The skirt of my dreams: La Bohème by Vanessa Pouzet

When Vanessa Pouzet published her latest skirt pattern La Bohème, I got slightly over-excited: the pattern was published on Thursday night, my skirt sewn on Friday morning, photographed by my 8 year-old son on Friday afternoon and blogged on Saturday  – you must think that I am completely crazy! But appart from the fact that this pattern is just perfect, I owe you an explanation…

A few months ago, I volunteered myself for the Minerva Craft Maker Team. Each month, Minerva Craft offer to the team a selection of fabric. By chosing one, the maker agrees to contribute an article to the Minerva Craft blog. As I love both sewing and writing in English, with on top some free fabric on offer, this was far too tempting! For an obscure reason, I decided to start contributing from February – as we are away on holiday for two weeks soon and in the middle of renovating our bathrooms, committing to a 4-week deadline is definitely not the best idea I had… Oh well… I chose this spot crepe fabric, which I particularly liked for its vintage look.  It is described as a medium-weight, I thought I would make a dress (my favourite ever garment to make and wear by far) out of it so I ordered 3 meters.

When the fabric arrived however, my plans for a dress evaporated: the fabric was far too soft for the mid-season strucured dress I had in mind; and slightly transparent on top, so it would have required full lining – arrggghhh! But it would work wonders on a skirt: I started dreaming about something long and vaporous, initially in the circle skirt department, then with ruffles… And then, TADA, Vanessa published this amazing pattern and my fabric’s destiny was sealed!

This skirt is amazing, static…

… or in motion…

… and let’s not even start twirling about!!!

This is my fourth Vanessa Pouzet garment. Having already sewn the adult cape, the child cape and the Sister Mini skirt, I was fully confident it would be a super smooth, super satisfactory project – and it was!

  • The pattern is PDF only but it is extremely easy to print and assemble – it took me no more than 30 minutes! So if you are allergic to PDF pattern, you should definitely reconsider, these are my favourite ones by far!
  • The explanantionbs are crystal clear, you can’t make any mistake if you follow them carefully – and they are also full of hunour!
  • Everything falls paerfectly into place…
  • … and the finish product is just so stylish!

No I promise, I am not being paid to say this, I am just an absolute fan!

As far as technicalities are concerned:

  • It took me about four hours to make this dress, from printing to taking pictures.
  • The two longest steps were cutting the fabric – an absolute nightmare with such a soft fabric; and hemming the skirt – meters and meters of slippery material to deal with!
  • I shortened the skirt by 2cm but I did not follow the patern’s instructions: I assembled the skirt and the ruffle together, tried on with my heels (of the height I will wear with the skirt, this is absolutely essential) and cut 2cm from the top before assembling the belt.
  • I also diverted from the pattern for the belt: I only cut one piece of fabric of 150x20cm (insead of 2 pieces of 150×10) and I thermolined the belt to give more rigidity to my fabric.
  • Despite the fabric being slightly transparent, I did not feel the need to add any lining, as the front overlap does the job!

So absolutely no trouble with the pattern but quite a lot with my fabric – although completely worth if! I love the fact that the fabric is so light and a bit transparent, it makes the dress very special.


In summary  :

  • Pattern: La Bohème skirt by Vanessa Pouzet (sadly only available in French for the moment), a floor-lenght wrap skirt with an all-around ruffle. The pattern in only available in PDF but Vanessa’s are the easiest PDF to print and assemble I have ever used!
  • fabric: this white spots on black background medium-weight crepe fabric from Minerva Craft. Definitely not easy to cut and to hem, as it slips quite a bit, but totally worth the effort! It is slightly trensparent but with this skirt required no lining, as the wrap does the job.
  • Sewing level: completely feasible for beginners, as there are very few pattern pieces, no major technical difficulty and the explanations are crystal-clear!
  • Love level: I am crazy about this skirt, such a beauty, in particular when moving!


2 responses to “The skirt of my dreams: La Bohème by Vanessa Pouzet”

  1. Carrie says:

    Wow , I do have a hate trying to love pdf pattern affair going on . I want to do the skirt shorter version . Did you translate or just go by pictures or do you read French ?

    • Elisenne says:

      Vanessa Pouzet’s patterns are actually quite easy to put together, so even if you hate pdf’s it is quite manageable! I speak French but if you ask to Vanessa Pouzet directly, I translated the all pattern for her in English (for free, just because I loved the pattern so much), she sould be able to send you the translated instructions.

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