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 ?

A golden eyelet Hawthorn

Hello everyone!

I am still catching up on me-made garments I made for the summer. Today will be a little bit more classic.

In May, we attended the phD defence of Mister’s sister. This took place in a beautiful building from the university of Utrecht, NL. I don’t know how these events are organised in other countries, but this is quite prestigious here and you have to dress up a little.

I wanted to make a nice dress with a classic style. I already had the fabric in my stash: a beautiful golden cotton eyelet and I just needed to pick the pattern. I went back and forth between different ideas but I ended up wanting a fitted bust with short sleeves, and a flared skirt. In the end, I decided to use Colette’s Hawthorn. I liked the simple silhouette and the classic details (a flat collar, the button-up front).

 

I cut a size 18 and graded up to a virtual 20 from the waist down. For more fitted skirts, I would grade up to 22 at the hips but this was not necessary with this semi-circle shape. I also added a little bit of width around the biceps.

 

I am very happy with the end result! The buttons add a subtle effect that is very flattering. I chose to wear it with a thin contrasting belt. For some reason, the dress looks a little bit too plain without that belt.

 

 

Due to the nature of the fabric (eyelet), I had to underline most pattern pieces with a golden rayon. For the top, I lined the front and back pattern pieces, simply copying the shape of the fashion fabric. For the skirt, I did not have enough lining for a semi-circle, so I did a dirndl skirt that I attached at the waist.

 

The day of the defence was beautiful and we walked around in Utrecht. I felt very special. I must admit that high heels on old fashioned European streets is not the comfiest kind of walking, but sometimes, you just have to get on with it…

We took the pictures in the little patio hidden in the old faculty building where the reception took place. It has beautiful open corridors all around and has an old church feeling to it. 

All in all, I am very pleased with the Hawthorn. I will definitely make it again, after my belly stops growing and (hopefully) shrinking. I would like to try a nice winter version, with longer sleeves and contrasting buttons.

I find it very funny to see these photos taken in June because my boday already changed quite a bit and this dress absolutely does not work with the bump. I am really looking forward to wearing it again because it made me feel so ladylike!

A spring Anemone

HI everyone,

Before indulging in my maternity wardrobe planning, I want to show my me-made-summer pretty things (at the moment, there is only one of them that still fits my little bump). I want to start with one of my favourite skirts ever: my Anemone!

As you may know, I fell in love with the beautiful patterns from Eléonore at Dear&Doe. It all started when I used their free Plantain back in January and March. Since then, I have finished 4 versions of it! But that’s another story… When you look at the patterns, they all really appeal to me because they look very flattering, cute and pretty.

I have however pondered about ordering (or not) to D&D for a long time because their size chart is not very large. Their larger size is 41in at the bust, 33 at the waist, and 43 at the hips. This means I would need to upgrade 3 sizes at the bust, 4 or 5 at the waist, and 5 or 6 at the hips (depending on patterns). Even after my many adventures in the upgrading world, I wondered if  wanted to invest into Indie patterns (and the price that goes with them) for woven fabrics with such a high risk of oopsies.

Well, one day, I just decided to try and I ordered the Anemone skirt pattern. I simply love the side peplums and the high waist, I thought it would really work for me. A colleague of mine also convinced me. That’s a funny story actually. I was checking patterns during my lunch break and I had the Anemone website window open. My colleague arrived behind me and said “Oh, that one is really something you would wear!”. I guess my colleagues see me as a peplum kind of girl…

Anyway, I ordered the pattern and I really enjoyed the packaging. It comes with two instructions booklets, one in French, one in English. It felt very odd, because if I am a native French Speaker, most of my sewing vocabulary is in English… The pattern is printed on a very large thick white paper that makes it really easy to measure and play around with upgrades. Would you guys be interested in seeing pictures of the pattern + the grading annotations I made?

I graded up 5 sizes at the waist and at the hips, to try out because I wanted to try and keep similar proportions to the ones of the original pattern. The muslin was quite nice (I forgot to document it) so I adopted these adjustments. My first idea was to sew a white skirt that I would be able to  use during spring and summer. I had the perfect fabric in my stash but I was afraid to use it directly because I wanted to use a few tricks I had not done with the muslin: add a lining, and add some boning along the seams around the high-waist. I feared that that portion of the dress would roll down and plastic boning would be a very simple solution for that. I decided to use some old cotton my grand ma gave me. She bought it 20 years ago for something like 2 EUROS a meter. What happened next is very funny. I fell in love with the end product! What I thought would barely become a wearable muslin became one of my favourite skirts ever! I love all the colours you can combine this skirt with, and there are some really pretty golden lines hidden in the pattern of the fabric.

I really like the way this pattern cheats and makes me look like I have a much narrower waistline! And oddly enough a flatter belly...

To make the lining, I just used the basic pieces of the skirt and shortened them. I really needed a lining because the waist is very adjusted and I wanted to make sure I could slip this on easier. I was also planning to wear it on colder days with tights.

We took the pictures back in May when we went to spend a week end with my family in Belgium. We were in a cute little town called Durbuy where you can still walk amongst medieval little streets and beautiful grey stone houses. They also do yummy ice creams in the summer and tasty warm wine in the winter if you are around!

Have you ever been to Belgium or Durbuy?

What is the largest grading you ever made?

Do you want to see the grading notes on the pattern? 

Making it work, Mabel edition !

Hi everyone !

The Curvy Colette blog tour is finished and Jenny wrote a wonderful round up post. I had a lot of fun in the process of sewing my Mabel and Moneta. It has been a great experience and it is only the start of something much bigger that will come to you very very soon !

Now ! Time for a little behind the scenes oopsy. My first attempt at the Mabel went slightly wrong. I do not have any photo to document the « before » stage, mainly because it was hurting my vanity. Now, as you saw on our posts, we all used a pretty thick knit to smoothe the curves and lumps. Well, I got a bad start, completely ignoring the idea. See, my approach was to go for a print that would take the eye where I would want the eye to go. I thought I found the perfect print : a beautiful pannel with amazing colours. Well no...

It went very wrong. The fabric was way too thin to wrap smoothly around my curves. It clung to them instead. Even if I had cut a size larger. You must already understand how sad I was... I loved that fabric but it was amost impossible to salvage anything or rip out the stitches. Due to the pannelled nature of the print, I only had barely enough for the skirt, and no leftover. I racked my brains and tried to remember if I had a pattern that would fit within the leftover parts. Nothing...

Then I started thinking that I really liked the waist peices, with the lining. Would there be any possible way to keep it ? Than I flipped it over and I had a eureka moment !

What if it became a top ! What if I did not have to rip any stitches ! Yes Yes Yes ! It could actually work ! What if I stitched my former hem on the sides, to create shoulder seems... And what if I cut armholes on my former side seems ???

It took me 15 minutes to flip this skirt into a top ! And you know what ? It worked magically... The pannel print work beautifully as a blouse. The fabric that was the source of the skirt clinginess became the reason why this top has a beautiful drape. The waist stayed a waist. The stripes along the form hem became a great shoulder line. I am so happy about this mishap turned success !

A shoe parting shot :)

What about you lovely ladies (and gents?), have you ever had a "make it work" moment? If so, it would be great if you could link it, I would love to see where your imagination led you!