le mani d'oro

I spent sometime today on Ze Sartorialist blog as dinner was being cooked in the oven... I candidly listen to this video and really flipped over two affirmations:

1. Paying 8 000$ for a coat !!!

2. Having over 300 pair of shoes and about the same amount of purses !!!





Hello futile and over consuming world, the other half is starving! Sorry, I am far from being mother Theresa, but it sincerely bugs me when people are over doing it.

Oh my ! ...

Tell me you do not have 300 pair of shoes.

Bien que j'ai à mon actif quelques patrons pour hommes, je suis rarement habitée par un projet de couture pour MON homme. Aujourd'hui, c'est une autre histoire, j'ai eu un coup de foudre. Bang ! J'ai eu envie de coudre une veste et un pantalon en voyant cette photo sur le Sartorialist. Je ne sais plus comment je suis arrivée à cette page et cela m'importe peu en fait.

Je suis simplement heureuse d'avoir un projet de couture pour mon amoureux. Si vous vous demandez ce qu'est son look habituel, le voici en plein reportage photographique sur une rivière de Charlevoix. Je crois que la transposition se fera à merveille.

Le patron Vogue 8719 servira de base, le col tailleur est étroit et le design plutôt sport. La photo de Vogue fait toutefois un peu trop soignée contrairement à celle du Sartoriatlist. Mon conjoint portera sûrement ces vêtements dans la même esprit que ce florantin.

Though I have a few, lets 3-5 patterns for men in my stash, I am very rarely transported by the idea of sewing for MY men. Well, that was until I found this picture on the Sartorialist. It was love at first sight. Bang! I loved the manly look of the model, the jacket, the shirts, the pants and the cigar...

No, no, no, I am not with a smoker, but on a picture, I find that sexy (not in real life).

The Vogue 8719 pattern will serve as a base. The notched collar is simple, narrow and very similar to the one on the picture. The pants seem very interesting in that pattern as well. Their picture is a little too sleek compare to the one on the Sartorialist.

I am certain that my men, will wear it in the same spirit as the Italian men. You have a picture of my husband here during a photo-reportage in Charlevoix Québec.

Lets see if that project will ever be realized on day!

I bought about 5 meters of black wool knit to sew two projects. The first one is a knock off this Marie St-Pierre dress (previously presented on the blog). The pattern is ready, I drew and I just need to cut the wool. The second one is this very interesting OOP Burda pattern that my generous friend Annette sent me. (She made 2 or 3 gorgeous tops with it, see the review here ). My plan was to sew the hooded top, add sleeves to it and make the hood in café au lait satin back crepe (100% silk).

Resolutions are not at common for me. I tend to think that my life is conducted on a rather disciplined tempo. Therefore, I never felt I had to take resolutions... except, may be for this year...

...Resolution Z1A19: Finish sewing projects that have been standing there for too long, sometimes for years.

My motivation: 1) have enough clothes to go to work, 2) finish outfits before the other garment (the one that I finished) starts to be too worn-out, 3) have them finished before they are out of style. Those reasons sound good and above all, they are not entangle with guilt which is a none constructive feeling in my point of view... unless one has committed a crime.

Are UFO's a crime? NO ... well at least not yet.

So in the list of the freshly finished garments we have today :

A) One Burda jacket started in March 2009...(8018 view B) Yes, yes, yes in March 2009 ... See the post I wrote at the moment. I cannot believe I waited that long to hand sew the lining to the hem of the jacket and the hem of the sleeve. Then I just had to make the button holes and sew the buttons. Oh my my... My desire to wear this jacket was not strong enough, until this week. One movie Friday night to sew the lining and today for the rest, was done today. I am happy it is done. It is only asking to be worn.

This is the look of my version.

Fabric: Prada wool knit bought at Emma One Sock. It has very little stretch.

Bemberg lining in red and the T-shirt is a Jalie pattern 2805 . That gorgeous knit is from Roberto Cavalli again bought at Emma One Sock.

I am thinking of making pants in a very dark olive green or very dark khaki. The decision is not taken yet. The fabric far from being found. Meanwhile, jeans are nice with it, brown leather pants as well. Or the skirt that I made with the same fabric ??? According to me, it is to much of a little pejoratively cute outfit.


B) The second jacket I so kindly stopped from being alone and unfinished in my closet is also from Burda. Bruda Fashion Magazine 2008-01-117 .

I used a beautiful linen fabric bought at the (soon closed) Madeleine Soie et Laine. The fabric was too busy to add the front and back "flaps" they designed for it.

I used the "Underlinning - Hong Kong finish all in one step" to finish the body of the jacket. This technique is very well explained by Laura on her blog.

Clic on the following picture to see the result.
I am in love with the jacket. Is it a mix of girly fabric and sporty jacket. Girly - Sporty, that could be used to describe me... may be ... I call this fabric "Breakfast at Tiffany's". The ladies drawn on the fabric remind of the Audrey Hepburn in this classical movie. A movie in to which, I often dreamt of jumping in...

The snaps are from the so great Prym company. The lining is a texture men lining. Those are so easy to work with. They have enough weight and crisp. This pattern is very interesting. I strongly recommend it. It was not meant to be lined. I will soon post my review on PR for both garments, so you will see more picture of the inside.

On my Facebook page, I mentioned that my empire waist knit dress was almost done. I just had to choose a proper hemming technique. Initially, I had plan to fold in the lila/grey line inside and hem this way. When I finished the dress, I thought that this pale line at the bottom finished the dress perfectly.

Finally I made a rolled hem using my old Janome machine (it is now 25 years old). I love my Baby lock Enlighten, but the roll hem is nice on my Janome... I think that the needle plate you need to use with the roll hem makes the difference.

Now I have to hem the sleeves with an invisible hand stitch and ta da ! The dress is done. I am in love with it. As soon as DH has a minute, I will post many pictures of many pieces I finished in the past month or so.

For many years I was a fanatic reader of Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar and so forth. I would spend lots of money of fashion magazine, on clothes as well as spending so much time thinking about my look. These days, I have less time for all that. These days, I am unfaithful to those paper magazines. I often prefer to surf on the Net. From time, to time, I feel guilty not to support the local version of Elle or Clin d'oeil (another local fashion magazine). So last week, I bought the December issue of Elle Québec.

On the collaborator's page, there is a short note on Crystal Renn, one of the most famous, and I quote, "Plus Size" model in the world. PLUS SIZE MODEL !! Are they out of their mind ? If Crystal Renne was once a plus model, she no longer is. I would rather say that she is a beautifully shape NORMAL woman. Hello any body home?


This month, she is back in a beautiful Red Dress report... but tell me, what is Plus Size in her curves. Humm I would rather give her an A+ for beauty, natural look and great curves. Don't we want more of that type of model in magazines?
In my point of view, if this is their definition of Plus, the following type a silhouette is then Normal. Well according to me, that type of look is definitely a MINUS.
But then again, this is a question of perception. (Garment by Chloé A-2010) Let's promote healthy images of woman who have an BMI between 19 and 25. This young woman should gain 20 pounds, practice sport, built her lean body mass to be able to age better and not suffer of osteoporosis, go to bed early and laugh more ... Yes this is a judgment I publicly make... that of make as well.

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I was waiting for DH to take official pictures before posting the beauty. Christmas is coming and our weekends are very busy, no time during the day to take nice shots of me wearing the amazing piece of clothes. I may sound a little imbued of my self, but my enthusiasm comes with the love of this skirt so much !!!

As I mentioned before, the fabric is a gift from my friend Annette. The minute I had the piece of fabric in my hands, I new I would make a skirt with it. I sat with my box of pattern and my Burda magazine and finally set my choice on the Burda Magazine 2010-11-113. I felted the fabric in the washing machine using a short hot water cycle and that was enough to enrich the already amazing texture of the wool. I liked this country chic look that the two dramatic pleats add to the design.

This is a very easy pattern to sew. I shall post a tutorial for the pleats since their instructions are not that clear. (see picture with a close-up) The rest is very easy. This pattern did not include pieces for the lining. I simply folded the pleats to have a flat front piece (picture coming in a future post). Annette also gave me a neat pink charmeuse for the lining. I had a hard time hemming it. :-( It was so sliky. I will buy lace and refinish it since I am not fully satisfied with the internal finished look.

The front hem of the skirt is done with a facing. The back pieces have a regular turned in hem. Follow Elisabeth's (my favourite sewing instructor) instruction, I did not press the waist band to give it a more Couture look, nor did I press the hem. The final result is wonderful ... at least in my opinion.

Now I want to find a dark burgundy or dark olive mohair sweater or tween set. If you have see any online, please tell me so. It is lovely with fushia but a little too loud. It looks great with a dark purple turtle neck I have and a dark purple-brown tailor shaped leather jacket I have.

Real nice pictures are coming up.