bordeaux Pam blouse

I'm that pale that I glow in the sunshine. 

I'm still trying to hold up to my pledge for Me-Made-May. To be honest it is not easy. But more on that in the next post where I show you a lot of selfies. 

I almost forgot this blouse, I made it a while ago. I tried to take photos 3 times, first time I forgot the trousers that I wanted to wear with the blouse. And the other photos where to over exposed. These are not great either but I'm not going to take them an other time. The pattern is a great a very classic style with the ties in the neckline. It is the Pam blouse form La Maison Victor. 

I made a size 36 without any alterations. That size always fits me well in their patterns. 

The fabric is some kind of polyester blend. The fabric pressed really well and I was able to achieve a great finish. The best top stitching I have ever done. Maybe slightly to stiff, now I'm looking at the photos. I got a nice wool fabric in the same colour as the blouse that I'm going to use for a skirt. But those are plans for next winter.

Me-Made-May

I almost forgot to post about my participation for Me-Made-May. 

'I, Nathalie from Nathalie Sews, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '16. I endeavour to wear one handmade item each day for the duration of May 2016'

Last year I participated as well and I really liked it, it helped me a lot with finding out what I like to wear. And also with realising that I don't always sew the clothes that I wear most of the time. I don't care that much, I don't endeavourer to make an entire handmade wardrobe. Sewing is a hobby it should stay fun as well. I'm thinking about doing a weekly or biweekly update. 

Black and white Ivy dress

I started working on this dress in December of last year. I ran out of seasonally appropriated fabrics so I decided to work on a summers dress. I cut out the fabric but never started sewing. It was way to cold to even think about a summer dress, so I left it until I came across the social sew hosted by Allie J. The dress I had planned fitted perfectly within the spring shower theme and it gave me the motivation to (finally) start sewing. It is still way to cold to wear it but at least it is ready to wear when the weather turns nice. 

I bought the fabric quite a while ago at the stoffen spektakel. Because of the print I never knew what to make form it. I wanted a dress but nothing with a seam at the waist breaking up the pattern. Most patterns that didn't have a horizontal seam at the waist had vertical darts and I didn't want that either. 

So when I saw this pattern in La Maison Victor I knew it was perfect for this pattern. As always I made a size 36. The only thing I did different are the slits in the side seams. I have rather wide hips and I could not get the dress over my hips. Because I didn't want to put the dress on and off by stepping in to it, I choose to make two slits. 

I love the low back but unfortunately it does show my bra strap at some moments. In the first photo it doesn't show but you can see it in the one below. I should find a solution for this, probably buy one of those extender straps that wrap around your waist.  

I tried to pattern match the fabric at the sides. But It didn't work well because the fabric was not symmetric. I folded the fabric in half there where the print was the narrowest. I put pins in the fabric after it was folded at the border of the print but the print didn't match. Nothing I could do about that. So I just centred the print in the front and the back, and didn't bother with the sides. One side looks good, the other one not so. The fabric was really cheap, 10€ for a coupon of 1,5 m. Maybe to be expected?

Now I just hope it gets warm enough soon so that I can wear it. It was so cold when I took those photos. 

Dusty top

The second piece in my spring sewing spree! You might have seen it already in my previous post about the Milly culotte. I was not planning on writing a separate post, but I like it so much that it deserves  its own post. It is the dusty top by La Maison Victor. I love the asymmetric design with all the pleats at the shoulder.

I already made this pattern once, this one. The fabric was a bit to thick and the neckline to low. So I made alterations. Razed the neckline with 3 cm It was not as easy to do that because the pattern is not cut on the fold. Because of the pleats at the one shoulder the pattern is not symmetric. After a few tries to get it even I folded the facing pattern and drew a new higher neckline on the facing pattern. Once I got the new facing piece I used that to altered the front pattern piece. I also narrowed the waist a little bit, I lost some weight recently and I didn't want it to be to loose. The pleats on the shoulder make it full on the top and I wanted to balance it out a bit. 

I guess the fabric is a polyester blend of some sort. The right side is a shiny very smooth, the wrong side is mat and coarser but nice to wear. 

This top is rapidly becoming one of my most worn handmade items. The colour goes with nearly everything I own. I never know what to wear during spring. It is often to cold to wear a skirt without tights and I'm to stubborn to wear them in spring.  So it is lovely to have a new top to wear with my trousers. 

Milly culottes

It has been already about a month since my last post, I made a lot. I just have not had the time te make photos. You can expect a lot of spring clothes coming up on the blog in the next few weeks. One of them I even started during winter break. 

But the first one to show you all are these cullotes.

I know culottes are supposed to be trendy, but I still had my doubts. I used to wear them as a child when they where just called pant-skirts or skirt-trousers, and I wasn't sure how flattering they would be. The Milly trousers are rather long, a not very flattering length on most people.

But I made them anyway! They just look great in the magazine and I wanted to sew something else, not a dress for once. I wanted to learn how to sew trousers and thought these would be great to begin with. They are trousers but because the fit is so lose getting them to fit properly is not as difficult as 'proper' trousers. I made a size 38 based on my measurements but they ended up way to big. I took them in by 8 cm in total at the waist! The reason for this was probably a combination of a slight stretch in my fabric and the pattern calls for elastic in the back waist band. I didn't feel like elastic, I mean, If I'm going to make my own clothes I can just as well make them fit nicely without. I interfaced the waistband pieces and attached it in the same way as instructed but without the elastic.

With the length as it was designed they cut my calves in half and it was not flattering at all. I got my mum to pin them at different lengths while I stood on the table. The best length for me was just below the knee. It was long enough to make them look like a skirt but short enough to be flattering. 

I have no idea what kind of fabric it is, it is heavy, flowy and doesn't crease at all. It is a woven fabric but it has a bit of give to it. That also means that it doesn't press well. It wasn't a problem with the construction of the pants, the pleats and so. But It was horrible for the waistband. The end result looks nice but not as crisp as they could have been. 

The weather has been way to cold to wear them yet. But I look forward to wearing them. I just don't know which shoes to wear with them. I like the high heels but they are not very practical. What do you think? 

Bea dress in black and white wool

Because I like to wear my harlequin dress so much I realised that I needed more casual dresses. I didn't want to use the same pattern again. For once I did buy enough fabric so I needed to take advantage of that. The fabric comes form the fabric sales in Rotselaar. You still can buy it online here. The fabric is absolutely gorgeous, so soft and warm and not itchy at all. I find most wool fabrics much to itchy to wear on my skin but this one is just fine. 

I made the bea dress form La maison victor, it is a casual fit designed to be made up in wool. For once I did as I was told. Only I was supposed to line the dress and I didn't. The wool was just so soft that I didn't feel like doing that. It is supposed to be a casual dress anyway. It was described as casual and oversized. I'm always a bit weary when I see the word oversized, I like the style but I often feel that they are way to big form my figure. I started by making the size 34 instead of my usual size 36. I also lengthened the dress with 8 cm. I had the feeling that the dress would be rather short on me, I'm 1m70. Those 8cm are just right for me. 

I love that the side seam of the dress is not at the side but slightly more to the front of the dress. And it has pockets, also a bonus in a casual dress. They are set in the side seams but because they are more to the front of the dress, they are very practical. I also like the wide sleeves. It does make the dress look a bit more shapeless. The look of the dress really relies on your posture, just look at the difference between the first and second foto. 

But because I didn't line the dress it does stick to my tights, and doesn't slide over my bum. Lesson learned I guess the lining must have been there for a reason. I'm going to solve this problem by making a slip dress to wear underneath. I have seen so many lovely vintage slips on pinterest. I guess they are just one of those things that we don't wear any more these days. 

The third version of the Lora dress

My third version of the Lora dress after the little black dress and the party dress here comes the cosy and warm wool version. It is the third one so I don't have a lot to say about the construction. I didn't add pockets because the fabric is rather stiff and because the dress is so fitted I never put anything in them anyway. 

The fabric is from the fabric sales in Rotselaar I went with my aunt, cousin and grandmother. I had never been before, but it was definitely worth it, al lot of gorgeous designer fabrics, mostly wool. Perfect because I need a lot more warm clothes, it is so cold at work. I loved the grey in to blue fadeout. My cousin and I both liked it so we bought 3.5 meters. For the two dresses. 

My cousin and I liked a lot of the same fabric. And we also like the same patterns... so we are going to have identical dresses! My grandmother and aunt used to sew identical clothes for my cousin, sister and me when we where little.  She tried on my Christmas party dress, and we concluded that we are the same size but because she is shorter then I am the bodice and skirt needed to be shortened. No need to trace the pattern in a different size for her! My aunt bribed me in to cutting out her dress as well. Who can say no to free fabric? 

What I learned by making this dress is how much of a difference fabric can make. I used the exact same pattern in the exact same size. But somehow  this dress is a lot smaller than my other dresses. I can get it on... but hardly move in it. It is just to constructing in the shoulder area ( you can see how tight it is in the last photograph). So that is to bad because I really love how it looks. I wore it once to the new years reception at work but I know that I will probably not wear it again.