Hi everyone,

It has been years since I posted about my sewing adventures. I still spend my time running around and it leaves me almost no time to write.
That is why I just opened an instagram account @laurence_qpc
Come along!

A Flamingo Dahlia for my Birthday

Hello lovely people, I am back with a cool little project. Life has been very happy and very busy too. Motherhood is extremely fulfilling, even if it is sometimes tricky to combine it with a demanding job. But all in all, things are great!

I have not been posting for quite a long time, but I have decided to only post when it feels right, and enjoy life. Well, now is the time to bring you a small project. It is a pretty cool hack! A Dahlia blouse!

I have not published it, but I made a Dahlia dress a few months ago and I have been thinking A LOT about adapting the pattern to make a blouse out of it. It all started after I read this very cool article on Seamwork from their Block Paper Scissors section. It explained how to make a summer swing top from a basic sloper. In my head, this principle was meant to be applied on the Dahlia.

Now, the only missing part was the fabric. It did not take long to figure it out! Last october, Jenny made a gorgeous skirt from a wonderful fabric. And I, like many others, fell in love with the fabric. I actually found it on a market in the Netherlands and I purchased a couple of meters. I made a skirt, also not published yet, and I had half a meter leftover. It was perfect for a summery top!

Well, there you go! I wore it today for my birthday and it is the most comfy summer top you could have. I find it very flattering and light. It also works very well with jeans. It is long enough to cover my pouch-y area. I created some asymmetry, making the back slightly longer than the front.

I used some ready-made black satin bias for the neckline, straps and the hem. This fabric is lovely but BOY! does it fray! I also used french seams, again, due to the fraying.

Watching the pictures, I am not sure about how I feel about my bare arms. I have put on some weight and I work on being healthier at the moment. Seeing the photos is somehow conflicting. I completely embrace the fact that I have a full figure, but at the moment, I feel that I am too high on the scale. You can read everywhere that you should not put on too much weight during a pregnancy, but sometimes, it happens...  I should write about at when I am ready.

But all in all, this is one of the nicest tops I own and I will make sure to use it well around the Lake Maggiore during our coming vacation!!! I already thoroughly enjoyed wearing it today!

Hello from Oscar!

La Maison Victor on the Curvy Side

When you are stranded on a chair for long hours and your brain is drawning in hormones, you cannot write or fully focus on anything, especially in a language that is not your native one. That is why I started reading more French sewing blogs in the last weeks before Oscar's birth. Within a few days, I have found a new world of inspiration coming from a Belgian magazine : La Maison Victor.

I am sure that most of you read about it on Melissa's blog. She summarized really well why it is worth a look. Make sure you read her post to see why this magazine is a massive upgrade compared to Burda (easy drawing, illustrated instructions, individual patterns for sale including videos, knitting and crochet projects and also kids and male patterns).

Today, I would like to highlight the plus size patterns they offer. Most of their designs are available up to a size 48 and are worth a look. I will however focus today on the ones available in sizes 54.

I will start with their sizing chart. I find it very interesting. If you compare the largest chest measurement to the one from Colette Patterns for example, LMV's size 56 corresponds to Colette's 26. It seems however that they use a different pattern block, with a larger waist and a smaller hip. You will find more details here :

Size	34	36	38	40	42	44	46	48	50	52	54	56
Chest	80	84	88	92	96	100	104	110	116	122	128	134
Waist	66	70	74	78	82	86	90	94,5	101	107,5	114	120,5
Hips	92	96	100	104	108	112	116	120	124	128	132	136
Chest	31 1/2	33	34 1/2	36	38	39 1/2	41	43 1/2	45 1/2	48	50 1/2	53
Waist	26	27 1/2	29	31	32 1/2	34	35 1/2	37	40	42 1/2	45	47 1/2
Hips	36	38	39 1/2	41	42 1/2	44	45 1/2	47	49	50 1/2	52	53 1/2

Now, before I tempt you with the pictures below, you have to know that until now, the magazines are not available in English (only in French, German and Dutch) BUT after going through all of them, the drawings in the tutorials are more than clear and sufficient. I will come back to this but I am planning on contacting La Maison Victor to ask questions about that topic and others.

It is now time to have a look at the plus size garments offered by LMV. I will talk about the ones featured in all their past editions, except the latest one that I will review on the CSC (Spring 2015). We have so far 6 dresses, 2 jackets, 1 top and a pair of leggings.

Lisan	Chloe	Roxy

Lisan is my favorite of them all. It is a tunic-dress with rounded seams. The wrap style of the skirt is super flattering. It also has a V-neck and scallopped sleeves. LMV advises to wear it with a belt to cinch it in even more at the waist.

The Chloe coat has raglan sleeves and side bust darts. The design is very simple. I am not sure it would work on bigger cups but it is quite fashionable. It is available for purchase individually.

The Roxie leggings are a great basic ! They are available for purchase individually.

June	Jolene	City

The June Dress is a very basic and flattering design. It has a simple princess seams top and a box pleated skirt. It is available for purchase individually.

The Jolene top is a loose V neck with batwing short sleeves. It is a good basic to have. I am not sure it would work on broad shoulders though.

The City dress is developped to try your hand at color-blocking with knits.

Jazmin	Eliza

The Jazmin jacket is a kimono style cardigan. It looks great on the model but it is not tailored. I would be curious to see how it looks if it is not cinched in at the waist.

The Elisa dress is a nice wrap dress developped for knits. It can be used as a basic but is quite similar to other designs available with other companies. If you are interested, it is available for purchase individually.

Mary	Black Velvet

The Mary dress is more fitted. You can use thick knits or woven fabrics. It has a pannelled top and a slitted neckline. I think it could be used for color blocking as well.

The Black Velvet dress is also one favorite of mine. It is a cool variation of the center pannel/princess seams theme. It also has visible darts and is super curves friendly.

What are your thoughts on these designs ? As hinted above, I am planning on sending LMV an e-mail and I already have a few questions about the possible use of English language and the idea of having pdf patterns available online. Is there any question you would like me to include in the e-mail ?

Introducing the Little One

Dear friends,

I love sewing and I love blogging. I also love sleeping at night. Unfortunately, I learned in the last few months that combining the all with a pregnancy or young baby is very very hard !

I must confess that I have been a bad blogger, both on QuirkyPrettyCute and on the CSC. The last trimester has been incredibly hard to combine with work, and the first two month of my little boy's life have been a a mix of joy, discovery and sleep deprivation.

Meet our little Oscar ! He was born on Jan 16^th. He is doing great and is filling our lives with so much happiness ! I may be biased but I think that he looks like the most beautiful smiling baby in the world !

Tee made with leftover bits of fabrics! Yeay for holding on to scraps!

Now, let's come back to sewing ! I have a backlog of unblogged little things. Maternity clothing and baby clothing. I even have a couple of nursing items. I am not sure about when I will find the time to write though. Indeed, in the last few months, I had to chose between sewing or writing about sewing. Until now, I have mostly been attracted to the quick fixes of small projects. Little things I found easy are now a thing of the past :

• getting all dressed up and apply make up on before taking photos
• actually shooting the photos
• processing the said photos
• researching documentation or links
• drafting a post

But there is hope ! Oscar is now starting to sleep more regularly and play by himself, giving a few 30-60 minutes breaks a day when he power naps. We are usually going for a walk during his longer naps. That means that I can start typing things more often.

Sewing mums, I would love it if you could send me tips ! When do you sew ? When do you blog ? Do you sew for your little one ?

Burdastyle Plus Blog Tour : The Loose Jacket

Today is my turn to reveal my Burda project ! Since we have been in contact with Burdastyle, I have been extremely excited. See, I learned to sew with Burda patterns. If we go even further back, I can still remember going through the monthly new editions with my grand ma when I was still a little girl. In Europe, Burda magazines (or other sewing magazines) are used more than the envelope patterns. For me, even if the monthly Burda Plus collections can be hit or miss, I will always keep on looking forward to the third Friday of each month because I know I will come home with the new edition.

For this blog tour, Burdastyle offered each of us at the CSC to try one pattern that they would send to us for free. We could take a pick amongst many models from their latest bundle collections. I decided on the Loose Jacket (127). This was an easy pick because it was the only pattern I could use this winter during my pregnancy.

This was actually a fun and somehow new experience because I usually draw the patterns from the magazines but this time I printed out the PDF version and taped it together. I must be one of the only people on earth enjoying the taping. I find it, weirdly, very relaxing.

I wanted to make a very comfortable cardigan/jacket with a woolen jersey. The fabric I picked only stretches one way, and I count on it for the days I may have to pull it closed around the bump... My wool is also quite thick, it is stripy on one size, and more fluffy on the other. I chose to let the stripes show on the outside and to have a peek of the fluffiness along the front flounce.

My fabric choice made me decide to slightly shorten the length of the pattern and to go for one size smaller around the shoulders. I also did not grade up for the waist nor hips because the pattern already provided a lot of ease.

All in all, the pattern was super easy to put together. It is quite simple and interesting in the same time. The instructions call for a raw hem edge, but I decided to go for a contrasting bias binding edge. I made it with scraps from an old project in thin black wool.

The result is the most comfy cardi/jacket I ever had ! It is also super warm and will accomodate my body changes. I really like the front flounce and the way you can just wrap yourself into it.

On the downside, the cardi/jacket looks very big, due to my fabric choice, to the flounce, and the provided ease. If I had to redo it, I would use a thinner fabric, to allow for a better drape.

All in all, I am looking forward to the late and cold fall days to cuddle up in the sofa or go for a nice walk outside in my new warm and fuzzy cardi/jacket !

Don't miss the other stops of the Blog Tour!!!

September 29th — Jenny at Cashmerette — the Jersey Dress
October 1st — Tanya at Mrs. Hughes – the Printed Tunic
October 2nd — Laurence at Quirky Pretty Cute — the Loose Jacket
October 6th — Mary at Idle Fancy — the Faux Wrap Dress
October 7th — Mary at Young, Broke, and Fabulous – the Draped Dress
October 8th — Sophie Lee at Two Random Words — the Cape
October 9th — T at U & Mii — Contrast V Neck Dress

Wrapping up my Spring/Summer capsule!

The Summer is almost over... Even if we are having a nice and warm september here, the leaves are already falling from the trees or adopting beautiful warm colors. I love fall. It has always been my favorite moment of the year. My fall will be filled with maternity clothing and a great vacation planned to North California. But before that, I want to say a last goodbye to Summer.

Do you remember my mini capsule plan ? I made it back in Spring. It is now time to really evaluate its successes and shortcomings. All in all, I am very happy because I have completed a lot of what I had planned and needed. Of course, a couple of pieces are missing, and some others were added. Getting pregnant tends to shift things. Testing patterns and being part of a wonderful group pf ladies at the CSC also moves things around a little. But let's dig into this a little bit more !

Last year, I decided I needed...

1. Jeans : Status : UFO

If your remember, I have started working on that, with a muslin and a lot of enthousiasm. After the muslin and the adjusments, I have actually cut the fabric and assembled the first pieces. It is now folded in my UFO basket. I stopped working on it during my first trimester energy dip and I will pick it up once I can use normal jeans again.

2. 
   T-shirts : Status : Completed

I have made 2 plantains. A white one, and an off-white one, with a bright pannel print. I am super happy about these two. They are still very comfy and I have been wearing them all Spring and Summer long !

3. Shorts : Status : Completed but with a bitter taste

Shorts were my crusade this year. I wanted to a at least one pair that looked good and was comfy enough to go for hikes. During my first round of try outs, I made muslins for 4 different patterns, with big fails, and some ok results. This was a very hard project to lead for my self confidence and I decided to make one pair of the pattern that worked the best. I actually really like the result and I wore the shorts on vacation and also in the town some week ends. They are not the comfy-hiking version I wanted at first, butI am quite satisfied with the result. In a while, I will however pick this up and continue my crusade to try and find another patterns. You left me a lot of great tips !

4. A white hoodie : Status : Aborted

I wanted a white hoodie for Summer mornings or nights, especially on vacation. I ran out of time before our trip to Crete, so I bought a white cardi instead.

5. A Summer Maxi dress : Status : Completed

I have not blogged about this yet, but I made a beautiful white dress, using a non plus size Burda pattern that I have upgraded. This dress is so beautiful, particularly thanks to the gorgeous fabric I used for it. It is also very very comfy around the waist (waistline that has kind of disappeared as of late). You will find a few more details with the pictures below.

6. A classic dress : Status : Completed

I needed a nice dress to wear to my sister in law's thesis defense. I used the Hawthorn pattern and golden a cotton eyelet fabric. I blogged about it here. I wore it a few times and I am looking forward to wear it again next Srping and Summer !

7. A white skirt : Status : Completed

I initially wanted to make a white Anemone, which is the reason why I tried it first in another fabric. I have barely worn both versions as the waist is very fitted and it was not comfortable quite early on, and already in the first trimester. I have only one picture of the white version, and I think that the picture does not do it justice. You can decide for yourself.

8. A colorful skirt : Status : Completed

This is the Anemone I blogged about here. I love it and I am also looking forward to wear it again next year.

9. A dressy corporate dress : Status : Aborted 

To be honest, I have lost all interest in a Summer version of the Wiggle dress :) This summer was all about comfy knits for me !

As I said, all in all, it's quite a great achievement ! From the 9 items I wanted, I have completed 6.5. On top of that, you can add more projects that came up with pattern testing and blogtours. I made a Moneta, a Mabel and an Olive ! I also got started on a few maternity projects, but this is something I will blog about soon !

Before we part, I leave you with a few pictures of my Maxi Dress and some shots of special Summer times, where I wore Me-Made-Clothing.

The pannel print made this dress very special! I used a contrasting fabric to break the whiteness of it.

The front pleats make this dress very comfy and accommodating for growing bellies.

Breakfast on our balcony back in Santorini.

These are my favorite Summer looks:

Plantain + Juniper

Make-it-work mabel + self drafted skirt

Moneta in Crete

Moneta

Shorts

Who has ever atempted to work on a season capsule ?

How did it go ?

Which item of this capsule do you think is the best result ?