Surprise Casual Jacket

I truly still do not know why I am not sewing jackets more often because honestly, it does not take much more time than a lined dress.

Like this one - whipped in just a few days. Ok, so it is no tailored jacket but it was not the aim either. Actually, I never planned this kind of jacket, it just came in a thought of a moment.

It all started with the fabric: I did not buy this fabric, it has been passed to me by my mum. Truth to be said, my mum used to sew when I was a kid, but stopped years ago. However, she still kept buying fabrics and having some of her clothes sewn. When she moved to a new place a year ago, she found a few fabrics never used and gave them to me. There were only 4 coupons and mostly in colours totally not suitable for me, but I kept them for muslins (or maybe for a surprise x-mas present for my mum...).

But then, I saw this black fabric with little turquoise freckles, put it on myself and and thought that it could actually work for a little casual jacket/cardigan. And once the idea was in my head, I was sure I had to sew it - I had nothing to lose, the fabric was free.

I used a pattern from and old Simplicity magazine which I have always liked but never got sewn.

The fabric was free but not the easiest to work with. It is of unknown origin (probably some poly) and rather transparent, so I had to stabilize it: I used some black fusible interfacing on all the pieces and in addition interfaced it with some black cotton-silk on the body. The fabric remained fluid, but got stiffer and was much easier to sew with.
The jacket is fully lined, so I could use up some remnants of black silk lining (the sleeves are actually from a different fabric, but that is ok).

I traced size 36 as I do not know Simplicity magazine sizing. The muslin looked ok, even though I could maybe take away a few cm around the armscye. The sewing went without any major problems and I think the result is quite nice. I was surprised I did not have many issues with the shoulders/sleeves, as the sleeves are one-piece only.

Of course, I prefer the jacket casually open.

The Summer Dress Serie - The Last One

And probably the most successful pattern of this summer because I sewed it twice and wore both of them MANY times.

I usually do not check all the sewing magazines to decide whether to buy them or not, I only follow Burda's previews. However, a few of the bloggers I follow do an overview on the new collections - mostly on the Big4, but also Burda and sometimes others. So I need to thank Couture en coulisse for having sewn the Bella dress from La Maison Victor. Of course, by that time the magazine was no longer available in France, but I loved the pattern so much that I ordered the magazine.

I do not think there is something difficult on this dress, even the back opening is rather smooth to sew, so I will not go into much detail.

First, I sewed the dress in a remnant of red viscose, as a dress to be worn at home. And it has really become my home dress of this summer, cool enough to go out to the supermarket or a short walk outside. Here, I followed the pattern and used a facing.

The second one is in a very light black silk chiffon which sit in my stash for almost two years as I was looking for the right pattern. The silk was rather transparent, so I used it in two layers. Therefore, I used one layer as lining on the bodice and there was no need to use an additional facing and the dress is sooo nicely finished that you do not see a single seam on the bodice.

I really love the back opening, as it still hides my bra, while being cute and not too much. The dress is large enough to be light and breezy, but it still works well with jackets. Not mentioning that black goes with everything.

So, I am still little bit sceptical on the quality of LaMaisonVictor patterns - the tracing out is rather painful (compared to Burda!) and the magazine is really aimed to less experienced sewists, but I have since bought another number (and sewed another LMV dress), so maybe I will end up really liking them. Also, they consistently add men's and kid's patterns in the magazines, so it enables me to expand my pattern library (and maybe once sewing something for my man as well)

Summer Dress Serie - The Navy One

I wanted a navy dress for our little week-ends at the sea. However, I did not have a chance to wear it yet, it was finished before our big vacation and we did not have a free week-end yet. So maybe later this month.

Anyhow, this dress was a simple and quick one. I used the true and tested Cara dress from La Maison Victor, only with short sleeves this time. I used a dark navy ponte and that is about it.

Originally, I wanted to keep the dress as is, but I ended up putting the white rick rack as decoration.

I do not think there is really much more to say about this dress, but since it was part of my summer serie, so it is better to publish it now and not in two years :)

Hats for Vacation

I love hats, any hats basically - small, big, summer, winter, I am just so sad that hats are longer a standard accessory, as it was the case still in the 60s. In winter it keeps you warm and protects you hair; in summer it keeps my face in the shade and my scalp from getting burnt.

So when we decided to go on summer vacation to Peru, I read everywhere that the sun is actually very strong over there. Even though we went there during their "winter" season, it is important to note that the country is very close to equator and most of it is in high altitudes which means that the sun becomes even stronger. Which, for my Celtic skin meant: good sunscreen, glasses and hats are obligatory. But then, travelling with hats is not the simplest one, ideally, I would need fabric hats which I can fold in my little suitcase and take them whenever needed. Also, I wanted little bit of variety and it needs to go with rather autumn travel clothes, so sewing them would be the best option, as usual, lol.

Once I decided to sew them, I had to find the right pattern for my bucket hat. And while there are a few of them for kids, finding an adult bucket hat pattern was not so easy. I had found one at OliverS, but when trying to understand the paper pattern, the pieces did not fit right.
When I was getting desperate, I looked through the last Burda magazine (June 2019) and saw a pattern for exactly what I wanted. I traced the pattern out and sewed a quick muslin from a very stiff fabric and I got excited by the result. For my vacations buckets, I only had to shorten the brim slightly and extend the diameter (yes, I have a large head and this is probably the only measurement, I have to extend).

In the end, I sewed up two bucket hats in coordinating fabrics. I used a little scrap of the brown plain fabric and found a corresponding colored one in my local quit shop. The red/grey one was entirely from new fabrics. However, half-meter was largely sufficient, so no additions to my stash needed.

Verdict: the hats got worn almost everyday during our vacation and I was really happy to have them, I did not get burnt one single time and my hairdresser said my hair was not damaged at all when I came back.