With a few glorious days over the past week, blooms everywhere and days becoming longer, Spring is definitely in the air. And after months of sewing wool and adding lining to all my dresses, I just can’t wait to start sewing my Spring wardrobe. So here are my inspirations for Spring sewing – with a little sneak preview on some already completed items, that’s how impatient I was!

Spring outwear: a cape and a trench coat

Since I discovered Veronica Popoiacu’s Bittersweet Colour blog, I basically want all her outfit! Her style is just incredibly beautiful! For Spring 2021, I specifically want to reproduce this beautiful off-white cape (last picture below, taken from her blog, full credit to her amazing style and to her gifted photographer!). It is not a colour I have for mid-season outerwear and I think it would work very well with some of my recent makes, in particular my full circle silk skirt; my “nearly Dior” dress; and “not so sure about this one” dress.

The “Trendy Cape” pattern by Vanessa Pouzet, which I made in the past but never photographed, is definitely a good option to reproduce this cape. However if you are looking for it, it seems to have disappeared from Vanessa Pouset’s website, why?!! As for fabric, I have been eying this gorgeous double-sided cashmere for ages, so when Les Coupons de Saint Pierre confirmed they were still delivering to the UK, I just took it as a sign and immediately ordered 2m!

And here is a sneak preview of this one, which I made a few weeks ago (and photographed, incredible!) – a blog article will follow imminently I promise!

The second item of outwear on my to-do list is the Luzerne trench coat by Deer and Doe. This one has actually been on my two-do list ever since Lise Tailor published this article about hers… 3 1/2 years ago! I literally feel in love and wanted the exact same – in a deep cherry/burgundy colour! (the picture on the right is from Lise’s blog).

It took me a good 2 years (October 2019 to be precise) to find the right fabric in Europe: a burgundy cotton twill by Robert Kaufman, which I had tracked on a US website but finally managed to get from SewMeSunshine in the UK. Amazingly, there is still 9m left at the time of writing – I think because the website picture really does not reflect the gorgeous deep and warm burgundy of the fabric. And then another year and a half to get going… and here we are! Finished yesterday actually and I am over the moon, here is a preview as well, before a detailed blog article is written.

I have just ordered more double-sided cashmere for a second Luzerne; and I have some some powder pink Ventana twill in my stash for a third, so do expect many more to come… in due time, as this is not a quick and easy sew!

And third?… I have ambitions to try and make a toile of the short version of The Princess Coat by Charm Patterns. This one will probably have to wait until Autumn to be honest, as it it a very technical piece…

Trousers and blouse combination… for a change!

You know that I rarely wear anything else than dresses – skirts with hand-knitted cardigans at a stretch. And I actually own very few pairs of trousers, which I mainly use for weekend family walks in the countryside. So these plans will definitely surprise you!

However I have been wanting to have a go at trousers ever since the Loulou trousers pattern by Maison Fauve crossed my path. Cigarette is my favourite shape for trousers; and I much prefer an invisible side zip than any other type of closure, as it makes the silhouette more elongated in my view. Another big plus of Loulou is its gorgeous pockets.

Once again, the stars weren’t quite aligned. First, until very recently, the pattern was only available as paper, not PDF, so getting it to the UK was prohibitive (so says the girls who buys cashmere and silk on a regular basis… no comment). Second I was struggling to get the right fabric, I wanted a semi-weight cotton with slight stretch but it never seemed to appear in a colour I liked.

Eventually we got there. Loulou’s PDF was released and I ordered it. I also found this great baby pink stretch cotton fabric from Croftmill, and… I actually found a more suitable pattern!!! My only reservation with Loulou is that it is quite low-waisted, while The Ultimate Trousers by Sew Over It have quite a similar shape but a higher waist. So here we are now.

And yes these trousers have been sewn too… Here is a picture but much more details to follow.

To wear with these trousers, I (obviously) need a blouse – I am not a huge fan of wearing buttons so no shirt ambitions here. I want something reasonably fitted and short. But I am struggling to settle on the pattern. Here are the different possibilities I am considering: M8147 for it beautiful neck bow; M7542 because I’ve sewn it before and the fit is perfect; V9315 because I love wraps… In any case the fabric will have to be baby blue or candy pink, my colours of choice this season.

Dresses, dresses, dresses!

Of course, I kept the best for the end. As ever, I want to sew load of dresses.

First, a dark blue denim shirt dress with bronze piping is my utmost priority – don’t ask my why! I made a similar dress in a pale blue chambray with silver piping two years ago, which I adore but which is more appropriate for warm weather. I think a darker version would be better for mid-season.

Second, a black and white gingham dress. Here as well the inspiration comes from Bittersweet Colour. I’d like to reproduce this beautiful dress, with a bias-cut perfectly fitted bodice and a midi circle dress. I have found the perfect fabric from Fabrics Galore – fingers crossed 4m will be enough for another fabric-gobbling project! However, I am not sure I want to have a shirt bodice, as I am not very good with pattern matching… So I haven’t chosen the pattern yet, but I may well combine the M7081 skirt with the collarless, raised neckline bodice of V8630 (the best fitted bodice I ever found).

Third, fourth and fifth: lots of flowers! Does a girl need so many flowery dress in her wardrobe? Of course! Here are the ideas, we’ll see how they go.

Conclusion

So nine projects in total, some of which are likely to create an unavoidable urge for immediate repeats… I’d better get going!!

According to the calendar, winter is now officially behind us – hurrah! But temperatures have not quite caught up yet in the UK, which means I will still get plenty of use of my recent knits, namely my powder pink Whitmoor and my off-white Fine Lines sweaters.

Both sweaters are unusual for me. First they are not cardigans – these definitely make up the majority of my knits. Second, they are neither cropped nor fitted, like most of my tops. Third, you can see them worn over jeans – yet jeans! I bet you have never seen a pair of those on the blog! But with successive lock-downs and forever lasting social distancing, walks in the countryside have become our main weekend and holiday activity as a family. I definitely needed an easy outfit for these – so here we are.

Beautiful Whitmoor

• Pattern: Whitmoor Sweater by Amy Lowden
• Yarn: knit in double yarn using Drops Baby Merino 54 Powder Pink (5 balls) and Drops Kids Silk 01 Off White (3 balls), in 4mm needles. This gave me the correct gauge.
• Size: I used the smallest but avoided the last row of increases at the yoke to make the sweater a bit more fitted. Beware, the intended fit is definitely very loose!

Whitmoor is definitely my favourite of the two. The yoke is absolutely beautiful and knits quite easily after the first few rows. I personally really enjoy knitting lace, as I find it quite self-correcting from one row to the next. The sweater knits top-down and fully in the round, which is an absolute pleasure after several flat knits. And if you don’t fiddle with sizing like I did, it is an extremely quick knit. It took me two weeks but would have taken one without all my un-knitting and re-knitting to test sizing (three times, argghhh!).

My only reservations is that is that the original pattern is overly loose for my taste; and the sleeves are a good 4cm too long for me. Nothing that cannot be corrected for the next one!

Not convinced by my Fine Lines Sweater

• Pattern: Fine Lines Sweater by Lily Kate France
• Yarn: knit in double yarn using Drops Baby Merino 01 White (5 balls) and Drops Kids Silk 38 Chalk (4 balls), in 4mm needles. This gave me a slightly larger gauge.
• Size: I used the smallest to compensate for my gauge.

This was my first knit from Lily Kate France and I was absolutely thrilled by the way it’s written – incredibly clear, with my favourite top down and seamless techniques, an absolute pleasure to work with.

Sadly, the sweater did not match my expectations, due to an unfortunate combination of factors. First and foremost, the yarn is not at all the colour I expected. Drops Kids Silk Chalk is a brand new colour and I expected it to be a pure white, but it turned out to be more on the greyish/ dirty snow spectrum – not great! I should also have been careful about my gauge, because the sweater ended up definitely looser than it is meant to be. And I am definitely not convinced by these puff sleeves on me – I have very narrow shoulder and I love it this way, so a garment making my shoulder larger was definitely not a good idea. I also think they really don’t go well with the lines of the body. Oh well!

Not one I will try again I’m afraid… Completely wearable in the woods for weekend walks though!

Conclusion

I am quite happy to have ventured outside of my comfort zone by knitting something a bit different. I am also very pleased with how my Whitmoor sweater turned out. However, that’s it with my winter knitting, as I am very keen to move on to Spring with light cardigans in sight – stay tuned…

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you are well aware that when I love a pattern, I can sew it many many times (as discussed most recently here). However, I think this is the first time I have pushed a pattern a bit too far – let me introduce you to “the dress with the right pattern but the wrong fabric“.

The perfect pattern…

You may (or may not) have recognised the famous V9253 dress. This pattern has been a success for years. Thousands of gorgeous versions can be seen all over the internet and Instagram, and I myself made three versions recently, which I adore. Here are my two summer versions (reviewed here and here on the blog):

…and my winter version (here on the blog):

This pattern is a joy to work with. With very straightforward instructions and a minimal number of pattern pieces, you get a stunning result.

It is also quite easy to hack. For all version, I made a FBA (explained in the article) and shortened the skirt to long midi length (in between the two lengths offered). I drafted a V-back for the summer versions:

For the winter version, I slightly crossed the front neckline to make it less plunging; and I added bands at the sleeves to give them a puff:

… but the wrong fabric

So what went wrong then? Well, I chose the wrong fabric!

I bought this beautiful (and very expensive) silk from Selvedge and Bolts and I was surprised by it stiffness when it arrived. Even after washing, it could pretty much stand on its own! You can see it most when you look at the skirt of the dress – on this picture I was standing still, so the shape of the skirt is not created by movement, it is permanent.

I thought long and hard about a pattern that would suit… I wanted a dress with a high-waisted skirt with as few pieces as possible, to keep the big flower prints intact. Eventually I chose V9253 for the wrong reasons – mainly because I got completely carried away with my winter version, which I absolutely adore.

Not only is the skirt too stiff at the bottom but the front waist pleats were an absolute nightmare – they required a change in direction, lengthening and a lot of pressing… Despite these efforts they still stand up quite a bit…

The bodice is also constructed with pleats, so it does not really fall nicely with this fabric. Not even mentioning the sleeves, which live a life of their own. Oh well…

The back is probably the nicest part of this dress actually:

In conclusion…

At least I learned a few lessons from this dress.

The first is never the get over-confident with a pattern: even if you’ve used it many time, you can still mess it up!

And the second is that if you know from the start that a fabric is not going to work… send it back!! I knew from very early on that I only wanted this type of fabric for a dress, but that none of my dress patterns worked.

This will be known as my “princess dress”, as my sons call it; and will patiently wait in my wardrobe for a big night-out – not a given in forever locked-down England!

I have two loves that seemed incompatible until recently: circle skirts and midi skirts. Well, in theory they shouldn’t be, but I had never dared exploring the fabric consumption required by making a circle skirt midi length. I have now, so let me introduce you to my Fabric Gobbler Midi Circle Skirt (how more complicated a name can I find…):

Which pattern to make a circle skirt?

Making a circle skirt is in theory quite easy: you just need to measure your waist and play with circle circumference formula (not forgetting to add ease).

In practice, life is short to remember what pi is so I strongly advise you use By Hand London’s circle skirt calculator; or a tried-and tested skirt from your pattern stash. I went for the later option, using the circle skirt from the M7081 dress – with 8 versions to date, I don’t think I have a more tried-and-tested pattern than this one…

This knee-length skirt is perfectly designed to fit within a 150cm-wide fabric when cutting on the length grain of the fabric – ie the usual way, where your fabric selvedges sit right and left .

But if you want it to be any longer, you will need to cut the fabric on the cross grain – with your fabric selvedges sitting top and bottom. It is usually not recommended as the fabric has less stretch in this direction, but for a full circle skirt it doesn’t really matter. The only constraint is that it will not work if your fabric has a strong directional pattern.

How much fabric then?

I decided to lengthen the skirt by 20cm – which actually makes it a very long midi skirt, 84cm long excluding the belt (I am 1m68 tall). For a real midi I think an extra 10cm would have been enough.

And for that I used a whopping… 4m of fabric!!! While the knee-length skirt uses only 2m! Arrrgghhh! Arguably there is quite a bit of fabric leftover, which could be used for a sleeveless dress bodice for instance – but definitely not enough left for sleeves as well.

But it is all really worth it – look how this beauty moves as you walk! I love it!

What belt then?

For the belt, I had the perfect belt waiting for me from my recent Elegante skirts; and the measurement was spot-on for my circle skirt. But after attaching the invisible zip and the lining, I realised the belt was too high… so I unsew lining, zip and belt, took off 1.5cm (5/8in) from the belt… and sew everything back together. NOT FUN! Never go into a project thiking it is going to be a fast one…

But here too very much worth it because this belt is just perfect with this skirt!

Fabric, lining and hem

This fabric is… silk, of course! More specifically embroidered silk dupion from Amothreads (and still in stock at the time of writing). It was very easy to work with (see my previous article for more details on working with this material) and makes the skirt feel very luxurious.

I lined it with plain (antistatic) lining fabric, of which I used only 2m by making the lining knee-length… I had completely omitted the fabric increase when ordering my lining, oh well…

And the hem… Usually I would sew the hem by hand on this type of fabric, just because it is so much nicer. But frankly after the belt issue I had run out of patience and I machine-hemmed, naughty me! I am the only one to notice I am sure but it does not annoy me too much…

Conclusion: never-ending fabric purchases…

My typical fabric length purchase seems to be continually growing . I used to buy 2m of fabric for dresses, went for 3m when I discover circle-skirt and maxi-skirt dresses, and I am now considering going for 5m to fit a midi circle skirt and sleeves… Where will it end? Let me hide in shame…