Sewing other garments than dresses (!!!) was one my challenges for Autumn 2020. And I managed! Let me introduce you to my Pascal shorts by Coralie Bijasson.

I love shorts for the colder months but I haven’t worn them for ages, as I couldn’t find a shape I liked, either ready-made or for sewing. So when I saw Joviana 2’s versions of the Pascal short on Instagram, I was over the moon: a very plain model with a slightly trapeze shape and a low waist, exactly what I needed. That said the overskirt version is definitely not my cup of tea!

Theses shorts are incredibly easy to make: the pattern has very few pieces (5!) and requires less than a metre of fabric. It is the perfect pattern to optimise fabric leftovers, which was another of my goals for this season.

My first version is in a blue brocade fabric from Amothreads. Initially I wanted to use this fabric for a midi skirt, but the supplier only had 1m left, which he kindly gave me for free! I cut a size 38, slightly shortened the legs, added some silver pipping and entirely lined the shorts (because brocade tends to be itchy, as I previously discussed in this article).

Ce short a le net avantage d’être très bien assorti au joli pull Enchantée tricoté pour ma fille – comme elle porte un uniforme toute la semaine je peux lui emprunter sans aucune culpabilité!

My second version is in brocade too, from the same Amothread supplier, but this time I used real fabric leftovers! They come from a midi pleated skirt, for which I hope to publish the tutorial soon. It is the exact twin of my first version except for the piping, which I omitted this time.

I am extremely please with these shorts! And also by how well my Autumn wardrobe is taking shape. More to come on the blog soon!

Now that I have become a competent knitter (thanks to lockdown!), one of my targets is to matches my hand-knitted and hand-sewn garments. And knitting a cardigan to wear with the dress sat very high on my list of projects for Autumn 2020 (reviewed in this article).

This dress is one of my favourite, so much so that she has a red twin sister.

But strangely enough I never blogged about any of them. Let’s remedy this!

• I previously made two sleeveless summer versions of this dress, reviewed here and here.
• The pattern is McCall’s M7081 – a knee-lenght dress with a mock-wrap bodice and a full circle skirt, joined by quite a large belt. The bodice has pleats instead of darts for bust ease, which make the dress it very pretty.
• I cut a straight size 10 without any adjustment. I even avoided the dreaded FBA (I am an E cup), which is why the skirt slightly pulls up at the front. But for once I am not too bothered.
• The changes I made to the initial pattern are purey aesthetic: I omitted the collar, inserted some piping at the neckline, belt and sleeves and added sleeve cuffs.

The fabric is a Dolce & Gabbana lawn-weight cotton , bought from Sew Me Sunshine. This fabric is magnificent and largely explains my adoration for this dress.

But the fabric being lightweight, the dress definitely needed a cardigan, cropped of course. Here it is!

You may have recognised Belladonna by Andi Sutterland, a stunning cardigan with all-over lace which I already knitted earlier this year – see here for the article on my first Belladonna.

I absolutely adore this pattern, the all-over lace effect is gorgeous and the cropped length is perfect. And the pattern is so perfect, crystal clear to follow.

I used a combination of Drops Baby Merino Electric Blue 33 and Drops Kid Silk Cobalt blue 21. I had knitted this combination already for my daughter and the result is a magnificent vivid blue, the pictures of the cardigan actually don’t give it full justice.

My only disappointment is that Drops seems to have slightly changed the Kid Silk, adding some white speckle, which makes it less bright – I realised it when after knitting the back and front down to underarm level with my wool leftovers, I started using my new wool and… it just did not match at all! I therefore had to start all over again! But all worth it, because this dress-cardigan combo is exactly what I had envisioned !

One combo done, two more to come…

After five years of sewing my clothes, I have been recently inclined to better plan my makes, for two main reasons. First, it means my sewing is less compulsive – I realised that sewing on a whim is actually quite stressful to me. Second, I have recently started knitting properly, which opens-up a wide range of opportunities of clothes-matching – especially as I am such a dress/cardigan girls.

I started properly planning for Spring 2020, using the Canva app because drawing is unfortunately not my forte. But with an unexpected exodus to France for lockdown without taking any of my patterns or fabrics with me, this completely went out of the window and I ended-up going back to my usual compulsive-self, buying far too much fabric and making far too many dresses – which I all love but were definitely not planned!

So back to square one on planning! But at least this time I have quite a precise idea of the main directions I want to follow!

Key piece to add to my wardrobe: a fit-and-flare raincoat

Raincoats tend to be straight-shaped but to match all my lovely mid-season fit-and-flare dress, I have been wanting a fit-and-flare raincoat for ages. I found the perfect water-repellent fabric in my favourite wine colour last year from Croftmill and after years of searching, the perfect pattern appeared in McCall’s Spring/Summer 2020 collection, in the form M8048 – and it has bust cup options, hurrah!!!

Ideally, I would make a matching hat using the free Bob Fauve pattern, but given how much I hate sewing accessories I would not bet on it…

Key knit and sew matches: blue cardi, red cardi, wine skirt

Last autumn, I made two gorgeous dresses which I adore, in two different colour tones of the same Dolce & Gabbana fabric from SewMeSunshine.

They are definitely crying-out for a matching cardigan and now that I am a more competent knitter, I can definitely tackle this gap in my wardrobe. For the blue dress, I am planning a second Belladonna cardigan (see the first I knitted here), in the same glorious royal blue I used for my daughter’s Enchantée sweater.

For the red dress, I have managed to buy some deep red Drops Lace before this quality was discontinued for a Salal cardigan – a very easy knit and I adore the versatility of my powder pink one. After many sample orders for a matching fluffy fibre, I chose the Drops Brushed Alpaca Silk – I usually prefer the Kid Silk quality but the red was for too bright for my liking.

Last match, I want a brocade midi skirt to match the wine Chuck Jumper I knitted last winter. I am keen on a pleated skirt and I have already found the fabric at AmoThreads, I now just need to decide whether I am brave enough to self-draft it!

Key technical challenge: sewing a silk dress

Although I now buy very few dresses, I recently splurged on two Red Valentino beauties – both silk maxi dresses. The only reason to justify the price is that I couldn’t make them myself. This really needs to change so my challenge is to make another M7974 (see my first version here), in silk both for the outer fabric and the lining. Thanks to Bennytex, I have sourced all the silk I need at very reasonable prices so wish me luck!

Key sustainable challenge: more small pieces with fabric leftovers

With my recent love of maxi dresses, I know tend to buy fabric by 3m rather than 2 in the past. I therefore end up with bigger pieces of fabric leftover, which I’d love to use. I’ve been making quite a few summer tops from my girls this summer with the fabric leftover from my dresses. For the winter, I think shorts ar the way forward, using the Pascal pattern by Coralie Bijasson. Here is a quick preview of two recent makes, an article will follow soon I promise!

And a bit of stash busting would be good too! I am very keen to make a long sleeved version of M6696, using yellow piping along the button placket in the same way as I did for this dress.

And a few random projects of course…

Knowing myself I really cannot rule those out. Given the size of my silk stash, do expect at least another silk maxi dress if my first attempt is successful. I need some silk nightdresses toobut haven’t found the right pattern yet. Another jumpsuit may or may not happen, depending on whether I find the appropriate fabric. Many more happy hours in prospect!

Although I’ve tried to avoid admitting it, my summer sewing is definitely drawing to an end. Before moving to autumn sewing, here is a little recap of what has been undeniably a very productive time.

Looking back at these pictures is quite emotional for me, as this year our family spent five months instead of the usual two in our French home. This obviously gave me ample time to improve my summer wardrobe there! With the only caveat that my sewing machine there is… not the latest technology to say the least! Not even mentioning my inexistent sewing space…

This is the sewing machine my mum gave me when I left home, more than 20 years ago. It is noisier and slower than my all-electronic Janome Atelier 5 back home but it is amazingly reliable and efficient. Just tp ,ake the point that when you want o sew, you can sew under any circumstances. Anyway, back to summer sewing…

Back Obsession

I did not diversify much from my sewing focus on dresses but this summer I was really attracted to beautiful backs.

This was definitely the case of M7952 with its crossed straps (reviewed here and here), which I had to make twice this year because I liked the first version so much!

The Glory top from Clematisse pattern was an exception to my dress focus, I was drawn to it by… its back of course, and made two versions for my eldest. Who conveniently is the same size as me so clothes swapping is fully possible!

When the pattern did not have a noticeable back, I hacked it to make it so. For V9253 (reviewed here and here), I replicated the front deep plunge V at the back – it makes the dress even less bra-friendly but who care!

And I did also play a lot with straps!

New favourite patterns

This summer’s sewing frenzy was also the opportunity to sew new patterns, as we had left London in a panic and I took none of my patterns (or fabric for that matter) with me – can you believe it?

My favourite ever is definitely V9253, which I had been eying for a while and which has been a massive success in the sewing community since its release a few years ago – now I know why! It is extremely easy to make while utterly stylish. I think I will definitely try a lined wool version for the winter, to wear with layers underneath.

I also fell in love with the Cassandre dress by Clematisse Patterns, definitely the ultimate summer dress, which I extensively hacked by making three versions in total (reviewed here and here).

And I also extensively used the M7958 cropped top pattern as a basis for making dresses, as the bust fit is perfect with its cup options and the cropped factor makes it perfect to add a skirt to.

New shirred dress tutorial

This year was definitely the year of the shirred dress on Instagram, with loads of lovely versions popping up everywhere. I have been in love with shirred dresses for years and after my tutorial for a basic shirred dress of two years ago and for a tiered shirred dress of last year, I added a shoulder-ruffle version for those of us who prefer to hide a bit their arms.

New fabric shops

This summer was also the opportunity for me to try new fabric shops. My two best find are Selvedge & Bolts, where lovely Dibs sources the most magnificent ex-designer fabric – both my V9253 dresses with their impressionist flowers are from there; and Un Chat sur un Fil, where I ordered a batch of embroidered cottons and broderie anglaise of amazing quality (from which I made my tutorial shirred dress and my two white dresses).

In conclusion

I also made a few other bits for my girls – a few skirts, shorts, tops, a few face masks for the family (joy!) and some scrunchies, not all photographed. But overall that’s it for summer sewing! Now fully ready to warm up to autumn and winter sewing (such a bad pun) – stay tuned!