Pia party dress

Remember last post, I thought that I didn't need any party dresses. Well turns out I did need an other one. My sister and I are going out at new years eve and apparently a cocktail dress was required. The dress I made last year was pretty but not really a cocktail dress. So of course I made something else. I had some black pleated fabric in my stash and went out and bought some matching black silk. The pattern that I used is the Pia dress from la maison victor. To be honest when I first saw that dress in the magazine I was a bit pissed. I really liked the design but I felt that it was designed to sell there fabric collection because where else would you find a pleated fabric like the one they used? Turns out at the fabric sales in Rotselaar. And in black so that was even better because that made it easy to find a matching fabric. The dress is a fast make, not even a zip needed. The fit from La maison patterns is as always good, I made size 36. So that makes two items for the december theme for the social sew. 

Materials

main fabric: 12€ from the fabric sales

second fabric: silk 10€ from the fabric sales

pattern: Pia from La Maison Victor

Charlie skirt

Remember the bordeaux Pam blouse from earlier this year? That one was actually supposed to be part of an outfit. My aunt bought these two matching fabrics for me and my cousin. Of course it took me a year to start on the skirt. 
I couldn't decide what pattern to use, but eventually I settled for the charlie skirt from La Maison Victor. It is a nice A-line skirt with a pleat in the front and welt pockets. I made a size 38, I made the pleat a little bit deeper than what the patten called for. The fabric is a lovely wool from the fabric sales, but it is a thicker than most fabrics and I wanted to make sure the pleat stayed flat. 
I lined the skirt with a dark grey venezia lining. I just attached the lining to the facing that I made out of wool and I eliminated the pleat in the lining. Because of the thickness of the wool fabric I made the pocket out of lining fabric. The downside is that you can see the grey lining if the pocket gapes open. It would have been nicer if the lining was the same colour but they didn't have that in my local shop. All things considered I love the skirt. I like the way the skirt fits, A-line skirts are always flattering on my figure. The colour also goes great with the majority of my clothes. 

Details:
pattern: Charlie skirt, La Maison Victor
Fabric: the fabric sales, free
lining: venezia lining, local shop, 8€
zip: 2.65€

Silk Stella top

Glamour? Oh what to make... for Decembers Social Sew.

I'm not one to sew up a new dress for every holiday party. Even though I suggested this theme. I just don't have the time... And by the way do you remember what everyone wore last year? I don't. 

So this year I made a silk blouse to be worn with one of my RTW skirts. The Stella top is a pattern from the latest La Maison Victor magazine they used a satin fabric with 94% polyester and 6% elastane. I used a nicer (and cheaper) fabric with 96% silk and 4% elastane. The fabric is again from the fabric sales. They really do have a great selection of designer fabrics. 

I made a size 34 without any alterations. The blouse is supposed to be loose fitting and the patterns from La Maison Victor always fit me well. So I made the decision to start immediately with my nice fabric. I like the pattern a lot, but it is not one that I would use more than once. And the best thing is that it is something that can be finished in an afternoon. 

The nice thing with this blouse is that I could wear it more after the holidays, I'm thinking black jeans and a thick wool cardigan.  What are you wearing? Do you make something new for every occasion? 

Pattern: Stella top, La Maison Victor
Fabric: 96% silk 4% elastane from the fabric sales 30€

The quest for the perfect top: Donna blouse

I noticed during me made may that I hardly have any handmade separates. This blouse was the first attempt to try to find the perfect blouse for summer. It is not perfect. I liked the lose shape, the rolled up sleeves, the V-neck and the buttons. The fabric is a cheap coupon form the stoffenspecktakel, not an amazing quality. The stripes are not exactly printed on the grain, so that made it very difficult to match the stripes. 

The thing I don't like as much is the curved hem. It is nearly impossible to finish in a nice way. The neckline is also to low for my liking. The blouse looks nice with a pair of shorts in summer, styled casual.  But it is not something I would wear to work. 

The details:

Pattern: Donna Blouse La Maison Victor May/june 2016

Fabric: stoffenspecktakel €6

Buttons: free (grandmothers stach)

The best things twice

When I made my fist pair of Milly culottes I was unsure that I would ever wear them. Usually I'm never interested in trendy patterns, I prefer classic styles. When I made them the first time the idea was that if I never ended up wearing them I at least tried to make trousers for the first time. 

Little did I know that I would wear them to dead. I have worn them almost every week during the summer. They are so comfortable and the go with nearly everything. Like an A-line skirt without the impracticality of an actual skirt. The fabric of the first pair started to pill in the back and they where always a bit to large. So it was time for a new and improved pair!

The best improvement that I made was to chose nicer fabric. This is a nice black fabric from the fabric sales. I'm not sure what it is made of but it doesn't wrinkle at all. And it is black so these will go with even more of my clothes. I chose not to use elastic in the back like I did last time and I made them even smaller in the waist. 

The details:

Pattern: Milly Culottes La Maison Victor Jan/Feb 2016

Fabric: €24 The Fabric Sales

zip: €2.65

The hope cardigan

The first thing I realized during me-made may is that I don't have enough handmade separates. I have made a lot of dresses over the years but not so many tops. And almost no bottoms at all. So basics are much needed. I didn't really know what to make. I wear a lot of long sleeved blouses at the moment but I don't really needed more of them. Trousers would have been an option, if I had more time. I hope I have more time to work on that during my summer break. So what it make? I'm participating again in Allie's social sew I like the concept a lot, an inspiring theme but not to constricting. This month it is me made basics in honour of Me made may.

So I made the hope cardigan from La Maison Victor. A nice easy to make bat-sleeved cardigan. The fabric came form my stash I bought it at a local fabric store. It is a white, navy knit with a bright blue glittering thread running trough. You can see it on the last photo. The navy blue border knit comes from my grandmothers drawer of border knits. I matches the dark blue from the main fabric perfect.

The cardigan was a fast make. I did everything according to the directions except that I turned the collar piece inside-out. And I had the collar run through to the bottom edge instead of cutting it of with the bottom edge of knit ribbing.  

It ended up being a great make for me made may. I have worn the cardigan already a few times. The nice things about this cardigan are the bat-wing sleeves, it means that you can wear them over anything. 

Main fabric:         30€ - Den Boom 

navy ribbing:       free (grandmothers stash)

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.

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? 

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. 

Harlequin dress

Okay today I have got for you the easiest dress that I have ever made. It all started with too little fabric... sounds familiar doesn't it. I bought a coupon of a meter of a very nice wool blend, in dark purple and navy, my two favourite colours. I again had the intention to make a skirt, again. But my grandmother told me that the fabric was woven to loosely to be suitable for a skirt. 

So I used the Harlequin pattern from La Maison Victor, the only dress that you can make with just one meter of fabric. It is the ideal dress pattern for beginners. You have to stitch the sides, the shoulders , add facing to the neckline and sleeves and hem it. They also have an explanation of how to attach bais binding, you have the option depending on your fabric choice. I finished it in a few hours, so it was brilliant. 

To be honest I didn't tink I was going to wear this dress at all, let alone blog about it. It just looks so shapeless on the hanger. But I have worn it a lot, whenever I don't know what to wear I just pick this dress. And that is always a pleasant surprise! The colours go well with nearly all of my clothes and it looks and fits so easy and relaxed. I love the  kimono sleeves, it makes the silhouette a bit more interesting.