Where it's all about the surprises

Hello there!
After my last post where I stated I only sew what I had planned to, I thought it was nice to share a new dress which was not planned at all. The purpose is to show that I can change my plans, and to share a cute dress, of course.
It is the Bardot dress, by Simply Sew, attached to Love Sewing Magazine.

The main reason I decided to jump the gun and make myself a new dress is this lovely cotton by Liberty. My Chéri sent me 3 m. as an unexpected birthday present. 

We live far apart but when I opened the parcel and touched the fabric, my heart skipped a beat thinking that he touched and chose this fabric for me. He said that choosing fabric was not so easy as it may look. I hope now he will better understand why I spend hours inside fabric shops.

We were supposed to meet a few days later in Rome, so I immediately prewashed the fabric and made this dress in one day, just to surprise him: when we met, I was wearing it and his jaw dropped!

The main feature of the dress is the wide boat neckline, finished with self bias. It is flattering and sits very nicely.

As usual with Simple Sew patterns, I cut a size 14 at shoulders and bust, graded to size 18 at waist and size 16 at hips, then made a 1,25" FBA. This is now my recipe and it works well.

I chose to make cap sleeves to save fabric and now have one meter left. They are not visible on my dress because of the busy print, but the sleeves are raglan.

I am proud of my pattern matching between bodice and skirt!
For information, I am wearing my petticoat under it, but next spring and summer I am going to wear the dress without it, and with bare legs.

The dress features four inverted pleats at the skirt, two at the front and two at the back. They look wide open, and this is maybe the only minus of the design, for me, because it looks like I am exploding them. Well, this is a quite minor minus, if you allow me.
The general silhouette is very cute and flattering, from the front, from the side and also from the back, which almost never happens to me!

After making the dress and being very happy about it, I regretted that the colours are not quite adequate to autumn for my style, but I have been wearing it with opaque tights and my perfectly matching Miette cardigan, so this dress stays in rotation for a few weeks more. I think the resulting outfit is quite cute.

As a last surprise inside the surprise after the surprise, I made a bow tie with the scraps. 

The pattern was in the April 2015 issue of Love Sewing magazine.

Chéri was delighted with it and we had a lovely (but brief) weekend together!

Where I'm back in Toulouse, kimono style

Hello there!
Guess who's back from holidays? My vacation is officially over and I have very mixed feelings about that: on one hand I really really really wanted to be back to my usual life; on the other hand, my usual life means looking for a job and leaving apart from my Chéri, so that sucks. Of course.

Anyway, I have quite a few sewing projects completed to be photographed and blogged, so this will slowly get me to my habits. I also have plenty of projects in my list and new fabrics to make good use of, but so far my apartment looks like a bomb has exploded in it, therefore I have no space for sewing.

This dress has been one of my favourites of all times. The pattern is the Kimono dress by Simple Sews for the issue 12 of Love Sewing magazine. I've made it in June, but officially photographed only today.

About the pictures, please excuse my constant frown. As I told before it's been a tough couple of days back home and apparently I have lost my already shaggy confidence in front of the camera. 

I have been wearing this dress all summer long, because I refused to pay extra 50€ for my luggage on top of a 208€ plane ticket, so I literally spent one month holidays with a handbag luggage. This also included a wedding outfit. More on that outfit in the next days.

Anyway, my summer uniform was based on four dresses, one short, one skirt and two tops. This kimono was the pièce de résistance. 

Can you blame me? I felt stylish and comfortable in it, and the fact that you are dressed with a single fabric layer which flounces at the summer breeze, makes it an immediate staple.

The most remarkable features of this dress are of course the wrap and the kimono sleeves. It looks like if you don't sew fluttery sleeves this summer you are out of the game, but in this dress I like that the kimono style is quite modest with respect to other famous kimonos around the blogosphere (I think of the SS15 collection of Named). The unmistakable sleeves are there, but it does not look as a chamber robe.

Especially not in this fabric, right? It is a present from Chéri and we bought it together in Remnant Kings in Edinburgh at the beginning of June. There was no description of the composition and it feels like viscose: it breaths well and drapes magnificently. I wish I could identify fabrics like that. But I can't. Lots of room to improve there.
With the remnants from this project I made the vintage blouse you have already seen around here.

Now that I see the pictures I realize I should have levelled the hem before hemming, but now I don't care: I have been wearing it like this all summer long, I am not going to be bothered right now. Also, I dedicated much of my time in doing a fake rolled hem all around, that I don't feel like destroying it.

The dress has a very simple construction, with three main pieces and an obi belt. If I have to do it again I would go for one size smaller but the same length. Also, I don't think I am going to sew another one of these. Don't get me wrong, this pattern is adorable and I don't need repeat how much I am loving wearing this dress, but I am the kind of girl who only needs one kimono in her wardrobe. Maybe it could become a wowing bridal shower present if made in a sexy silk and lace combination. So far none of my best friends are going to get married, so no need to plan another kimono any time soon. Also, none of them reads this blog so no spoilers, eheh.

I leave you with a couple more pictures of the dress in action during holidays. This one is taken in Pietrapertosa, in the south of Italy. You can see I can actually smile sometimes.

This one is taken in Bologna, on top of the Torre degli Asinelli. I had just climbed the tower (97 meters tall) and was super tired. Still, I smiled.

Well, that's all with this dress, I love it love it love it. After wearing it all summer long I thought I didn't want to see it again, but today I instinctively reached for it to go grocery shopping and then eating cake with a friend. I felt like a princess in both cases. 

See you soon with a few other summer makes and hopefully some autumn ones! Ciao!

Where I share a few lessons learnt in dressmaking [and other]

Hello there.
If you allow me, this post is going to be educational, since I am going to share with you a few lessons learnt in dressmaking [and other]. Maybe that's too ambitious, so let's just say it's going to be at least a personal reminder.

First and foremost: invest in what suits you
I wish I had a small sewing genie next to me, to advise my poor judgement when I choose patterns to sew. Everything seems good looking and appealing in theory, but then I don't like some styles on me. I must recognise I have come a long way in ruling patterns before buying them, but sometimes I fail. This is the story of one of those failures: a tunic dress!
This lovely pattern came in Love Sewing magazine (issue 13), and I liked it since I first saw it. I liked the idea of a simple dress, with a couple of interesting details (pockets and topstitching), to wear without effort and like a blank canvas for styling.

After sewing it, I haven't changed my idea on all of that, but please, my good sewing genie, if you are there, please never ever ever ever let me invest my time in a tunic dress. Because then I would not like how it looks on me, and I will end up inventing so many modifications, that in the end I will lose time and the original pattern design.

Second: at the core of everything there is patience
Even if you pick a super simple pattern, you have to invest a huge amount of patience to have a good result.
[To be fair, this also applies to job hunt: even if they say yes, it can become a no for whatever reason. Even if this happens twice in a row with two different companies. Even if now you are pissed. Even if you then find reflections of your job hunt experiences in everything else you do, like sewing a freaking simple freaking tunic freaking dress. Just be patient and keep hunting. And sewing.]

Anyway, let's talk a bit about all the modifications: I removed the sleeves and designed simple facings while changing the armholes shape to accommodate the lack of sleeves.
Then, I lowered both the front and back necklines, trying to graciously harmonize them. Then accordingly modified the provided neckline facings. I also repositioned a bit the bust darts.

After that, the dress construction was easy and pleasant, a part from a couple of things that didn't match, but this might be my fault. And just when you think the dress is going to be finished in a little bit [and they are going to hire you], I tried it on: big drama, because I looked like a ghost wearing a white sheet on my head and floating around. I had made no toile, because how difficult can be a tunic dress?

In the end, I added very long vertical front darts (if that's a thing), very long vertical back darts (again, pure invention of mine) and removed a good 12 cm. (in total) from the side seams.
The frustrating detail is that I proceeded little by little with these modifications, making them super long and sometimes boring with a lot of sew-over. Let's say it was a thorough patience training.

Third: once again, fabric is important
While enduring the long fitting session, the only thought that kept me going was the feel of this lovely fabric under my admittedly very nervous hands.

It is a most enjoyable Japanese cotton lawn that I bought in the Cloth Shop of Remnant Kings during my last trip to Edinburgh a few weeks ago. It was a very good deal on price, and I originally bought it to be a button up shirt. Then I changed my mind and thought that a simple tunic dress would better showcase the lovely print. It does, and I am quite happy with the final result, even if the topstitching and the pockets are not super visible because of the busy print. Anyway, I like the idea that it looks plain from a distance but hides interesting details to a close look.

Also, thanks to the print I could better hide all the darts and adjustments I had to do later on.

In conclusion: I have a new summer dress, I still have no job, and I hope you have learned a bit from my little experience.
Class dismissed!