The Story of Not Enough Fabric

I cannot believe how quickly we lost summer and how suddenly the weather changed from nice and warm mornings and days to chilly in the morning and okay during the day. That being said, I actually like autumn. No risk of sunburn, no more mosquitoes and I can start layering and wearing little boots and tights.

This year I feel I really started sewing autumn clothes as early as beginning of September, so when the temperatures went down, I already had a new autumn dress and have planned a new autumn coat. I know that I have sewn two mid-season coats in spring, but actually the black one really needs replacing. There are too many things bothering me, so even though I wore it almost every day, I know that I need a new one. I already have my pattern printed out and both, shell and lining fabric bought and pre-washed, but I did not start sewing yet. But... when I went to buy the lining, I found a piece of this gorgeous 80% wool which I just could not leave behind.
I tried to inspect the fabric and I would say it is some kind of jersey, but it does not stretch, like at all, so honestly, no idea what it is. I just know that it is very soft and I love the colors.

So I temporarily forgot the planned black coat and set to sewing a green cosy one. I wanted to have something different from my usual "Kate Middleton style". The big cosy coats appeared in a few Burdas I own, as well as in some other magazines. Honestly, hunting for the right pattern was much easier than anything else; and for once, I will have something right in fashion :)
I have found 5 patterns quite similar to each other and chosen the n°19/23 from last year's Fashion Style. It had the perfect lapels, side pockets and the right size.
I traced out the size 34, hoping that the oversized will compensate for that, eliminated the pleats on the sleeves (honestly, I do not need that additional volume), sewed a muslin, taken away another 3cm on each side and adjusted for my height, as usual.

I was totally right to do that because I realized that I did not have enough fabric. Or almost. Or did I ? Well, I only bought a coupon of 1,5m (actually, they had a coupon of 3m, which I asked to cut and they do not do cuts bigger than the half). And honestly, there was some serious pattern tetrising. I had to cut one of the facings in 2 pieces, which you can barely see, because the seam just blends in the busy fabric. The side pockets are also cut from a piece of black cotton-silk. Once I was so happy with myself that everything got cut out, I realized that I did not account for the waistband. At that point of time I only had a few scraps, so I got to some serious piecing. Again, the fabric hides a lot of seams, so I managed to obtain a waistband of 1,3m which is enough for me. And I think that the only remnant I have now is a piece of fabric of a few square centimeters.

I interfaced the fabric with a quite light fusible vliselin which helped a lot to keep the body of the fabric. I must say that it frayed like crazy, so I zigzagged all the internal stitches, even though I usually do not do that.

And then, the same story happened with the lining. I used barely a 1m remnant of black silk lining, no piecing required here, but only a few little scraps remaining.

Once the cutting adventure was behind me, the sewing was pretty straightforward.
No special closing, I just sewed a little press button to keep the waistband attached to the coat, so as not to lose it, but in the end, I prefer it without the waistband.

Double Gauze Dress

This dress is a mix of controversies for me.

First, let's start with the fabric. I know that double gauze has become extremely popular with in-style sewists lately. I was not attracted to it so much, but found a coupon of this black double gauze with little golden dots during the summer sales at Marché St.Pierre. I think I paid maybe 4 euros for a little more than 1 meter of fabric, so I figured out I could at least try to sew something with it.

Sewing with double gauze was a first one and an interesting one, I must admit. They tell you everywhere that you should iron the fabric properly, which I could only to on the fabric reverse. The little dots melted under direct heat, so I had to be very careful with them. Apart from that, the fabric behaved properly, so I did not have any difficulties. Of course, it frays like mad, so I used French seams everywhere and did a baby hem.

Second, the pattern. When you google double gauze dress, all you can see are casual dresses, mostly large - just a style I do not wear at all. Then, I saw McCalls 7381 sewn by one of my favourite bloggers and thought that was the right one. And that's where I discovered that McCall's is now offering pdf patterns! I mean - WHAT?!?!?! Since when did the Big4 entered the 21st century. So even though the pdf pattern was more expensive than the paper one, with freight costs I usually pay from the US, I bought the pdf for the instant gratification.
The printing went ok, the pages are well numbered, so I could only print out the pages which were related to my version of the dress. However, the pages did not always fit together perfectly, or I did not understand everything.
Anyhow, I managed to trace out the pattern, muslin the top part and got to sewing.

I had to pay attention on not to overfit the dress. I tend to do this, already because I like fitted dresses, but with this pattern and this fabric, I wanted to keep it casual.

And I think it really works well together. It makes for a different dress, but I can see myself taking it to work on Fridays.

La Maison Victor - Again

I have this strange relationship with LaMasionVictor patterns. I have sewn a few of them, always with a big success. However, anytime I buy their magazine, I feel like cheating on Burda and like I am a sewing beginner. The patterns are always rather easy and simple, so in terms of sewing challenge, I do not feel like getting enough of it, but the result is always great, so I somehow continue to sewing some LMV patterns.

In addition, the magazine contains way less patterns than Burda and way too many instructions.

The morality: I continue sewing from La Maison Victor and enjoying my makes. Case in point: The dress Silia from the last issue.

When I saw the magazine on the newstands, I really liked this pattern. It is a jersey dress, but larger than usual and with an interesting twist. Also, I had just found a cute black cotton jersey with little white triangles which was rather similar to the one in the magazine. So it was meant to be.

The twist was kind of a puzzle, I do not think I have understood the way how it is really constructed, but I followed the instructions and it all ended up just right: not many adjustments done, apart from my usual "petite" shortening of the bodice (to make sure my twist ended up on the right place) and narrowing the shoulders.

The dress has become one of my favourites for the season: it is a real secret pyjama, extremly comfy, but still looking professional enough.

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.