Monday, March 28, 2011

Pied-de-poule!

This fall/winter, we could see houndstooth fabrics on a LOT of RTW garments. And I love the effect it gives to a dress for example. It becomes suddenly classier and more interesting. Here are a few dresses I really liked:

People Tree (Emma Watson)

Yigal Azrouel

Kate Spade

I particularly thought that the first dress would work for me. What helped a lot is that I brought back some gorgeous fabric from my grand ma's stash that was perfect for this project...

This afternoon, I looked up online the name of the fabric in French, to explain properly to my Grand Ma what I did with her precious stash... and the translation was SO fun! Houndstooth=Pied-de-Poule and do you know what Pied de poule means? Chicken foot! So weird right? In both languages, it is a part of an animal's body!

Now, I wondered where the name came from, and Wikipedia says:

"Houndstooth checks originated in woven wool cloth of the Scottish Lowlands, but are now used in many other materials. The traditional houndstooth check is made with alternating bands of four dark and four light threads in both warp and filling or weft woven in a simple 2:2 twill, two over - two under the warp, advancing one thread each pass."

So where do the animals come from? If you know, I'd love to read about it!

Now, time for my little project. In the last issue of Ottobre, I fell in love with a skirt pattern that is almost the same as the one I used already 3 times from one of their previous issues. And I immediately thought that it would work great with the houndstooth!



The only difference is that my fabric was not stiff at all, and I liked it better that way! I paired the skirt pattern with a basic princess seam bodice, with a round neck. The process was very straightforward and I even made a yellow bow to bring a cute accent to the outfit!

As usual, the fit of the Ottobre pattern was great, and I did not have to change anything. 

Tadaaa!

I used a belt to accentuate the waist, It also works great with a red belt (without the bow of course!)


No, I am NOT jumping, I was just enjoying a bit of the sun!

And the bow!


What do you think about Houndstooth?
Who has ever used Ottobre patterns?

7 comments:

  1. I love houndstooth! I´d love to make/have a jacket or a coat with this pattern... or a bag, maybe :). I have a cool fabric with houndstooth in various sizes... Your dress is lovely!
    I like that Ottobre picture you posted a lot... the black dresses look very cute. I should maybe give Ottobre a try, because I´ve been a bit dissapointed with Burda lately...

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  2. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! Love the little bow too!
    ~Alana

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  3. I love houndstooth too. The dress really suits you. I have never used Ottobre patterns. Dont think I can buy it here in Ireland. But will look at your link now, inspiring.

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  4. Love your dress Laurwyn, and the yellow bow really caps it! Neat photos too.

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  5. Love classic prints, if you don't mind I used your picture as inspiration on my blog.

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  6. So nice to find your through Nefferth´s blog.
    Following you now.
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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  7. Love your dress! And your backdrop has me nostalgic. (Former Neatherlander here)

    I'm blogging about learning to sew women's apparel for Pattern Revolution. I would absolutely love any guidance you can offer :)

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