OMG, I love green!!

 
I love green! Last summer I bought on sale quite a lot of coupons at TOTO soldes. I had picked that green one because it was viscose (I love viscose, it's so soft). But I was not entirely sure about the shade of green because it was really bright. But I was so right to follow my instinct!

I love that dress. It's flowy, light and happy.

Here is my inspiration, it's a ZARA dress with some kind of a knot at the front. I guess the fabric is jersey. I was looking for a dress or a top to make with one of my favorite pattern book that I spent hours looking at but never know quite what to make with it :

Pattern magic by Tomoko Nakamichi. It's full of interesting designs and if you already know how to make patterns it's really easy to use. I used that page to figure out how to copy the ZARA dress.

Of course the design was not exactly the same, "sigh", I seem to long for difficulty! But I think that I did good. The knot at the front is not exactly the same but it looks good.

Mine is not as twisted, but I like it. If the dress is still in store when I go back to France I will definitively have a look at the inside!

Here is how I did it:

I didn't want any visible seem (of course, why make something easy?). So I opened the middle front until the spot where I wanted the knot to be. Then after MUCH consideration I opened the dress perpendicularly. That was the scary part!

Then I stitched one side, leaving only a small opening on the side, and passed the other panel through that opening and stitched that part very closely to create pleats. Is that clear ?

 I don't think you can see the seam at the front.

I used an interesting method to attach the facing. 

First I stitched the whole dress except the shoulders.

Then I created one facing for the front and one for the back part of the dress. I attached them to the neckline and the armhole. Then I stitched the shoulders of the dress. Opened the seamed with the iron. Slipped that under the facings (see the picture with my fingers :-)). Turned one edge of the facings inside, and carefully slipped stitched by hand.

Et voilà, a beautiful finish, it look as good as the outside!

I also added pockets. I even used some cotton ribbon from my purple coat to strengthen them. I never do that! I am improving myself, good girl.

I love this dress so much, I think the pictures don't do it justice. Maybe I should also buy a new camera, my pictures are a bit blurry no?

I didn't take any pictures with heels, it would look so good with it! Don't you think it deserves colorful shoes, pink, yellow or even golden ones? Ooooh what a good idea!

Since yesterday afternoon I am taking a break from sewing, the weather suddenly took a turn to super hot, before that I sewed like crazy, but couldn't take any pictures because it was too cold to wear a light dress or shorts outisde. Ha, the pleasures of German weather...

Anyway, now that the sun is here I will try to take picture of everything I did, fingers crossed!

Cheers.

Flower madness

What is wrong with the weather? Seriously?

Let me explain. For weeks I complained that the sun wouldn't show, hence I couldn't wear my beautiful dresses or trot around in shorts. Then the sun came and it was so warm outside that it was impossible to walk in the street because of the heat, let alone wear a dress.

And now it's cold again... I will complain to Germany's tourism office!

You can easily understand that if it's difficult to know what to wear, it's even more difficult to know what to sew. Gives me a headache. So, last week, while I was liquefying myself in the hot weather coming from the Sahara. Yes, you read right and during winter we have winds coming from Siberia :-), I made a crazy ensemble.

Inspiration came from Giorgio Armani:

And Tara Jarmon:

I wanted to have a super fashionable ensemble, that I could wear as well in the city as at the beach. Shorts are a basic in my summer wardrobe, I wear them more than dresses because I have very long holidays and walk and ride a lot during those, so I need something comfortable and breezy.

Here is what I came up with:

Look, flowers!

Pretty bold no? It's made with a light cotton print I bought before leaving France, 6 Euros for 1,50 cl, not bad hey? Pattern self drafted of course. I complained in this post that I had difficulties making simple shorts that fit well with the perfect length. Well this is it, I finally managed to make them!! I am so happy, love shorts! A round of applause for me!!

 

I made some fancy velted pockets. Two real at the front, and two fake at the back:

front

back

I had to scramble a little to find how to make the front pocket's "bag". This is how I made it, basically just by playing with my lining. It turned out fine, and it didn't take too much time to make.

 See, on the first picture, I placed my lining above the opening, pined it and cut the fabric around. Just living enough to stitch them together. Then I put my second piece of lining and a piece of my flower fabric just where to pocket opens, stitched and voilà:

 

I didn't bother to make real pockets for the back, it's just for show:

From Giorgio Armani, I took the idea of the "goutte d'eau" opening. It's a nice detail, and it was not hard to do, it just needs a good press to lay flat on the torso. Maybe I could have made it bigger. But I don't like to touch the shape of a garment when it's already stitched, if it fits right, I just follow my pattern, point.

Made some self bias for the neck line, love it, It's clean and very practical. I could have used it for the opening but I don't like to put too much stuff on my pieces so instead I used facings:

 

And I stitched by hand around the opening, basting the facings inside only.

The top is closed by a lovely vintage button that I used in this previous garment.

 

And the shorts are closed with buttons because although I bought a bunch of zippers last time I went to the city, I didn't have one with the right color or length, and because I'm crazy lazy, I just did with what I had, which is buttons...

 

I would have never wear such a crazy ensemble a few years ago, but prints are growing on me, clearly. I think it's super fashionable and totally appropriate for my way of live now. Just not for the weather, on the pictures it's already more than 25°c (77°f) and it's not ten o'clock yet.

My only concern now is the weather. Maybe I should make myself a rain coat and some long sleeved T-shirts. It seems more appropriate for the kind of weather we are currently experiencing. Sad, I just want to make bathing suits and dresses and more shorts and cute tops. This is why a women's got a have an extensive wardrobe! Because you never know what kind of weather you're going to have and clearly, I am not going to wear plaid in June, even if it's cold!!

I also made a pair of white ones, just because. I am now making a super bright top to go with the shorts, and I plan on making bikinis! BIKINIS!!! Give me some sun!! Lots of it !!

Cheers everyone.