Sewing mojo is back - Colette Beignet, a winner pattern once again.

You can't really go wrong with a Colette Pattern.

I used a fabric remnant from a Ceylon dress I made a few years ago. A navy poly-cotton, sturdy, light-weight, and difficult to crease (even when you've been sitting for hours on a sofa in hot weather).

As lining fabric and I do not agree with each other, I decided to forego it.
After wearing the skirt a bit, I will invisible-stitch the front facings, as the feeling is unpleasant.
And now, on the photos, I see that, with the weight of the buttons added, it pulls the front down, so it becomes mandatory.

I made a flat butt adjustment, at the two back seams. (yesssss, after sewing the belt on...)

In my defense, a garment never really fits correctly without the belt on.

I also shortened it, removing a button.

The pockets are a bit too low to my liking. And... too many buttons !
But the high waist really enhance / lengthen the silhouette.

Corduroy Macaron dress

I made this dress one year ago but wore it for the first time last month (I don't have much occasions to wear my "frosting" clothes).

(sorry for the quality of the photo, it was taken at dusk)

I used a cotton corduroy (7wales per inch) and Liberty for the contrast. I lined the top yoke and the sleeves with Liberty, as I don't have much confidence in the strength of the fabric to just use one layer.

If I had made a muslin (remember, I'm lazy, and unless I'm unsure about the pattern or the fabric is really expensive, I won't make one) I probably would have raised the armhole a bit, so I could raise my arms... (well, as long as I don't have to change a lightbulb or harvest fruits in it, it's not really problematic).

I'll try making another one for summer, maybe with piping, as I really love the sleeves and the pockets !

Colette Violet & Burda Skirt

One year ago I thrifted two pieces of silk (a yellow one, and a grey with small yellow flowers one), but there weren't enough to make a garment from them, so I began searching for a pattern where I could combine both (without it looking too weird), and finally I opted for Violet, from Colette Patterns.

For the yellow fabric I had two challenges : a small hole right in the middle of the piece, and not enough fabric.
I reduced the sewing allowances to 1cm (about 3/8") (and 2cm at the bottom), modified a bit the sleeves to add the grey sleevebands, and removed the facings. For the closure, I made a very narrow overlap (2cm), thus needing to make vertical buttonholes. And finally I sewed the collar using the bias method.

As I didn't want to take the risk to ruin my fabric, for the collar, I choose not to use fusible interfacing, and instead just sewed a lightweight cotton interlining.
I also choose to remove the facing because I feared it would appear too much through the fabric. (and it's the case with the overlap part, it's really darker)
I used small round frosted glass buttons, thrifted a few years ago. On the yellow fabric, they seem to be nearly the same grey as the collar and sleeves parts. After the first washing, the buttonholes loosened, so, in order to stay seemly, I had to close them a bit.
As always, this Colette pattern was a pleasure to make, and I'm really happy with the result.

The skirt is a pattern from Burda Magazine, the #106 from 05/2012.
The fabric is a stretch cotton gabardine.
It was really easy to make, and the result is very gratifying. This skirt is incredibly confortable, and very stylish.
The only difficulty was trying to understand the instructions for the overlap part (with its hidden buttonholes). In the end it was not that complicated, but well, I'm not yet fluent in Burda language.
Here it seems there is extreme crinkling, but it's only shadows, and in reality it's much more acceptable.