice to look at.

Some lavender bags! I have left overs pieces of Liberty fabric, too small to make a garment out of it and too big to through away.

Isn't it lovely? 

It's the easiest project ever. I took a rectangle of 26 cm x 9,5cm. Folded it in two, sew each side with a straight stitch. Used my zigzag scissors to cut the three edges turned inside out the bag. And that's all! Added some pretty ribbons to close them, and it felt so good to achieve something so easily.

Now my closet smells amazing and look super romantic!

Have a good week-end everybody.

DIY: Christmas gift, a Liberty notebook

Bonjour tout le monde !

Today I am giving you a grate idea for a Christmas present, or just a cool present for yourself, that's the option I chose...

A beautiful notebook covered with liberty fabric.

But first let me talk of my little trip in Germany. I have been living there for a year now, and it's the first time that I go out of my city. Shameful I know, but for my defence, I don't know of any French person who has already been on vacation there. Apart from high-school trips... And last year, well, I visited other places :-)

As you can see my trip was beautiful, lots of mediaval and renaissance houses and castels, and lost and lost of sausages!!! this is NOT a cliché, Germans really love theirs wurts, and bear, and wine. Did you know that? Germany produces wine, you can even find viniards inside the walls of small cities, very lovely.

Anyway, now that everybody knows that Germany is beautiful, let's dive in this week post: a gorgeous and inexpensive Liberty notebook for Christmas.

Ah, Liberty... Love those fabrics. Last year during a trip to London I bought a notebook for my mom at the Liberty shop.

But I found that although it was a nice gift it was still a bit expensive, and didn't buy one for myself. What a sad story, I know.

Then, looking at my stash of fabric the other day, I noticed some Liberty remaining from previous projects. The pieces left are really too small to make anything other from them than pockets OR: a splendid notebook! And it's so easy to make!!

First of all, excuse me for the blurry pictures, sometimes my camera just doesn't feel it, you know: "Blah, tired of taking pictures."

What you need: 

 

a note book

cissors

glue

fabric(not to light so that the pattern of the notebook won't see through)

Cut a piece of fabric large enough to cover your book, adding 1,5 cm around to fold it to the exact size of the book.Iron it like in the blurry picture.

 

Then glue like a mad person, all over the first outside cover. Do not leave a piece of it without glue, or the fabric will rinkle. Then put some glue on the inside edge and fold the fabric over it.

For the bidding part: cut your fabric up to notebook, on each side of the bidding. fold inside, and glue like a mad person...

 And again, glue the other cover, remember that there shouldn't be any wrinkle anywhere. Arrange the corners as you wish. My notebook has round corner, but I made them square. It's just easier.

Now you should have a beautiful on the outside notebook. But your work is not finished. Seamstresses know this: your work has to be as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.

So, you have to glue the first page of the notebook to the inside cover, to hide the fabric that you glued on it

In my case I had to cut the first pages who were partially glued (not by me but by the manufacturer) to the cover. And then glue a page over this mess.

See, does it make more sense in picture?

Et voilà!! It's so easy I don't understand why I never made that before!!

You can even add some ribbons. Just place them between the inside cover and the first page, and you know the rest: GLUE LIKE A MAD PERSON!!!

 I am so in love with it I want to carry it above my head in the street so that people can worship it! What can I do? I have a thing for Great Britain and Liberty fabrics is just it for me.

I hope I find some time to show what I am currently working on, maybe a photo-shoot in France would make up for the lack of posts this month. What do you think? 

Cheers!

DIY: a fake bow

Bonjour tout le monde !

Today I have decided to share with you a little tutorial on how to add a cute bow to your garment.

I have a trip planned ahead, and of course I need new clothes. I had a nice stretch wool in my stash and some viscose. Those fabrics are comfortable and make a nice ensemble for a diner out after a day visiting.

    

Actually the pants are a copy of an old favourite from ZARA. I was able to find almost the same fabric, but in another colour of course!

For the pictures I wore heels, but until I get back to work I will wear my pants with flats more probably, it's why the pants appear a bit too short in the pictures. Didn't realise that before...

Man, the weather was really crappy for taking pictures, sorry!

Let's get to the bow now:

This is a nice feature, romantic and most important: it's fun to make!

I also made bows on my sleeves, so cute!

See why I call them fake bows? It's technically a dart.

As usual you need to take your basic pattern.

For my top I decided to move the bust dart to the side. For that, trace on your pattern the new bust dart (in red). Close the "old" dart  by folding the line on top of one another and pin them in place.

Then slash the new dart.

Draw your bow, slash those darts open. Then the tricky part: you have to decide the depf of your darts, mine are 4 cm wide. It's just a question of taste, there is no way of knowing how many centimetres you need. You can play around with you fabric to estimate the final look of you bow.

When you have decided of the size of your darts take a piece of paper to tape under to maintain your darts in position, like below.

 

This is my final paper pattern. I used a ruler to  show you that your center front should be placed en the fold. Mark precisely your darts and then stitch the sort of V created buy the creation of your darts. Do you follow?

Then to create the illusion of a bow, take a small piece of fabric that you have prepared before ( fold it in 2, stitch the big side, turn it around). Then place it in the crease of one of the darts (above). Fold your dart, stitch it (blue line). Repeat on your second dart.

 

 Then you should stitch buy and on three centimetres your darts so that you bust dart isn’t too low. It happened to me, I was quite surprised because I thought my pattern was perfect.

 

There you go, you should have a nice and fake bow!!

Picture of the inside because I know you love it, I know I do.

 I used self made bias to finish the collar and sleeves. Stitched the first side with my machine and the second by hand so that it would be invisible.

The rest of the seams are French seams because the fabric is rather light, and I find it give a nice finish.

Oh and look, it even goes with my Chanel jacket that I made a few months ago, isn't it perfect? what you don't see my top, well yeah! It's the point, it goes perfectly with it's neck line.

This is what is really cool when you are drawn to certain colour, you find yourself having a real wardrobe with pieces that go well together (or a least I hope they go well together :-)).

That's all for today. See you in few weeks, when I get back from my trip.

Cheers!