le mani d'oro

I think that a long time ago I mentioned that I really love Neu4baeur a blog owned by Thea, the most charming German woman I have never met :-). Thea is also linked to Pinterest, a site where members pin on a numerical bulletin board, things they love. Clear as mud ?? take a look at the site, you will understand and fall in love with lots of items and members as well.

So the link with Pink ... ?? Thea posted on her blog the drawing of a magnificent Pink (with a big P because it is so Pink) raincoat. Ohh, I am always or almost always dressed in Black. I am tired of it. I want colours. I want a Pink raincoat like this one. It would be so beautiful with the dress and jacket I am working on.

What do you think. Do you like Pink ? Where can I fin that fabric ???????? OH lala, I have a perfect pattern for it in Burda.

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I was already tempeted to quilt the lining to my dress, Rosy's comment convinced me to at least give it a try. I already have a walking foot. So today is testing day. I will post pictures later today with my first samples.

see you later !


This is the results of my first tests:

I finished cutting and marking all pieces for my dress (V8146). The top part is cut in left of over crepe use for a previous project (pants for DS). The lining pieces are also cut. Since this bouclé is very soft and thin, I know that I will be quilting the lining to the jacket pieces, but my question is: "Should I quilt the lining to the dress as well?" Has one of you ever done that? Oh big question.

I know that Birgitte, the author of the so excellent blog Bubblegum4Breakfast had done it on a skirt (lucky daughter to have such a generous and talented mother) Here is the interior look of the skirt


The result is wonderful. Anything Birgitte does is wonderful, anyway. If it works on a skirt. Why not doing it on a dress? I will give it a try on scrap of fabric and then decide.

What do you think?

My lining is not silk charmeuse. I don't think my fabric was worth enough for that. I use a beautiful serged bemberg lining that will do the trick.

At first glance, there is no link between the two activities. Well, in my life there is. All week, I run. Run in the morning to get my son and I ready in the morning, I run during the day to get all my work done (universities in Quebec are chronically understaffed) and I run at night not to arrive to late at home to prepare dinner. By the time I am done cleaning, verifying my son's home work and putting him to be it is well past 21 h... There is no way that I have enough energy to sew. I read about sewing, blog about it, read your blogs, think about current or future sewing project, discuss with my beloved one and run to bed exhausted of my days. This week was even worst. 50 hours of work... last night I was on the floor.


With that description, you would never think that my weekend physical activity is running. Well it is. This week was so crazy that I did not have energy to train. In my point of view, training, even just a little bit, is essential to keep my mind and body sane. It relaxes me, it makes me more focused, it improves my muscular tone and that is important to be able to sew long hours. See, everything in life is linked. So the program for today, jogging, exercise with my Swiss ball, free weigh lifting (6 pounds only), shower, super breakfast and the cherry on the sundae... SEWING my dress.

It is 7 degrees Celsius. Perfect temperature for a jog.



See you later !

During lunch time, I love to look at the designers creations on Style.com. I select one and watch the fashion show as I eat my lunch

As I was watching over Jason Wu's Spring 2011 collection, it made me think of a superb outfit I saw with Hermes.

En lunchant, j'aime bien regarder des défilés de mode sur Style.com. Je me laisse inspirer en dégustant mes petits plats.

Ce midi, j'ai été frappé par la ressemblance de looks, l'un de Jason Wu et l'autre de Hermès. Voici mes impressions

Hermès
Un look décontracté composé d'une vest safari, d'un short de cuir et des chaussures déclinées sur le thème de la spartiate version courte et plus fermée.

Relax look with a Saharian vest, leather shorts and roman inspired open shoes.

Jason Wu

Plus chic et structurée, la veste aux poches plaquées épouse à la fois de ligne Chanel et le look Prince de Galles donné par le tissus. Le short de soie, les sandales hautes et la blouse à large boucle donne le ton définitivement plus féminin à cet ensemble.

More structured, more chic, this vest reminds me with of Chanel because of it's pockets with a British touch given by the Prince of Wales fabric. The high shoes, the silk short and the blouse are definitely more feminine.

Which one do you prefer ?? I vote for Hermès... Lequel préférez-vous ?? Pour ma part, je penche pour la version Hermès.

What attracts us to a movie my vary from time to time. An article written, a word from a friend, a trailer watched on the net or the beauty of the costumes are all possible reasons to be wanting to see a movie.

In the present case, I simply fell in love for the picture of Robert Pattisson sitting beside the elephant while wearing a tuxedo. Then, I looked up the site during my lunch hour. Lovely costumes ! I love the stripped top with the white skirt and the beret... Inspiring images. That's it.

I don't know how you proceed to correct your pattern from muslin adjustments but this is how I have learned it with Elisabeth Dionne, my favourite sewing teaching of all time.


1. I mark over the pins with marker on muslin or chalk on fashion fabric.


2. Do it on both sides


3. If you work with a muslin you can flatten it well on your work plan, superimpose your pattern on top (don't forget that seam allowance are in extra on the side) and retrace the new line on paper.




4. If you work with fashion fabric, bast over the chalk lines, rip the seam in that zone, lay it flat, correct the paper and then sew on the new seam line indicted by your contrasting baste line.

5. After enlarging the hip area and making the bust zone narrower this is what my pattern looked like. I took off 3.6 cm in the bust area and added 2.4 at the hips.






















6. The back of the dress also required corrections. In my point of view the sway back correction is a tricky one ,when the back line is initially curved. Over lapping the paper to shorted the back accentuates the back curve. You then have to straiten it or reshape it similarly to its original curve. Don't forget to redraw the grain line in the lower part of your dress (under the correction) and straiten your dart




The final look of my pattern pieces is the following one.


Now before cutting the fashion fabric I have to decide if I use the underlining - Hong Kong finish in one step as explained here by Laura. Since my dress is fitted, the bottom part at least should be like that. The top will be different. Probably with a regular technique that consist on attaching the lining to the facing.

I thank Sue for her pattern suggestion. She had suggested the Simplicity 2404 pattern to make my dress. since I decided on having the black piece above my chest, I finally stay with my initial pattern choice. Never the less, the Simplicity option will be in my next project for sure.

Today was muslin fitting day. Oh my, am I ever happy to have done a muslin. I usually cut my pattern with the following combinations of sizes: size 10 for the chest, size 6 for the waist and size 8 for the hips. This time it did not work as well as usual though the finished size indicated on the pattern matched my plan.

Here is the result with my comments on the pictures. Click to see better.

For the front I have to cut at least one size smaller for the top front part. I have 1.5 cm to take off. Keep in mind that I was looking for a close to very close fitting for this dress. The the breast area needs to be tighten, the waist is fine and the hips... need one size bigger.

For fitting the back, DH helped me. Please don't laugh at his fabric pinching in the neck area ;-)) This is far from being his favourite activity.Note here that I need to correct the neckline ... Don't worry, it will be more symmetrical. He is really kind to help me. I will not complain. As usual, I should have made a sway back correction... and maybe take fabric off in the centre back or deepen the dart. Hips need to be a bit enlarged. This pattern did not have volumes as other have. This is strange.

The neckline was higher initially. I should have left it where is was. Next time I will correct that after fitting ;-) I had made this correction after I read comments on Pattern Review that it was too big. What is good for Jane is not necessarily good for me. Corrections and cutting fabric will be done today.