As promised, back to sewing at last! – the weather is so hot currently that none of my models wants to wear woolen sweaters anyway! This year I’ve transitioned directly from winter to summer sewing and here is my first summer make: the McCall’s M7952 dress, with its beautiful back.

The pattern was released in Spring 2019 and I feel in the love with the presentation picture (view A) – the contrasting stripes, the pockets, the back, I wanted exactly the same…. just not in yellow!

Despite having the perfect fabric in stock, a lovely striped cotton poplin from Bennytex, it took me a full year to actually get going on this dress. My main problem was the bust: this pattern sadly has no bust cup options, so to make it fit properly I had to do an FBA… and I find them such hard work that it really held me off. Here is a picture of my adjusted bodice, where I added 1.5cm in width at the bust. I added a side dart on top of the existing waist dart to avoid a pointy boob effect – and even with two darts, I did have to fiddle quite a bit between to get where I wanted shape-wise. I am still not fully happy with the result but it will have to do I’m afraid…

My other issue were the stripes – until June 2019, I had astigmatism, a vision defect which among other things make stripes very blurry so nearly impossible to sew! I got my eyes lasered last June and now stripes are sewable ad nauseam – brace yourself for a lot of them this summer!

Cutting the fabric took ages, as I really wanted to get the same effect of horizontal versus vertical stripes as the one shown on the presentation pictures. But I’m happy I took the time because the effect is exactly what I wanted.

A really charming aspect of this dress is the back – not only the crossed shoulders, which fit perfectly well, but also the buttoned skirt. However this dress is definitely not bra compatible – keep that in mind when doing your FBA (bra-less measurements should be used, not that it occurred to me initially, hum hum…).

Being completely uninterested in dresses with pockets (unlike the rest of the world it seems), I was surprised to love them so much in this dress. They are actually the only reason why I used the skirt suggested by the pattern instead of something a bit fuller. That said, this skirt is a bit to tight to my liking for hot summer days – but I’m used to big and floaty so I may not be completely objective here.

As for technicalities:

• I cut a size 10 and made no adjustment whatsoever (except for the FBA), which is always the case for all the McCall’s and Vogue patterns I’ve sewn and the reason I adore them!
• The pattern explanations are very straightforward and result in an extremely neat inside finish so I strongly recommend that you follow them.
• I used way more fabric than I would have thought, due to the stripe contrasting – and the many mistakes I made while cutting! So a good 2.5m.

Other than that not much to say, I am quite keen to try this dress with a circle skirt – but I would need to give-up the stripes for that. We’ll see.

Last knitting article before more sewing I promise! My fourth and last knit of an 8-week lock-down was the Enchantée Sweater by Atelier Emilie in royal blue for my elder daughter – beware that I am due to explore all shades of blue in the near future, as this is her absolute favourite colour!

After my recent wave of knitting articles, you are probably well aware that I adore knitting lace. After the Blossom motif which I explored extensively ( one shawl, two jumpers, two cardis here and here), I fell in love with the Enchantée lace when seeing it on Atelier Svila’s blog.

However I was not overly keen with the dropped shoulders and the loose fit. So I decided to follow the pattern very loosely. So from the inital pattern I kept:

• the lace motif – I adore foliage lace and have been on the lookout for some time; and this motif has the added bonus of being extremely easy to memorise.
• the i-cord finish of the neckline. I was never keen on the traditional ribbing finish and i-cord is genius idea, it is a perfect match with the delicate details of the lace!

But otherwise I made a number of changes:

• I worked with completely different yarn and needles to what is recommended ( double strand of Drops Kid Silk 21 cobalt blue and Drops Baby Merino 33 electric blue), so ended-up with a completely different gauge – not a problem as I wanted the exact same size and shape and my blue Blossom sweater and the Enchantee lace is very similar size to the Blossom one (17 stitches wide versus 16).
• I wanted a close fit and reasonably short length; so I cast on 8 motifs of the lace, knitted 3 cm of ribbing and then the lace up to under-arm (37cm in total) in the round. I then split the back and front, knitted another 10cm at the front and started the neckline decrease, following the pattern indications. I knitted 19cm in total from underarm to top for sleeve opening.
• For the sleeve head, I dislike the dropped shoulder effect, so I used German short rows to create a rounder should head: cast on 56 stitches, knit full 56, then knit 34 and back 6 then German short rows adding one stitch at each row end until only 6 stitches left ofn each side; then knit everything on the round, decreasing by 2 stitches every 16 row.

Nothing utterly complicated but quite a different look from the initial jumper, much more to my and my girl’s liking!

Now I am pondering whether I should knit an Enchantee cardi, how typical…

I promised in my previous article about my white Blossom cardi that I would show you my second Blossom cardigan very shortly – so here it is, in coral pink.

My knitting is definitely becoming as repetitive-addictive as my sewing – oh well! This coral Blossom is a twin to its white brother, which I introduced in my previous article – so to avoid unnecessary repetition I refer you to this article for all details about how I hacked the Blossom jumper pattern into a cardigan. The only changes I made for the coral version are the following:

• The wool colour obviously: I knitted in double strand, using Drops Baby Merino 46 (Rose Tea) and Drops Kid Silk 32 (Strawberry). They match perfectly and end-up in this divine pink- orange coral, more orange than my usual but definitely a big colour crush!

• The bottom band, which I skipped – I started knitting directly with the lace to see what it would look like and I rather like the scalloped effect.

• The button and collar bands, which I knitted in reverse stockinette this time, thinking it would match better with the lace than the usual ribbing.

I think I love this coral cardigan as much as the white one – the coral is stunning, it is overly soft and comfy to wear, and my love for the Blossom lace is everlasting – one shawl, two jumpers, two cardis, where will it stop???…

Just for those who have not been as faithful to this blog as they should, here are my other Blossom creations – which one do you prefer? (click on the picture for each article about these knits)

Another lock-down knit, another cardigan: here is my Blossom cardigan in Lily White.

Blossom was designed by talented designer Anna Dervout and I am an absolute fan – under my needles first came the shawl, then two jumpers, the only thing missing was a cardigan!

But the one designed by Anna did not suit me, as the lace motif only appears at the back – what a shame! So ever since knitting my first Blossom jumper, I dreamt of a white cardi with full-on lace – here it is.

I did not use any specific pattern for this cardigan but obviously used the Blossom motif; and I also got quite a lot on inspiration from the Salal cardigan pattern for proportions. Here are a few details that could help if you’re planning to knit a similar cardigan:

• As I wanted a snug fit I casted on 8 motifs (16 stitches each), plus two additional stitches at the beginning and at the end (to attach the button placket); and three stitches in the middle for interruptions – these were for too much, miss!
• I knitted 27cm from bottom to under-arm to achieve a cropped lenght and 19cm from under-arm to top, to get more ease at the sleeve opening than the (tiny) 15cm recommended by tyhe pattern.
• I started my front neckline decreases 10cm above the under-arm, initially binding-off 10 stitches (2 beginning stitches + half a motif), then 2 stitches 4x on front rows.
• For the button placket and the neckline, I knitted 6 rows of stockinette.
• I used 4mm stitches for the body and 3.5mm stitches for the ribbing – but my knitting is very loose.
• I knitted in a combination of Drops Baby Merino (5 skeins) and Drops Kid Silk (4 skeins), which is a combination I absolutely adore for it softness and it fluffy effect; and which I’ve used A LOT In my recent project

As for any self-drafted project, there are a few things I would (and did!) change for the next one. I am not a fan of the sides; and the sleeve opening is actually a bit too big. But these small details aside, I am very happy with this cardi – and quite proud I could achieve my vision and end-up with something more than decent!

You’ve obviously guessed – another Blossom cardi was knitted and you will see it soon. Being slightly out of my usual colour palette, it just needed a matching skirt which I finished… today!