I think each of my dresses could be a movie scenario. It always starts with a love at first sight, followed by doubts, obstacles, with a final twist that dried the tears and brings back the smile. This one doesn’t derogate from the rule. And even more: it was inspired by a great actress.

December 26th: Carrie Fisher had a heart attack a few days earlier and all Star Wars fans are worried about their princess. I fall by chance on this picture of her, wearing a black dress with beautiful ruffles on the neckline.

I immediately love this dress, and quickly draws a sketch. The neckline ruffle is replaced by butterfly sleeves. I told myself that night it would be nice to sew this dress for Spring: of course Carrie Fisher will be ok. It was unthinkable that she could leave us so young.

And then 2016 didn’t fail in its reputation as a memories reaper, and took with her Carrie, joining David, Leonard, Alan, Prince, George … and all the others.

I don’t know you, but I wasn’t unhappy that 2017 was finally coming.

The weeks passed, and this dress remained in my heart: I waited for the perfect fabric for it. And then one day, in a Bennytex newsletter, the crush for this viscose: flowers, birds, beautiful colors …so springlike ! And at reception I wasn’t disappointed: beautiful drape, very soft, not transparent. The Carrie dress was in front of me.

I took the Butterfly dress: I removed the wrapover, cut my front on the fold and draw a V neckline.

As expected, I lowered the middle line of my front bodice by 2cms, avoiding that my bust doesn’t pull the elasticated waist too up. I modified my front belt and didn’t touch the skirt, which I adore so.

One would think that the sewing was made without incident: it was without counting on these butterfly sleeves. But then again, I learned something fundamental with this dress.

Often, when in drafting class I hesitate about the length of a sleeve, the flare of a skirt, or on a neckline, my teacher always told me the same thing: “show me your initial sketch » . Because in the end, absolutely everything starts from there: a sketch. The hardest thing to do is to agree on what you feel and what you sew. And here, typically, I reacted backwards. On my sketch above, I drew rather short sleeves. I then drafted flared sleeves, but quite short ones. And at the first try, I was disappointed: simply because deep inside me, I wanted long sleeves. But I put more than 5 toiles before understood it!

From now on I will know that before drafting anything, I must imperatively agree with my sketch. Note that now I can flare a sleeve way Esmod eyes closed. 😀

♫ “I’m a Rocket Man, Rocket Maaaaaaaaan, Burnin’ out this fuse Up here alone” ♫

And it was when I thought that, finally, the dress was finished, that I realized that the hem had stretched.

You remember my misadventure with Réglisse ? You better think that this time I took the time to do things correctly: I took out my chalk hem marker, and draw a new hem on my dress. The white chalk being invisible on my fabric, I mixed it with some eyeshadow: and it works quite well !

Better this way right ?

The inside of the dress is always finished in the same way: the bodice and the waistband are lined, the seam of the sleeves hidden under the lining, and the lining of the belt sewn by hand on the skirt. As only 4 seams were visible, I stitched them in the French way.

Conclusion : it had to be my Easter dress, but I was so in a hurry to sew it that I preferred to celebrate spring with it. The softness and fluidity of the fabric make it a very pleasant dress to wear. And these flowers are all I want to wear at this time: definitely, I am much more inspired by the beautiful days!

I wish you all a great weekend, take care of yourself. ❤

As promised, I come back with some scraptastic sewing. Do we unroll the thread chronologically?

Here you recognize the Aubépine scraps : there really was not much left, but I wanted to test the panties in woven fabric, having sewn only in knit before. I knew the popularity of the Bel-Air pants, but having found a free pattern on Thread and Needles, I thought it would cost nothing to try it.

Well, I tell you this right away: I’m not a fan of this pattern. Already, regarding the size charts it’s better not to be thick. From memory I had to trace my pattern in 40/42 and I can hardly put it on. Plus, I’m really not fan of the side seams that are staggered at the front. This pants is not a frank success, but it doesn’t matter: I will know what pattern to try if I get some woven scraps to do so. Even if I prefer to wear knit panties. (The elastic comes from Mercerie Extra).

Going to the Darling Ranges scraps ?

I wanted to sew a shirt for my baby girl. I chose the pattern 137 of November 2013 Burda.

I opted for size 116, and as you can see in the pictures, it is wide enough for Juliette. But as I often say: this little things are growing so fast !

Not having enough fabric to make the long sleeves, I tried the 3/4 sleeves. Except that they were really wide at the hems, since the bottom of the sleeve hems is gathered and closed with a sleeve bracelet. I then opted for an elasticated slide.

The neckline is finished with bias and the button placket is attached.


Hello the covered buttons ! (I love doing that, don’t you?)

Conclusion : Bubu as I like it, simple, efficient and nicely finished. Juliette loves the fabric, which she finds very pleasant to wear. Profitable scraps / Filled dressing = happy mummy ! Let’s skip to the Wanted scraps ?

You know, I always cut my main work and my scraptastic sewing at the same time. This time, I was really happy because I had managed to fit my dress, a t-shirt for my man and even a little panties for Juliette. But that was before I screwed on Wanted’s neckline.

Needing to cut a front and a back for my bodice, I sacrificed the t-shirt of my man. So I had 2 man sized short sleeves, and pieces here and there, which I managed to combine for Juliette, using this Burda pattern :

So we are facing the Burda dress 148 of August 2014. The bodice of the dress is intended for knit fabric, the skirt for woven. I only used the top, cut the back on the fold, dug the neckline and shortened the sleeves.

For lack of fabric, I had to split my front and back in 2 parts. I wanted to optimize this cut, and add a little braid: I went to “la Droguerie”. Being unable to choose between a sky blue strip, and another pink fuchsia, I bought 1m of 2 and left Juliette to choose. As you can see, it’s the blue who won !

This sewing will have taught me a technical point rather interesting: the top being rather short, I wanted to finish it with a hem rolled, and I thought that the opportunity was nice to test the hem called “lettuce “, You know, the rolled hem that makes like little waves? Except that my knit fabric was not very elastic, it did not work at all here: the waves were frankly minimal. I will know that a lettuce rolled hem requires a very elastic knit fabric. 😉 Here, a simple overloecked edge + a double knit hem did the trick.

(End of shooting, Juliette is getting nuts.: D)

Conclusion : the top is not very long, I know in advance that this one will not survive to summer, but I’m still pleased to have managed to produce something with this super knit fabric. Worn with a pair of denim shorts, it will be perfect at high heat. And the pants then?

Always my Jalie 3242 pattern, here in size H for my very slim baby girl, and it fits her like a glove! I’m really super happy with this pattern: if you scrupulously respect the size charts, the result is always perfect.

I wish you all a great weekend, and take care of yourself. ❤

May God bless knitting during a rest period: this cardi comforted me, kept me busy … and kept myself warm, too. 😉

Do not think I sadly gave up knitting after my failure with Myrna. After drying my tears on a snood / hat combo for Tom and Juliette (I must write the post by the way) (it’s not like it’s spring day today) (ahem) WELL, I had begun a beautiful kid mohair shawl, a vast expanse of garter stitch of unsurpassed softness, from which I had started the third and last ball when … BOUMBADABOUM, I rolled on a scotch reel and found the most ridiculous reason for a fall. (My surgeon is still laughing at that moment. 😀 )

Starting right away this project comforted me for those days of forced rest that awaited me, and allowed me to occupy myself without becoming completely crazy. What’s more, I had this project and the wool for it since last summer: it was time to stick to it.

Then I confess to you right away: I did not knit a sample. After knitting a few rows on the back, I measured quickly 10cm from my jersey stitch. I was ok on the number of stitches, but I had fewer ranks than I needed. As usual, I went without thinking … love of risk no doubt.

I moved forward on my cardi and at the waist, I understood that the cardi is going to be much too long if I kept knitting. Thanks to Tassadit and her article on her own Marion, I decided to shorten mine, and tweaked to decrease the number of stitches needed to take in the waist.

We can hardly guess in this picture but 2 ribs are just a little less thick than the others. 😉

Chance doing things right, I followed the instructions for the sleeves, and instead of the initial 3/4 sleeves, I got long-sleeves to the right length for me! I could have told you that all this was due to a long series of calculations … but not at all, chance here has done well! : D

I just understood something essential with this cardi: size M is really too big for me. It’s by wearing my very first Miette recently that the connection in my brain has made (yes, I put the time: D): in my size, S is perfect at the shoulders and bust, I just have to zap a few decreasing rows so that the waist is not too tight. You see in the next picture that the shoulders fall a little bit.

But we are far from the industrial accident that Myrna was: even if this Marion is a little wide, I will wear it with pleasure. I knit it in Nepal yarn from Drops, in fog color. A bluish gray of beauty, with micro-violet touches.

The buttons come from la Droguerie. Thanks to “Une Parisienne en Helvétie”, I discovered the short needles: connected with a short cable, they are perfect for knitting sleeves without breaking the nose on the magic loop! Fast, easy, without any demarcation in the end: it’s so great.

The cables are beautiful right ? I loved to knit them, just like the whole cardi. I’m never tired of Andi’s patterns.

Conclusion : certainly a little bit wide, but I’m happy with this cardi, which besides being flattering on my dresses, is very comfortable. I’m always delighted with Nepal yarn, which remains unbeatable in value for money. My shawl being finished, and not knowing how to stay on a failure, tonight I start a new Myrna in a more appropriate wool: wish me good luck! (Aurélie, I knitted a sample, promised 😀 )

Wish you a good week, I come back in a few days with a small session of scraptastic sewing, and in the meantime, take good care of you. 😉

As promised, here’s my test version of Goji !

I will be honest with you: when I discovered the technical design of the Goji short, I remained spectical. On the other hand, I was intrigued by the skirt version. Having sewn a long time ago a gathered skirt from Burda, obtaining the best gaining diet ever (you wear it, you gain 15 kgs 😀 ) (well, I had at the time used a poplin, I also recognize my wrongs 😀 ), I was fleeing from this type of models. So I volunteered to test this pattern, more out of curiosity than anything else. The skirt is high waist and elastic, although the result wasn’t perfect, I still win a comfortable skirt for the summer.

Camille warns me at the beginning of the test that the skirt is not much flared, and that if I wanted a wider skirt at the hips, I had to size up. So I cut a 38 size at the waist, increased to a 42 size on the hips.

(Yes I’m 35 years old and I like to have dancing skirts when I walk and I do not plan to change soon 😀 )

Personally, when I have to sew a piece with gathers or an elasticated waist, I prefer fluid fabrics, with drape. Seeing my skirt in a chambray color, it was the best time to test the Coupons Saint Pierre tencel.

Be careful, don’t trust the color of my tencel: having pre-washed it with the damned dress, it was found with pink traces everywhere. I had to re-wash it by using a special product: the color slightly cleared. (And chance doing things well, I adore it!)

I loved sewing this fabric, which is a real pleasure to wear. Fluid and gentle on the skin: I carefully keep the remaining footage for a summer dress!

Goji therefore has an elasticated waistband quite ingenious: 3 slides are created, only 2 are elasticated, and the middle one is intended for a ribbon.

The skirt features two large patch pockets.

My test version measuring 4cms more than the final version, I shortened it in agreement and slightly modified the finish of the hem. Normally it’s necessary to overlock the top of the facing and to stitch it on the right side. My tencel being fine, I preferred to fold and sew the top of the facing, then stitch it on the right side.

I think the first word that comes to my mind when I think of Goji is COMFORT. This skirt is really nice to wear. The elasticated waistband adapts to our waist, and the skirt is not very flared, it remains completely flattering.

Conclusion : I’m really happy with this skirt. Worn with small white sneakers for a more casual style, or my Lotta in a more feminine style, I already know that it is a piece that I will often wear this summer. And I must dare to say that I am motivated to sew a new white Nettie !

Not having tested Hoya, my posts on the new collection stops here. 😉 I wish you all a beautiful weekend, take care of yourself! ❤

The new Deer and Doe collection being released today, I can reveal my “test” versions of Goji and Luzerne (I have not tested Hoya). Let’s start today with Luzerne, the trench coat?

It would have been necessary to film me when I discovered its technical drawing: I started to jump everywhere, taking me immediately voluntary for testing it. It must be said that my current trench coat, bought at Somewhere years ago, was seriously getting tattered. Having worn it every spring and autumn for a good ten years, it was wise to sew a new one. Yes but lazy. And then I had never found the pattern who would motivate me. Until Luzerne.

Fitted on the bodice, flared enough for remaining flattering, with superb technical details: I would not have drawn it otherwise in my dreams.

But Luzerne, like every beautiful piece, timeless and sophisticated, will ask you patience and rigor. But honestly, it’s well worth the hours of work: in addition to learning many techniques, you will get a piece that will never go out of fashion, and that will have very neat finishes.

Luzerne is not lined, but all the seams are finished with bias. The buttonholes are bound: it was the first time for me, and even if these are perfectible, I am still satisfied with the result.

Here you see the trench totally closed. Regarding the size, I went on a 38 at the top of the bodice, 38.5 on the waist, and finish on a 40 to the hips. And the fit is perfect.

Look at me this back. No, but seriously. Isn’t it great ?

Wanting a version that goes with all my wardrobe, I opted for a beige gabardine. The only one I could find quickly contained a little spandex, that did not facilitate sewing. Be careful when you buy your fabric, that it does not contain it, because it’s not necessary.

The bias, like the gabardine, comes from la Maison d’Ursule. The buttons from la Droguerie.

Some details: diagonal welt pockets, and the two pieces sleeves…

…and the back button.

Above, wearing it open…

… and there how I know that I will wear it: not buttoned, but closed fitting with the belt on my little dresses. ) (And at the same time I don’t know why I use the future in this sentence, because I wear it everyday like that, since the warmer temperatures) (except because of my sprain I’m wearing sneakers and a splint and the style is not that glamour) (but I’m always wearing my dresses, which makes my physio laugh a lot.: D)

Conclusion : Luzerne is undoubtedly my favorite pattern of this collection. It’s the trench I was waiting for, the one that sublimes and harmonizes well with my little dresses. Ultra feminine, flattering, modern and stylish. It’s a pattern who taught me a lot and who offers me a trench that has nothing to envy to the RTW ones. Congratulations to Eléonore and Camille for the styling and drafting on this pattern who will be very successful.

We meet tomorrow with Goji? And in the meantime, take good care of yourself. ❤