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 ?