I think I’ve found my favourite jumper knitting pattern for this winter, yeah! Meet Leah, from La Maison Victor’s Sept-Oct 2018 edition, available here. Easy and quick to knit; and so so soft and cosy!

First I should be honest and highlight that this is actually not my jumper: it was knitted for my 12 year-old daughter, who now shares my size for tops (aaarrggghh!!!). Despite my efforts to convince her this jumper is perfect for me, she is reluctant to relinquish it!

So what does Leah look like?

It is basically a straight loose jumper with raglan ballon sleeves, which make it look spot on the current trends.

Technically, the knitting is pretty straightforward:
– the pattern is a traditional one, where front, back and sleeves are knitted separately and then sewn together;
– all knitting is done in a jersey stitch with size 7 needles, so for a loose jumper it’s actually quite quick to knit;
– that said, the sleeves are very large to get a baloon effect, so they do take forever to knit!
– the jumper is knitted with two yarns together, merino and mohair.

The changes I made are the following:
– I used my beloved Drops yarns instead of the wool recommended by the pattern: Big Merino and Kid Silk (x13 and x4 for size XS), in color 01;

– I knitted the all body (back and front) in one go, bottom-up, using circular needles. I deducted 8 stitches from the initial model to account for no assembly. I separated back and front only from the sleeves, to make the raglan shape.
– there are funky little holes on the side of the original model, I removed them as they looked great on the picture but not so great on my jumper.

What more to say? I am over the moon with the result…

…and already knitting a second version, in a completely different colour combination.

My sewing moto has stalled lately, after a few sewing dissapointments in the wrap dress area (but more on this later). For the moment I need a quick, highly satisfactory project and this SisterMini by Vanessa Pouzet perfectly worked as such.

I am not a huge mini skirt person but I am all into the chunky sweater + dressy skirt combination this winter, and when I stumbled upon this beauty at COS, I immediately wanted to wear it with a mini skirt. I would have bought this corduroy one from the same brand but the pinks did not match. Thankfully I had the perfect fabric in my wardrobe, a beautiful pink and gold brocart fabric from Bennytex. And jumping to conclusions, here is the outfit, which is exactly what I was looking for!

In terms of sewing, the Sister Mini is a wonderful experience: in mimimum time you achieve a highly rewarding make, which is as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside. I have sewn three Vanessa Pouzet patterns up to now (including TheCape for my daughter, reviewed here) and I am extremely impressed by their quality: the number of pages to print from the PDF is tiny, the explanations are crystal-clear and full of humour, the finish is impecable and the sizing spot-on.

As for the skirt itself, it is a very short mini skirt – my key rule is never to wear it when I have to take the Tube! Rule number 2 is to drop the heals and wear trainers, not something I’m used to at all…

There is a fully-detachable zip at the front, which is a key element of the skirt. I looked for ages on E-Bay to find the right one, with a pink gold zipper on a beige background, perfectly matching my fabric.

The skirt is fully lined, in such a way that the inside is trully pretty – come on, have a look!

And joy, it also matches another of my recently bought jumpers, hurrah! – what do you mean, yet another blush item in my wardrobe?

In summary :

• Pattern: SisterMini skirt by Vanessa Pouzet, an absolute must in my view after a mini skirt, such an easy make with a really professional finish. I picked size 36 (my shopping size) after trying a way too large 38 with my muslin.
• Fabric pink and gold brocart fabric from Bennytex, this specific one is not available anymore but they still have a wide selection here.
• Sewing level: you absolutely need to make a muslin to check the size, which can be a bit boring; and you need to be precise when positionning the zip – but it is exposed so not as fiddly as a concealed zip. Otherwise very straightforward as the explanantions are so good.
• Love level: suprisingly for a mini skirt and my difficult relationship with my legs, I absolutely adore it!

Not a really sexy title but I just can’t hide – I just adore wearing jersey dresses in the winter mainly because that are just so comfortable, a bit like a chich version of pyjamas. That’s probably why I’ve sawn so many in the past! – not far from 10… Just a small sample below:

I started my search for a nice jersey dress pattern about three years ago and at the time there weren’t many available. I tried Moneta by Colette Patterns, which ticked many boxed: fitted top, plunging neckling but not overly so, swirling skirt. Unfortunately Moneta never worked for me: no matter what size I took, the shoulders were far too wide. No picture to record this failure I’m afraid, it ended up very quickly in the bin…

And then I stumbled accross this dress on Les Lubies de Louise blog and it was love at first sight! Louise had the clever idea to combine the Ondée cropper sweater with the Zéphyr skirt, both by Deer&Doe, to make a dress. Absolute genius!!! It is actually very easy to make, as the patterns combine perfectly with each other. The adjustments I made are the following:

• Top: I adjusted it to make it as fitted as possible. The amount of fitting required actually depends on the elasticity of the fabric used, so I’ve got my adjusted fitted pattern and sometime I need to readjust on the dress, sometimes not.
• Sleeves: I love the long version with a narrow wrist, but the three-quarter is a better match with my cropped cardis and jackets. I’ve never tried the short sleeves as I don’t really wear jersey dresses in hot weather.
• Neckline: on most of my makes I’ve actually used the neckline of a third Deer&Doe pattern, the Plantain tee-shirt (free), because it is a bit lower that the Ondee one. I’ve also used the V-neck of the Zephyr dress but definitely not my best technical achievement, oh well…
• Sewing technics: after years of sewing jersey with my sewing machine, I tried with an ovelocker and it’s just heaven!!! So so so much quicker! I still make all hems with a double-needle on the sewing machine though, and it takes me ages…

My latest version of the dress was sawn last week and I am in love again!!! After bad experiences with Ponte Roma, with has a perfect weight for this dress but which turns rather flimsy after a few washes, I went for this cotton jersey from The Sweet Mercercie, which I hope will look nice for longer – wait and see… The colour is pinky plum, exactly what I adore this season.

Appart from how comfortable these jersey dresses are, I love their versatility: they can be worn on their own but also with belts, cardis, jumpers, jackets. Mix and match is the order of play. Here are a few pictures of those different combinations – the cropped a cardis are from Boden and the jackets are Bernadette from Republique du Chiffon.

Belted:

With a cropped cardi:

With a matching Bernadette jacket:

Endless possibilities! (well, especially if you’ve sewn the same dress in all colours ot the rainbow).

In summary:

• Pattern: a combination of the Ondée cropper sweater, the Zéphyr skirt the Plantain tee-shirt neckline, all by Deer&Doe
• Fabric: any mid-weight jersey will do, my latest plum version is in this cotton jersey from The Sweet Mercercie. I’ve done many version in Ponte Roma but have been very disppointed by the quality after a few washes.
• Sewing difficulty: very easy, the hardest part for me is the double-needle hemming. This dress definitely convinced me of the usefulness of an overlocker though, it saves an immense amount of time!
• How much do I love it? Do you need to ask?

Although I wanted to sew something else, I just didn’t manage… I am definitely having a love affair with ruffles this year. I spent all summer adding them at the bottom of my dresses (as can be seen here), and all autumn at the top. Compulsive obsessive?

This time I tried to at least change the pattern used, instead of sewing yet another V-collar ruffled dresses (which I discussed here). I therefore got my Magellan blouse pattern out… and then neverthless reverted to my favourite… Oh well… Here it is: after the black and the pink versions, here come the blue one!

But enough is enough, let’s move to Magellan now! I ordered the pattern this spring, with the firm intention to sew (and wear) more separates, instead of focussing obsessively on dresses! After sewing two great Delphine & Morrissette blouses which were nevertheless never worn, I decided to give up. That is, until I realised that a blouse pattern is very easily convertible into a dress! Yes I know it took all this time…

I made the following changes to the Magellan pattern, to make it suit my taste:

• I doubled the width of the ruffle, to make it…well, ruffly! I definitely prefer large ruflfles to small ones;
• I made the shape of the blouse more triangular;
• I lenghtened the blouse to 65cm below the armpit, this results in quite a short dress (on my strandard) but given the shape I think it needs to be short;

And that’s it! Nothing hugely complicated.

The pattern itself is quite straightforward, you just need to be patient while ruffling as there is a lot to be done. The method indicated by Marie is the one I always use but I’m not sure it’s the quickest – sewing two line on a long stich and pulling on them. Any suggestions welcome!

Fabric-wise, more powder-pink I’m afraid. This one is a scuba crepe from The Sweet Mercerie (here), beautiful and which does not fray so no overcasting required, hurrah!

And here is the dress, all angles covered.

In Summary:

• Pattern: Aime Comme Magellan byAime Comme Marie
• Fabric: scuba crepe from The Sweet Mercerie
  
• How difficult? Very easy but you need to be VERY patient ruffling the ruffle… 
• Love factor? I live it a lot but not as much as the V-collar ruffle dress!