A Little Black D(olo)res(s)

Hi all!
After 3 rough months at work, which led to yet another sewing burn out (no UFOS, but my last projects were completed veeeeeeeeerrrrryyyyyyy slooooooowwwwwlllyyyyy), I was  really in need of something easy to make.
I had bought Zoe's Dolores Batwing pattern a few months ago, and thought now was the time to give it a go, so I grabbed some black milano jersey I bought specially for it...and let me tell you, this pattern did not disappoint!

Here's a first view...

And here I am, showing off the batwing sleeve detail!

In hardly more than 2 hours of sewing (and without a serger!), I found myself with a new dress...and one, IMO, that's perfectly worthy of being my New Year's Eve dress!
No modifications, except that I chopped 10 cm off the sleeves to make them 3/4 instead of full length.
Now, this dress is a little bit classier than what I'm used to wearing, but at the same time, it's so easy to wear it would be a pity to keep it only for special occasions...I think it's going to be worn quite a lot, and I'd love to make some more in neutral colors like navy, dark brown or burgundy, and in wool jersey (but that seems a little bit harder to find unfortunately)!
It reminds me a bit (well, minus the batwing shape I mean) of Heart of Haute's "Super Spy dress", over which I've been drooling for quite a long time : 

Well, you can imagine how great it feels to have a pattern enabling me to make as many knock-offs (sort of knock-off, anyway) of this dress as I want, and in no time at all!

Happy New Year's Eve to you all!

#SSK 2015 : I'm in!

Hi all, wanna take part in a knit along this winter? How about Andi's Selfish Sweater Knitalong?

I still have a bit of work to finish my Nix shawl, but I'll make sure to jump on the bandwagon as soon as I'm done with it!

I'm going to make a Cropped Sweater - I already have some yarn left from my Hortensia which I plan to use for the main color, and I'm going to order some off-white yarn for the contrast.

© Andi Satterlund

If you want to join, you can get the button for your blog on Andi's, and/or join the discussion on Ravelry.

Finished for FESA : Châtaigne skirt

Well, this one took a long time coming too...but at last, it's here!

Sorry I can't be a fast blogger AND post awesome pics...at least you get to see the wonderful Christmas tree which the building's caretakers installed in the lobby!

So, this is Deer&Doe's Châtaigne shorts, turned into a skirt thanks to Estelle's tutorial.
I used a brown tweed-like wool mix as my main fabric, scraps of brown cotton for the inside of the pockets and the waistband facing and olive green Bemberg for the lining. And I added some pleather piping accents around the pockets and waistband yoke..
As you can see I went for the high waisted version and made it longer by 25 cm. I decided to put the zipper in the back, instead of the side seam, slightly tapered it at the side seams to get a that pencil skirt look, and added a back vent. And I also lined it.
I don't know if anybody else tried to make the high waisted skirt version, but once I had modified the leg parts of the short to turn them into skirt parts, the back parts were shorter than the waistband by 1.5 cm, so I had to add that much to my back skirt pattern pieces if I wanted my booty to fit in!
Apart from that, I had no problems making it - except for a bit of thinking about how to attach the lining.

Here's a look at the back vent...

Wait...would that be my first ACTUAL invisible zipper???

And here's my lining. At first I thought the lace was just beige but it's actually golden! Not what I chose first but I finally like it that way.

This skirt is not perfect - for instance, you don't want to look too close at my lining and facings, and I should have done something to reduce the bulk in some seams...but the actual fit is great, it's really comfortable and i love wearing it!
Even though it's not really historically accurate, the look of it is still reminiscent of the 40s/50s, while being at the same time modern and casual...that is to say, everything I'm looking for in a garment!
I'm very happy with this skirt and I'll probably make another - maybe a simpler, black one, in a stretchy fabric. Just wait and see!

Some cuisine : Potato and camembert gratin

Hi all, got a little recipe for you today!

Here's a dish I like to make in winter. You know, when you want to eat things that are light and fresh (just kidding). I've been tinkering with this recipe for a moment...and I think I just got it right yesterday evening, so here it is :

For 2 persons (or 4 if you want to serve it as a side dish) :

• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 4 potatoes
• 1 apple
• 1 camembert
• 20 g butter
• 1 shot glass apple juice
• 1 leaf of laurel
• salt
• pepper
• nutmeg
• caraway or cumin

Peel and dice the potatoes. Peel the garlic clove. Put in a saucepan, cover up with water, add the laurel and some salt, then boil till soft. Drain the water from the potatoes.

Peel and dice the onion and the apple. Spread them evenly in a dish that goes in the oven. Put the potatoes in that same dish, mix (as much as possible, without squashing them) with the onion and apple. Cut the butter in small bits and distribute it evenly in the dish. Pour the apple juice evenly the dish. Cut the camembert in small bits and scatter them over the dish. Add pepper, caraway/cumin and nutmeg, to taste (no salt, as the camembert is already quite savoury). Put in the oven for 30 min at 180°C.
Serve hot, with some salad on the side if you want. I used some lamb's lettuce yesterday evening.

Previously, I would do this recipe using a whole glass (ie 25cl) of cider, instead of 1 apple + a shot glass of apple juice. But the alcohol contained in the cider gave a bitter taste, and the whole thing was rather watery. However, the apple+apple juice combo gives just the right amount of sweetness and it's not watery at all anymore!

Finished for FESA : Aiken

Hi all, I finally finished my Aiken!

Here's the front...

...and the back.

I must admit it took quite a time, though. As a matter of fact, my first version was too big all over (as I tend to knit quite tightly, I thought it better to go with 5.5mm needles instead of 5mm as advised on the pattern...bad idea for this one!) so I had to start all over again with smaller needles.
I stupidly forgot to pick up stitches from the back to create the front when I started version 2. I made my front as a separate part, so some sewing was involved.
I only partly followed the instructions to adapt the pattern according to row gauge, but I got something I like in terms of length.
Although I had to start it all over again, it's quite a fast knit - version 2 was made in a little less than 3 weeks!
I haven't blocked it yet but this is already my second day wearing it, and I'd love to make an Aiken dress now! Anybody got tips on how to make a sweater longer and fit it to accomodate hips and buttocks?

In project for FESA : Chataigne skirt

Hi folks,

Just started muslin-ing my Chataigne skirt, for which I used Estelle's tutorial. And damn, was I right to make a muslin!

When I made the Chataigne shorts, they fit me right a way and no adjustments were needed. However, the skirt is super tight and will definitely need some adjustments, especially as I intend to line it. Nevertheless, I really like the overall look of it and I think it will be great if I manage to make it fit right!

the front...

the side...

and the back.

My last FESA project - the Aiken sweater - however, is not running as smoothly as I expected and looks a little too big overall. Not the pattern's fault, though - it's pretty quick and simple to knit. I started again with smaller needles and hope I'll be able to finish it - and my skirt - before the deadline...Fingers crossed!

Finished for FESA : a Goth(ish) Moneta

...or the dress that took a long time coming!

No mirror picture this time, I thought I'd take advantage of the natural light coming from my bedroom's window. I still prefer to see picture of worn garments, but at least I managed to get something that's not blurry and gloomy-looking! 

This is Colette's Moneta. The bodice is plain black jersey from Mod'Tissus (local fabric shop), the skirt was made with this lace print jersey :

Source : Place des Tissus

Not many alterations there, just raised the back neckline to make it more office/special professional event-appropriate (I also love the original back neckline, though!) and made the skirt 5 cm longer (only to shorten it in the end because I thought the dress looked frumpy. Duh). However, depending on the fabric, the next version might need an armhole/neckline adjustment to prevent it from gaping.

Everything went quite smoothly until I got to the shirring part. I first started using a normal foot + narrow zigzag stitch, but the shirring looked uneven as fuck. Then I tried gathering with the "string technique" (which Lauren explains here) and my gathers looked OK, but I thought it would look super bulky as I had to sew the elastic on top of the gathers. Finally, I rummaged through my sewing machine's notions compartment and dug out this roller foot. In addition to that, I did lots of matching marks on my elastic and skirt waistband...and eventually got something correct!

As if that was not enough to slow me down, I also broke my twin needle (that's what happens when you forget to check stitch settings) on a Sunday, and therefore had to wait one more week till I could buy a new needle.

Which I broke, too, the week after (fortunately this was at the end of the hem).

Then I thought my skirt was too long, so I bought a 3rd (and a 4th, better safe than sorry...) twin needle (which I didn't break, yay!) to make a shorter hem.

And finally, I got something I like! 

However, in spite of these little problems, the dress itself was really an easy make and it's very comfy! Chances are I'll make more than one!

Perfect cigarette pants : Burda vs Cynthia Rawley

So...this may (or may not) be part of my FESA 2014 plans, but I'm currently on the lookout for the perfect high waisted late 50s style cigarette pants pattern. I already have one pattern that might be a likely candidate (Gertie's B 5895), but I sort of got the fit right for the length and I'm afraid to mess everything up if I try to make it longer (don't know if that sounds very clear)...so I'd rather start afresh with a pattern originally designed to make proper pants (as opposed to capri/pedal pushers length).

I have already ordered the fabric to make them (a black stretch corduroy from Les Coupons de Saint-Pierre) but I still can't decide on the pattern.

So, which one of these 2 contenders is going to win?

On the left, Burda : 

Pros :

• Rather cheap, print-at-home pattern, so no need to wait,
• Don't know what they'd look like in real life but I like the Brigitte Bardot styling, this is what I'd like to emulate.

Cons :

• I've never sewn from a Burda pattern ;
• I'm scared of having to add seam allowances and of their reputation about sizing.

On the right : Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity: 

Pros :

• They're not looking that vintage-y to me (or at least not in the way i'd like them to) but i see great potential in them;
• I like where the waist hits (higher than natural waist).

Cons :

• I know it's a designer pattern, but 11$ sounds expensive for a Big 4 pattern, plus I'd have to pay for the shipping and wait till they get in my mail box...
• There seems to be a pleat at the front and I'm not sure what it would look like on me...

So, which one would you choose ? Unless you'd suggest another pattern?

FESA is back !

Sarah's Fall Essentials Sewalong is back! Basically, FESA consists in making warm, cosy and easy to wear garments for Fall, and as there are several categories you can choose to make any garment you like and as many as you like...which means that pretty much any sewist can join in with whatever she (or he) is making between September 1st and November 30th! Pretty cool, isnt'it?

The only thing I managed to me make last year was Wearing History's overalls, which did not turn out so great...but at least I see now what I must do to make them better!

This year, however, I feel like I could be more productive during these 3 months (yayyyyy for learning to knit!), so here are my plans :

• In the "Fabulous Frocks" category, a "Goth-ish" Moneta, which I'm going to make in a lace print over beige background jersey for the skirt, and plain black jersey for the top (version 3, with the 3/4 sleeves) ;
• In the "Chic Chemises for Cool Climates" category, Andi Satterlund's Aiken sweater, most likely in Cascade Lana d'Oro (in color 1036 or 1058 H, not sure yet)
• In the "Fashionable Foundations for Frosty Weather" category, a Chataigne skirt (following Estelle's tutorial for turning Deer and Doe's Chataigne shorts into a skirt), in a brown wool mix I have in my stash

Well, that makes three garments, let's see if I'll be able to make all of them!

Interested in FESA? Then pay a visit to Sarah's blog Rhinestones and Telephones if you want to learn more about it and join in!

Refashioned skirt with a Mexican twist!

Hi folks, here's what I did during the holidays!

I had to go back to work, but here I am, pretending it's still summer...

Alright, just a refashion is not much...except if you count that it's not just any ol' refashion. Actually, it was also my first try at embroidery!

My first inspiration was Mexican style embroidery, but I also looked at old school tattoo style drawings of roses to get them the way they look.

And of course, this project wouldn't be complete without a fail : I actually inserted the zipper the wrong way and the zipper pull is on the inside of the skirt. Bummer. Fortunately, it does not prevent me from pulling it on and taking it off, so I can wear it all the same!

Some Cuisine : Rhubarb tart

Although it's mentionned in my blog's title, I realize there's not a single food recipe in here.

Thing is, I love to cook, but my schedule doesn't allow me to do it often, let alone document what I make! But I decided to remedy that, so here's a rhubarb tart recipe I tried during these holidays :

What you will need (serves up to 8 persons, depending on how hungry you are) :

• 3 stalks rhubarb

Sweet shortcrust pastry : 

• 150 g flour
• 50g sugar
• 1 egg
• 80g soft butter
• 1 pinch of salt
• cinnamon (to taste)

Cream mix : 

• 2 eggs
• 20g sugar
• 3 tbsp mascarpone
• 5 amaretti (or more if you really want to feel the taste)

Peel the rhubarb stalks and dice them. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle lightly with sugar.

Pastry : mix the sugar and egg together. Apart, mix the flour, salt and cinnamon together, then, little by little, add them to the egg+ sugar until you get a crumbling texture. Finally, add the butter cut in small pieces, until you get a homogenic texture.

Roll it and put it in a baking pan, with baking paper to keep it from sticking to it. Pre-bake, 180°C, for 15 min.

Evenly scatter the rhubarb bits on your pre-baked pastry.

Cream : put the sugar with one tbsp of water in a saucepan and boil to make a syrup.
Break the eggs, separating the yolks from the white. Keep the yolks, mix them with the syrup and whip until it gets white and firm. Then add the mascarpone. Reduce the amaretti to a powder in a food processor, then add to the cream and mix. Pour the cream mix in the pastry, over the rhubarb.

Put in the oven for 30 min at 180°C (it should be slightly golden on the top), let it cool, and...enjoy!

Coming next : a Mexican-inspired refashion

I had this dress, which I had bought from Promod something like 3 years ago, when they had a 1950s-inspired summer collection. I liked it and wore it quite a lot, but it didn't fit very well (the side zipper was cutting into my armpit.)
As I still wanted to find a way of wearing it, I separated the skirt from the bodice. 

I will add a waistband (based on Colette Patterns' Ginger skirt waistband), which I'd like to embroider in a Mexican style (see Pinterest board below).

Follow Juliette MIJEON's board Buttons inspiration on Pinterest.

Stay tuned if you want to know how it turns out!

Unselfish knitting : finished!

Hi all, here are the little hats I knitted for the ladies in my family :

hats #1 to 4 were knitted in Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky, #5 (the yellow one) from Malou Light Baby Alpaca by Lang Yarns, because I didn't like the color of the Cascade yarn I had chosen previously. This yarn was much thinner than the Cascade and trickier to knit, and as the result this last hat looks more lace-y than the others, but I think it still looks good!

And here's how it looks on my head. It looks very slouchy after blocking, but it looks just like the picture on the pattern, so it's fine!

Outfit Along : completed!

Hi all, I've finally completed both my cardigan and dress for the outfit along!

I look slightly stupid on that pic. Dunno why but my boyfriend wasn't very inspired. He could at least have told me I was looking that dumb!

I won't go over the cardi once more as you've already seen it in a previous post, but here are a few facts about the dress :
This is Colette Pattern's Hawthorn dress and I've made the sleeveless version, in a navy swiss dot cotton underlined (for the bodice) and lined (fort the skirt) in a navy cotton voile.

Sorry for the crappy pictures, didn't have the time to snap anything better...

But, you guys...THIS MUST BE MY FAVORITE OF ALL THE THINGS I'VE MADE SO FAR!!!
I mean, this is the first time I sew something (relatively) complicated and manage to get perfectly finished seams everywhere! My facings have been finished with a mock overlock stitch and then catchstitched to the (under)lining, same goes for my hem, I made a faux waist stay, finished my armholes with piping, used French seams everywhere I could...it's almost as beautiful on the inside as on the outside! (check my FlickR if you want to see the details!)
On top of that, the fit is spot on (although I was unsure about it after making 2 muslins, I finally cut a size 6 with no alterations) and this is a perfectly office-friendly garment.

However, even if this dress, due to its color and clean lines, is definitely cake material, it would be very easy to add some frosting to it with the right accessories and make it a perfect outfit for an evening out or even fancier occasions! I can already imagine wearing it with green or pink...I'll have to knit more Myrnas to pair with it! And I think it's definitely going to be worn a lot!

To conclude, I'd just like to thank Andi and Lauren for organizing the Outfit Along, it was fun!

Outfit Along - Dress Progress

Hi folks, hope you had a lovely weekend! 

I personally had a lovely 3-days weekend (July 14th being our national day here in France) and coud really make some progress on my Outfit Along dress.

It's not easy to photograph a navy dress on a purple dress form, but there you have it! The only things left to do are finishing the armscyes, creating the buttonholes, making my fabric-covered buttons, hemming and catch-stitching the facing on to the lining/underlining fabric. I think the 15 days ahead should be enough to do this!

Look, I'm making a faux waist stay (thank Anna for her tutorial!)

Stay tuned for the final Outfit Along posted, it should come soon (or so I hope)!

Unselfish knitting

Now that I've started knitting, it's hard to imagine a train trip without something to keep my hands busy...And as I spend more or less 2 hours a day on the train, you can imagine I don't wait till I finish a project to start thinking about the next!
However it might not be comfortable to manipulate some warm material like wool in the summer, so I chose 4 small projects to start after my Myrna : I'm going to make 4  of Ysolda Teagues's Icing Swirl Hats, as Christmas Presents for the ladies in my family.

Here's the beginning of the first one. I had started it last night, but as I had dropped a few stitches, it didn't look very pretty, so I ripped it off and started afresh this morning. However, as I'm using a big yarn (Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky), it's quite fast!

As I had never knitted with double pointed needles before, I decided to give it a try with some scrap yarn before getting the yarn I ordered in the mail. The yarn was too thin and there wasn't enough of it to make much, but I managed to get something just the right size for Gipsy. She doesn't look very happy about it though...Cats are such an ungrateful bunch! ;) And honestly, that's what she gets for turning my OAL dress fabric into a hairy mess. How sad would life be if you couldn't make fun of your cat once in a while?!

Outfit Along : one down and one to go!

Hi folks, I'm done with Outfit Along Part1!

I'm only showing it on my dress form for the moment, I'll make an outfit post of sorts when I finish the dress.

I'm not 100% happy with how the keyhole looks, too many holes for my taste. Maybe my bind off is too tight?

Sleeve detail. Notice something funny? Read on ;)

On the whole everything went pretty well. I'm not super happy with the keyhole, and the shoulders look a bit weird, but nothing to prevent me from wearing this sweater, and after all I've been knitting for less than a year!
You may have noticed some differences in the stitches on my sleeve, so I'll try and explain why it is so. I had started on the short rows and was knitting "normally" (that's what you see on the right, on the picture above). Then I got to the part when you join in the round and I found that the stitches didn't look the same - they were looking perfectly parallel and there was a gap between the two parallel sides of the stitches (that's what you see in the 5 or so rows on the middle of the picture) - instead of looking like a little braid with alternate criss-cross as before (I don't know if that's clear, I hope it makes more sense if you look at the picture!). I was too lazy to rip the whole thing off to have everything look the same, so I ended up knitting through the back loop for the last rows before the decrease round, and my stitches ended up looking a little bit more like what you see on the rest of the sweater. 
And, of course, I did the same on the second sleeve and decided to call it a design feature ;) 

As for my dress, it's still not going quite as fast as I'd like too...After making a second muslin and deciding that the first one finally looked better, I traced all the pattern pieces the weekend before last, and left my fabric on my ironing board, which is about the only place in the house where I can put my fabric out of the way and have it lying flat.
Incidentally, the ironing  board is ALSO one of my cat's favorite resting place. Needless to say that when I came back to my fabric last Saturday to finish cutting, it had gone from smooth and navy to white and fluffy!
However, after using 11 sheets on my sticky lint remover, I finally restored my fabric to its previous navy color and I have now cut all the pattern pieces, basted my underlining to the bodice's shell fabric, interfaced my collar and facing and pinned the darts on the bodice pieces, woohoo!
I'm looking forward for the long weekend to come, hope I'll be able to go a little faster!

A few vintage finds

I like going to my town's flea market's, but whenever I go it seems like I never have the time to stop and have a close look at whatever might interest me. And when I do have the time and spot something lovely, it seems like I never have any money...
However, last sunday, I happened to have both a little time and money, and I managed to find something :

4 belt buckles dating back from the 1950s-60s (according to the lady who sold them to me).

Well, now I just have to learn how to make belts!

Outfit Along : an update

Hello folks!
Here's my little OAL update :

Bad picture, but it's lucky it's dark, otherwise you would see what a mess my flat is ;). As you can see, Myrna is growing quite well (I'm currently halfway through the waist shaping). However, the same can't be said about my dress...the pile of fabric on which I put my ball of yarn is actually going to become a Hawthorn, but for the moment it's only been prewashed. I made a first muslin of the bodice, which proved I'd have to make it a bit longer, I started tracing the other pattern pieces...and that's as far as I went for the moment.

I hope I'll be more productive next week-end!

Smooth Sailing strikes again!

Remember my yellow linen pants ? I made them last year because I needed some pants that were classy, casual and with the right amount of retro. Although they were not perfect ( the waistband was notably far too loose) I loved these pants and really wore them to death...so much that they actually got damaged. They were starting to show signs of heavy fraying around the back darts, and were not in a state that allowed me to wear them at work.
And here I was, once more in need of a pair of casual, but office-friendly pants
So, for the 3rd time now, I dug out my Wearing History's Smooth Sailing pants pattern...but I made a few changes to the pattern. Here they are :

• I took the waist in and removed 1 inch from it ;
• I added pockets (which I'm not sure was a good idea as I had to insert a side seam zipper, but it works! However, my pockets being far too narrow for me to put my hands in it comfortably, I'll have to re-draft them if I make another version - which is highly likely) ;
• I made 4 tucks at the front instead of 2 ;
• I doubled the width of the waistband, which results in a much more high-waisted looks and allows me (see picture below for evidence) to wear my "breton-top-which-used-to-be-a-skirt" without flashing my belly! Yay!

And dare I say, I absolutely love my new pants!

Picture taken by my boyfriend! Daylight and a lovely background are so much better than a dimly lit building hall, don't you think? 

Well, I'll leave you for now and go back to my Hawthorn muslin for the Oufit Along! Bye everybody!

Finally joining OAL!

When I first read about Andi and Lauren's combined knitalong/sewalong, I was interested, but not sure I could do it as I still had unfinished projects, and future projects that originally involved neither of the patterns they wanted to make.

However, now that I've finished my Miette and almost finished a 3rd version of Wearing History's Smooth Sailing pants (see versions 1 and 2 here and there), I'm free to join the Outfit Along party!

The principle of the Outfit Along is basically, to sew and knit during the same period 2 garments that are meant to be worn together, the knit garment being Andi's new pattern, Myrna, and the sewn garment Simplicity 1803. That being said, as Andi says in her presentation of the challenge, you don't have to sew or knit both patterns if you don't like one or both of them, as long as you sew one garment and knit another!

And that's fine by me, because I'll be choosing another dress pattern (not that I don't like Simplicity 1803, but I don't have it in my stash and I don't want to lose time having to order it and wait for it to get in my mail box).

Soooo...Here's what we've got : On the one hand, credited as "the Dress Pattern", is Miss Hawthorn, coming straight from the Colette Patterns studios in Portland Oregon, which I'm going to make in navy swiss dot cotton (underlined in navy cotton voile) :

And on the other hand, credited as "the Cardi Pattern", is Lady Myrna by Andi Satterlund, which I'll knit using Cascade 220 in the 7827 colourway (aka Goldenrod).

If I have any left, maybe I'll make a Summer Belt too!

A few more details : the Outfit Along starts on June 1st and ends on July 31st, and you can get the code for the button on Andi's blog.

Well, now that everything is settled, I'm off to order my wool ! See ya!

Miette : finished!

Hey folks, my Miette is finished!
The yarn I used is Eole, by Plassard (more informations about it here). As I wanted to wear my cardi for summer, I decided not to make it in wool and therefore chose this 55%cotton, 45% acrylic yarn. I'm only half-satisfied about it - in several balls of yarn I discovered some knots, as if the yarn had been cut or broken and then tied back together, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it from showing in some places.

This one just to show you that I'm rocking the matching tights, yay! (OK, I know they look darker on the picture because of the light, but they actually match!)

 As for the pattern, I really liked working with it! "That Miette, she ain't no piece of cake!"...is what I might have been thinking at the beginning (Frenglish joke inside). I couldn't get past row 8 because I kept getting the wrong number of stitches! Until it finally dawned on me that I wasn't counting the right way (see my Ravelry notes for details) What can I say...? That's what happens when you forget about your 9th grade-level maths program!
However, once I finally figured it out, everything went on like a breeze!

Look, I'm actually smiling on this one!

A Miette in the making...

Hi all, I'm currently making Andi Satterlund's Miette Cardigan (which is free, BTW. Just sayin'...)

Here's how it looked on yesterday evening...

I just finished the body yesterday and am now making the sleeves. I had a tough time at first figuring out how to knit the lace pattern (Ravelry notes here) but it's OK now!

...and here's a close up on the lace pattern!

Celebrating Victory!

Hi everyone,

My Sew For Victory project is now complete !

( Another building hall picture…I originally wanted to have a little photoshoot outside, but in the pouring rain ? No thanks !)

To celebrate Victory, what’s better than music ? Well, it just so happens that the fabric I chose for this is music-themed ! I found it on Spoonflower and it was designed for a « History of jazz » contest that took place a few months ago. Guitar, piano keys, double bass, drums, sax, trumpets, clarinets…there’s a whole big band on this fabric, perfect for a 1940s/mid-century soundtrack !
Well now, on to the patterns and the details.
I used Colette’s Ginger skirt pattern, and the size 6 fit me with almost no alterations. I just slashed-and-spreaded the skirt pieces to make the whole thing a bit more flared, and I also just lengthened it a little bit for a more (or so I hope !) period-appropriate length. I also made my left back waistband pieces longer, in order to have an overlap which allowed me to put a skirt hook-and-eye closure at the waistband.

I also tried to include more vintage-ish details, such as patch pockets …

Hey look, I can actually put my hand in the pockets now !

Another pocket detail. These buttons looked pretty cute to me, but on second thoughts I think they look more 70s than 40s…Could anyone confirm that ? If it is so, I guess I have to train my eyes at identifying vintage buttons…

…A hand picked lapped zipper, instead of the invisible zipper the pattern called for…

Please be kind, as it was only my second time inserting a lapped zipper ! I actually made a first go at it with my sewing machine, and I think I would have left it as it was if I had been sewing a solid fabric with a same colored thread. But the orange thread showed a little too much for my taste on this fabric, so I went for a hand picked lapped zipper. It’s not perfect – either I lack training, or handpicked is just better for non-lapped, centered zippers – but I think it still does the trick...

…and bound seams.

(picture coming later)

So there you have it – a jazzy Ginger ! I hope the weather gets better soon so I can actually wear it !


And for now, I’ll leave you with a picture of my faithful sewing help :

No, Kitty. Nothing is going to hatch from that pincushion, no matter how long you sit on it…