The summer has been lingering on, bliss. On the one hand it slightly killed in the egg my enthusiasm for autumn sewing… so you’ll have to wait a bit longer for completed projects here. But the big positive is that I’ve been able to wear again the dresses I saw in the spring, using the great book  “Sew many dresses, sew little time” by Tanya Whelan. This book is an absolute gold mine for whoever is after the perfect fit for hand-made dresses: FBA, SBA, shoulder adjustments, lenght adjustments and much more – everything is covered!

I stumbled upon it while I was looking for something else on Amazon – how very typical – and it has been an absolute sewing reveletation!

I am a fan of vintage dresses with a fitted bodice and a floating skirt and this book offers multiple possible combinations: with 12 bodice, 9 neckline, 9 skirt and 5 sleeve options, you would need an entire life to sew them all – or at least a full year! As I tend to wear self-drafted pleated or circle skirts, the bodices are of most interest to me. Here are my favourites, directly from the book.

Not only does Tanya give you patterns for all the bodices you could ever want; but even more importantly she explains in details all the adjustments you need to make to reach a perfect fit. I always hated started on a new top pattern, as I knew it would take me hours to do the FBA, without any guarantee of results – but not any more!! A few points which I found particularly interesting and which I was getting definitely wrong:

– the bust and waist darts’ ends should not sit on the nipple but 1 inch/ 2.5cm away from it – that’s why this bit was always at a funny angle!

– most patterns are drafted on a B-cup bra size, you need to add 1/2 inch or 1.3cm for each extra cup… I definitely thought far less…

In conclusion, once I had read the book, cut and re-cut the pattern in all directions, made three mulsins, I ended-up with a nearly perfect fit, so pleasing!! In pictures, my beloved banana dress:

I am over the moon with the bodice fit: the lenght is perfect, the waist fit is perfect, there is just a little bit to much fabric around the bust but hardly visible to the uninformed eye.

For the skirt, I made clever calculations to get a decent number of pleats on the 130cm width of fabric I had, without the pleats being too narrow either. A 150cm-wide fabric would have given more volume but I quite like it like that, especially with a midi lenght.

For the back, I put a (very very) visible zipper, because those bananas were really shouting for It! As a bonus I did not have to bother about banana pattern-matching when I cut the fabric.

Next time, I have to show you Banana Dress sister, the Little Swimmers’ dress!

Filled with enthusisam after my last article (and the high expectations it generated in the sewing community I’m sure…), I finally started sewing my autumn wardrobe. First on my list: a mini skirt/ Lexi Top set, in a silver brocart fabric from Bennytex.

I already sew a similar set last year, also in a brocart fabric by Bennytex, but red! – so a completely different look. I loved it and wore it a lot, despite its… well, high visibility!

Therefore, I without hesitation sew exactly the same thing again – only in a different fabric! Within a few hours, it was a job done!

The Lexi Top de Named is so easy to sew: four pieces of fabric, no zipper, no buttons, no lining, no FBA needed! But beware: it is extremely short! I am only 1m68 (5ft6) and I had to lenghten the body ad the sleeves by 3cm, following  BMade’s wise words.

As for the skirt, I copied it from a Sandro (far too short) one I bought last winter. It was my first successful attempt to copy a garment I had bought, and I was so pleased with myself that I reused the pattern a few times. It is a pretty straightforward model to make, except (maybe) for the invisible zipper – I put it on the side in case it was not so invisible after all, but it’s all fine and could have been at the back.

In case you were wondering, this set is definitely for everyday wear – Mr Mignon initially thought I had just sewn evening wear but definitely not! I wear a lot of black in the winter so a bit of bling will be very welcome. Also, the set does not look so dressy when worn with black tights and a long-sleeves black (thermal) body. The skirt is also perfect on its own, worn with a black top and a leather jacket.

Overall, I am delighted! My next project for myself is a mid-season coat, but I’m afraid my selfish sewing is going to get interrupted by the necessity of making new dresses for my girls, who have both largely outgrown their existing wardrobe… as they do every year!

After two months spent in the sun sewing and wearing solely shirred dress, it is about time to start thinking about my autumn wardrobe! Ideas and patterns are all but lacking, I just need to get a bit organised – and find time to sit down at my sewing desk!!

My summer and winter wardrobes are highly differentiated, so much so that one stays in a box while the other one is out. In the spring and summer, I waer mostly short sleeve or sleeveless dresses, in cotton or other light fabric; while in the autumn and winter, I get cold so easily that I need warm fabrics: wool, scuba, ponte roma…

On the fabric front, I took the opportunity of two months in France to order online a huge amount of wintery fabric from Bennytex and Les Coupons Saint Pierre, two favorites of French sewing bloggers. Not that they don’t deliver in the UK but any excuse is good…

On this basis, here are my sewing projects for the winter – we’ll see what gets done…

1/ A Lexi Top / mini skirt matching set, in a silver jacquard fabric from Bennytex

Last winter I combined the Lexi Top by Named with a self-drafted mini skirt, in a red dotted jacquard fabric from Bennytex. The stifness of the fabric makes the skirt really stand out; and I love being coordinated! So I wore this set a lot. I am very tempted to replicate it in this stunning silver jacquard, from Bennytex too.

2/ A (wearable) black and white jacquard Emery dress robe Emery en jacquard animaux noir et blanc Ben

The Emery dress by Christiane Haynes is one of my favourite long-sleeved dress patterns, even more so with a circle or a pleated skirt. I alread sew view B in this funky black and white jacquard from Bennytex. But big mistake: I sew the zipper on the side, which make the dress very difficult to put on and nearly impossible to taker off… So the next version with a zipper at the back, as instructed by wise(r than me) Christiane Haynes…

3/ A light 3/4 coat with a shawl collar, in a white and black wool 

I bought this wool online from Coupons Saint Piere, with nothing precise in mind. When I received it, its soft textre made me think of making a Madawan Cardigan – and then why not transform it into a mid-lenght coat with a belt!

4/ A sweater dress in a wool sweater fabric

I love sweater fabric and I adore wool for the winter, so I just could not miss this opportunity of getting this one from Coupons Saint Pierre. I definitely will make a dress out of it but I still hesitate between reproducing one of my old dresses, which has become to short; or transforming the Granite Sweater by Dessine Moi Un Patron into a dress, reducing its width and putting a belt. Thinking in progress…

5/ More accessories in artificial leather

I just adore those artificial leather fabrics – the silver one in particular reminds me of Issey Miyake handbags. I already saw two small pouches for my girls in the summer and got over-excited by the speed of these projects and how good they looked!! So more of these to come!

And that’s about it for my autumn sewing projects for myself. What about yours?

As my regular readers will by now have understood, I am a complete Citronille addict!  As a result, my girls have been amply supplied with Citronille summer dresses, mainly in Liberty fabric, over the past few years. Here is a review of what they’ve been wearing this year (probably our last year of Liberty outfits, as they enter teenagerhood… bouhouhouh…).

Among the wide Citronille pattern selection, I mostly sew girls’ dresses (oups, let’s just not mention my Balthazar addiction here…). I find the Citronille dress patterns particularly appropriate for pre-teenager girls, as they are classical but not overly so, adjusted but not too much for a changing body, confortable for active kids. What more to say?

I have intensively used the book “Les Nouveaux Intemporels pour Enfants ”. All patterns are very straightforward technically and the size fit is perfect (I use the same sizes that I would buy in shops). So from this book, the girls’ (extensive) wardrobe includes:

the little dress with ruffled sleeves, #1

the little dress with ruffled sleeves, #2

the little dress with a ruffled collar, #1

the little dress with a ruffled collar, #2

and not in pictures unfortunatley, many shirt versions of each! Oh, and this one is not a dress but I do have pictures so let’s indulge!

the little lady’s bag, bananas and japanese versions

Of course, I have also been sewing from individual Citronille patterns – why not? From these, we have:

the Albertine dress, hacked to make it sleeveless, as explained here

 the Solange dress, quite disappointing size-wise (I had to sew a size 16yo for my 12yo, unheard of!)

and the Primerose dress, perfectly sized and straightforward, and so pretty with it buttonned collar!

So now it’s time to start sewing the girlls’ handmade automn wardrobe! (along with mine of course…)